Program Components

Bios of PhD Scholars

PhD Grantee Profiles
Cohort 1
 
Ahmed Al Noubani was raised in a rural West Bank village among a family that highly values education. Six of eight of his siblings have also graduated from university. Ahmed is expansive upon his Masters of Science degree from the University of Aberdeen in the UK by earning a Ph.D. in Urban Design and Planning from the University of Washington in Seattle, which he will receive upon defending his dissertation in the fall of 2010. Ahmed has been a faculty member in the Geography Department at Birzeit University since 2004 where he has taught courses in remote sensing, biogeography, and the environment. To his credit, Ahmed also has NGO and government experience having worked at the Ministry of Planning’s Palestinian Geographic Center and the Land Research Center as a GIS and land cover expert. When asked to describe a life changing event, Ahmed explained, “Bee keeping is a major life event that changed my career direction. Before that I had not seen the beauty and benefits of wildlife. Bee keeping turned me into a guard to my local environment and affected my decision to study and teach environmental remote sensing.” Ahmad successfully completed his coursework and comprehensive exams, and is currently preparing to defend his dissertation on land use and land cover dynamics, using Palestine as a case study.  
 
Ammar Al-Dwaik earned a degree in law from Al Yarmouk University in 1994. At the age of twenty-two, he was a First Lieutenant commanding the Birzeit Police Station. He later worked for the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens’ Rights, eventually becoming the head of the legal department.
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PhD Fellows

Abdrabu Abu Alyan graduated with a PhD in education from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

His dissertation focused on intercultural communicative competences. His interest in this subject was shaped during his teaching experience while earning his masters from the US.

Abdrabu earned his master’s degree in Teaching English as a Foreign Language from Saint Michael’s College in Vermont after being awarded a Fulbright scholarship in 1996.

He notes, “Teaching of culture has become a pivotal part of teaching education. Language teachers ought to receive both experimental and academic training, with the aim of becoming mediators in cultural teaching”.

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MA Fellows

Awatef Masri received her BA in English Literature from An-Najah University in Nablus.

Since 2000, she has been working as a headmistress of a number of secondary schools in Palestine. Most recently, she has served as headmistress at Al- Aeshiya Secondary Girl’s School where she manages and directs the entire school, including teachers, students, programs, and many other activities.

In addition to all her responsibilities and duties as a headmistress, Ms. Masri has also attended various teaching and educators’ seminars in the United States and Britain throughout her career.

In June 2012 Awatef graduated with a master’s degree in educational policy studies and evaluation from the University of Kentucky.

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Short Term Fellows

Abdul Fattah Shamleh is the Director of the Institute of Public Administration at An Najah National University. He received his Ph.D. degree in Public

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Program Components

Launched in October 2005, the Palestinian Faculty Development Program (PFDP) aims to increase capacity within the higher education sector in the West Bank and Gaza and address long-term issues of reform in teaching and learning practices. The program, which is funded by USAID and the Open Society Institute (OSI) and administered by AMIDEAST and OSI, has three main objectives: 1) to promote the expansion, retention, and professional development of promising academics teaching in the social sciences and humanities; 2) to revitalize and reform teaching in these areas at Palestinian higher education institutions, and 3) promote an institutional culture of teaching and learning. The following is a description of PFDP program components.

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