Michelle I. Gawerc joined Loyola in 2011. She earned her Ph.D. in Sociology at Boston College in 2010. Prior to her doctoral studies, she pursued and completed an M.S.W. at Boston College and a M.A. in International Peace Studies from the University of Notre Dame. Her B.A. consisted of an individually structured major designated as, “Prejudice and Intercultural Communication” from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Michelle has a strong scholarly interest in the ways in which people accomplish working across difference and inequality to advocate collectively for justice and peace. Much of Michelle’s past research has focused on joint Palestinian and Israeli coalitions, movements, and organizations working to advance a just peace in Israel/Palestine. Her research has considered how Israeli and Palestinian peace activists cultivate (and sustain) a sense of solidarity and collective identity across lines of conflict and occupation, and what enables some alliances to survive when others are not. More broadly, her research explores the sustaining importance of diverse alliances, from when and why they form, to how they develop and sustain themselves across ethno-national, ideological, and cultural divides.
Michelle's current research focuses on truth commissions for racial and indigenous justice and transformation in the United States. She's exploring how truth commissions in the United States reckon with the past in a context of 400+ years of systemic racial violence and settler colonialism, and what are their possibilities and limitations for promoting racial justice and social transformation. She recently had a state of the field analysis of truth commissions in the Global North published in Sociology Compass.
Michelle is a recipient of several honors and awards, including a Fulbright Fellowship, a Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation Graduate Research Fellowship, and a United Nations Memorial Fellowship Award from the American Sociological Association's Peace War and Social Conflict Section.
Michelle’s intellectual work has been driven by her dedication to peace, justice, and understanding. She has been involved as a facilitator in people-to-people dialogue with teachers and high school students in Israel/Palestine; in German-Polish-Jewish interchanges with young adults in Osweicim (Auschwitz), Poland; and in diversity dialogues with university and secondary school students in the United States. Beyond her involvement in peacebuilding and fostering dialogue across divides, Michelle has worked as a community organizer in New York City, and has lived and served on both the Dine (Navajo) Reservation and in Bahia de Kino, Mexico.
At Loyola, Michelle teaches courses in sociology and global studies including: Introduction to Sociology; Globalization and Society; Conflict and Peace Studies; Social Movements and Social Protest; Israel/Palestine: Conflict Narratives, Media Framing, and Peace-building; and Conflict Transformation and Reconciliation in Divided Societies. She believes strongly in active learning and participatory methods.
Courses Taught
- SC 100 - Introduction to Sociology
- SC 203 - Globalization and Society
- SC 339 - Conflict and Peace Studies
- SC 376 - Israel-Palestine: Conflict Narratives, Media Framing, and Peace-Building
- SC 377 - Social Movements and Social Protest
- SC 441 - Seminar: Conflict Transformation and Reconciliation in Divided Societies
Publications
Book
- Prefiguring Peace: Israeli-Palestinian Peacebuilding Partnerships, Rowman and Littlefield Publishing Group - Lexington Books division; 2012.
Articles and book chapters
- "Truth Commissions in the Established Democracies of the Global North: Theoretical and Practical Perspectives," Sociology Compass 18(2), 1-18; 2024.
- "Cooperation and Conflict Across Ideological and Strategic Divides: Sumud Freedom Camp Coalition in the Occupied West Bank," Peace and Change: A Journal of Peace Research 48(10), 1-20; 2023.
- "Constructing a Sense of 'We' Across the Lines of Conflict and Occupation: Joint Peace Movement Organizations in Israel/Palestine" in the Handbook of Sociology and the Middle East, edited by Fatma Müge Göçek & Gamze Evcimen. I.B. Tauris; 2022.
- "The Centrality of Difference in Coalition-Building Across Divides: Palestinian, Israeli, and International Organizations in the Occupied West Bank," Contention: The Multidisciplinary Journal of Social Protest 9(2), 20-48; 2021.
- "William A. Gamson and his Legacy for Academia and Social Movements," co-author David S. Meyer, Contention: The Multidisciplinary Journal of Social Protest 9(2), 64-86; 2021.
- "Coalition-Building and the Forging of Solidarity Across Difference and Inequality," Sociology Compass 15(3), 1-14; 2021.
- "Diverse Social Coalitions: Prospects and Challenges," Sociology Compass 14(1), 1-15; 2020.
- "Endeavoring to Change History: Palestinian-Led Transnational Coalitions in the Occupied West Bank," Bringing Down Divides: Special Issue of Research in Social Movements, Conflicts, and Change Commemorating the Work of Gregory Maney 1967-2017 43, 39-61; 2019.
- "Building Solidarity Across Asymmetrical Risks: Israeli and Palestinian Peace Activists," Research in Social Movements, Conflicts, and Change 42, 87-112; 2018.
- "Promoting Peace While Memorializing the Fallen," Peace Review 30(3), 55-363; 2018.
- "Solidarity is in the Heart, Not in the Field: Joint Israeli-Palestinian Peace Movement Organizations during the 2014 Gaza War," Social Movement Studies 16(5), 520-534; 2017.
- "Constructing a Collective Identity across Conflict Lines: Israeli-Palestinian Peace Movement Organizations," Mobilization: An International Quarterly 21(2), 193-212; 2016.
- "Doing No Harm? Donor Policies and Power Asymmetry in Israeli-Palestinian Peacebuilding," co-author Ned Lazarus, Peace and Change: a Peace Journal 41(3), 386-397; 2016.
- "Advocating for Peace during the Gaza War," Peace Review 28(1), 108-113; 2016.
- "The Unintended Consequences of 'Material Support': US Anti-Terrorism Regulations and Israeli/Palestinian Peacebuilding," co-author Ned Lazarus, Journal of Peacebuilding and Development 10(2), 68-73; 2015.
- "Persistent Peacebuilders: Maintaining Commitment in Israel/Palestine," International Journal for Peace Studies 20(1), 35-50; 2015.
- "Organizational Adaptation and Survival in Hostile and Unfavorable Environments: Peacebuilding Organizations in Israel and Palestine," Research in Social Movements, Conflicts, and Change 36, 167-202; 2013.
- "Integrative Ties as an Approach to Managing Organizational Conflict," Conflict Resolution Quarterly 31(2), 219-225; 2013.
- "Peacebuilding: Theoretical and Concrete Perspectives," Peace and Change: A Peace Journal 31(4), 435-478; 2006.