This is one of the speakers at The Rachel Corrie Foundation’s 2006 Peace Works Conference.
Dr. Sara Roy is a Senior Research Scholar at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University where she completed her doctoral studies in international development.Trained as a political economist, Dr. Roy has worked in the Gaza Strip and West Bank since 1985 conducting research primarily on the economic, social and political development of the Gaza Strip and on U.S. foreign aid to the region. Dr. Roy has written extensively on the Palestinian economy, particularly in Gaza, and has documented its development over the last three decades.
Her current research, which was funded by a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, examines the social and economic sectors of the Palestinian Islamic movement and their relationship to Islamic political institutions, and the critical changes to the Islamic movement that have occurred over the last seven years. Her primary findings point to a restructuring and de-radicalization of the Islamist movement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip prior to the start of the second Palestinian uprising.
Dr. Roy also has authored over 80 publications dealing with Palestinian issues and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. She also serves on the Advisory Boards of the American Near East Relief Agency (ANERA), an American private voluntary organization working in the Middle East, and the Center for American and Jewish Studies at Baylor University. In addition to her academic work, she has served as a consultant to international organizations, the U.S. government, human rights organizations, private voluntary organizations, and private business groups working in the Middle East.
Currently she is writing two books: Between Extremism and Civism: Political Islam in Palestine (Princeton University Press); and Scholarship and Politics: The Israeli Occupation, The Palestinians, and The Failure of Peace—The Selected Works of Sara Roy (London: Pluto Press).
Books