Michelle I Gawerc
Biographic Data
| ID | 4269342 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Michelle I Gawerc |
| GIVEN NAMES | Michelle I |
| FAMILY NAME | Gawerc |
| SIGNATURE | GAWERC M I |
| AFFILIATIONS | Loyola University Maryland |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2171-6713 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 60 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Truth telling as disruptive resistance
∞ This article explores how the Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission engages in truth telling amid a four-century-long history of systemic racial violence. This study is timely given prominent critiques that truth commissions are ineffective and problematic for confronting White supremacy in established democracies where perpetrators and beneficiaries of injustice remain dominant. While power asymmetry presents severe challenges,…
Truth commissions in the established democracies of the Global North
In the wake of South Africa's truth‐telling experiment as part of its transition from apartheid to democracy, truth commissions have become one of the most utilized mechanisms for addressing past atrocities. While most truth commissions are established in countries undergoing “transition” to democratic governance or peace, increasingly, established democracies such as Canada, Norway, Sweden, and Finland have also undertaken such processes to addr…
Reckoning with Racial Terror Lynchings for Healing and Justice
Cooperation and conflict across ideological and strategic divides
The literature on social movement coalitions highlights the tremendous challenges posed to coalitions by ideology. Yet, coalitions do occasionally form across contrasting ideological lines. This study investigates how the Palestinian‐led Sumud Freedom Camp coalition in the occupied West Bank was able to reach agreement across ideological divides, thereby enabling an ambitious collective action that actively sought to reestablish a Palestinian vil…
Gamson, William A. (1934–2021)
William A. Gamson, former President of the American Sociological Association and Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, was a prolific scholar whose work helped articulate both the conflict perspective in sociology and the resource mobilization approach in social movements. In the field of social movements in the United States, Gamson also helped to bring back social psychology after its temporary hiatus, and his work on framing and…
The Centrality of Difference in Coalition-Building across Divides
Collective identities, as literature suggests, are constructed via an emphasis on sameness within a group and in the downplaying of internal difference. This study, however, found that collective agency, and resultingly, collective identity, was fueled just as much by a careful negotiation of difference as it was a group's core similarities. Based on interviews with Palestinian, Israeli, and international activists involved in two Palestinian-led…
William A. Gamson and His Legacy for Academia and Social Movements
William A. Gamson's career was nothing less than remarkable. A prolific scholar, Gamson wrote at least eight books and more than a hundred articles from 1961 to 2014. And he bequeathed social movement studies substantial theoretical contributions and methodological innovations in numerous areas including coalitions, resource mobilization, political opportunities, framing, and culture. His legacy also includes pioneering simulation games both for …
Coalition‐building and the forging of solidarity across difference and inequality
Diverse coalitions hold great potential for social movements, but they also face tremendous challenges. In this article, I review the literature on diverse alliances with a focus on how trust, commitment, and ultimately, solidarity can be developed and sustained across divides. The article begins by discussing the needs of diverse alliances to build trust and commitment, and the coalitional characteristics deemed vital for doing so, with a focus …
Diverse social movement coalitions
Coalitions are among the most important tactical tools available for social movements and civil resistance campaigns, as they enable the sharing of networks, resources, expertise, and information, while simultaneously projecting an image of power through unity and numbers. Though exceptionally challenging to build, diverse coalitions are viewed by many as particularly important. However, there is considerably less literature that explicitly discu…
Promoting Peace While Memorializing the Fallen
This is the twelfth year we gather together to remember the loved ones we have lost, and to remember that war is not our fate, and we can change reality with our own hands. ... We have learnt from ou
Solidarity is in the heart, not in the field
The social movement literature suggests that social movement organizations that work across difference and power asymmetry are dependent to some degree on shared and unified action in order to construct and sustain a sense of ‘we.’ Yet ironically, for two joint Israeli–Palestinian peace movement organizations, sustaining a cross-conflict collective identity during the 2014 Gaza War did not require unified action, but rather, independent action fr…
Advocating Peace During the 2014 War in Gaza
During the cycle of violence leading up to the third Israeli War in Gaza, some Israelis from Parents Circle/Families Forum (PCFF)—a peace organization consisting of Palestinians and Israelis who ha
Doing No Harm? Donor Policies and Power Asymmetry in Israeli/Palestinian Peacebuilding
Drawing on data from more than forty peacebuilding initiatives and hundreds of interviews with Palestinian and Israeli peacebuilders, this briefing discusses the impact of international donor policies on peacebuilding in a context of stark asymmetry of power. More specifically, it investigates the way in which specific funding regulations—the designation of primary and subpartners, the location of local donor offices, and the restrictions placed …
Constructing a Collective Identity Across Conflict Lines
For collective action to occur and be sustainable, social movements must construct collective identities and develop a sense of themselves as collective actors. This is especially difficult for movements that work across deep political and cultural chasms, and in situations of protracted conflict. Yet, there has been almost no research on how movement organizations, which work across conflict lines in situations of protracted conflict, are able t…
The Unintended Impacts of ‘Material Support’
The USA Patriot Act, passed in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks, spurred a proliferation of federal regulations designed to forbid the provision of ‘material support to terrorism’. This reg
Prefiguring Peace
Prefiguring Peace: Israeli-Palestinian Peacebuilding Partnerships, a longitudinal study of more than ten years (1993–2008), focuses on the major peacebuilding initiatives with an educational encounter-based approach in Israel and Palestine. It examines how non-governmental peacebuilding initiatives adapt to radically changing environments, the challenges they face, and why some are able to adapt and survive while others do not. Michelle I. Gawerc…
P eace‐building
In a world where war is everybody's tragedy and everybody's nightmare, diplomacy is everybody's business. —Lord Strang 1 This paper presents a comprehensive review of the conflict resolution and peace‐building literature focused on the issues involved in assessing the impact of peacemaking and peace‐building through people‐to‐people contact. Findings reveal that we are still in the beginning stages of establishing frameworks for the resolution of…
Diverse social movement coalitions
Coalitions are among the most important tactical tools available for social movements and civil resistance campaigns, as they enable the sharing of networks, resources, expertise, and information, while simultaneously projecting an image of power through unity and numbers. Though exceptionally challenging to build, diverse coalitions are viewed by many as particularly important. However, there is considerably less literature that explicitly discu…
Constructing a Collective Identity Across Conflict Lines
For collective action to occur and be sustainable, social movements must construct collective identities and develop a sense of themselves as collective actors. This is especially difficult for movements that work across deep political and cultural chasms, and in situations of protracted conflict. Yet, there has been almost no research on how movement organizations, which work across conflict lines in situations of protracted conflict, are able t…
Coalition‐building and the forging of solidarity across difference and inequality
Diverse coalitions hold great potential for social movements, but they also face tremendous challenges. In this article, I review the literature on diverse alliances with a focus on how trust, commitment, and ultimately, solidarity can be developed and sustained across divides. The article begins by discussing the needs of diverse alliances to build trust and commitment, and the coalitional characteristics deemed vital for doing so, with a focus …
P eace‐building
In a world where war is everybody's tragedy and everybody's nightmare, diplomacy is everybody's business. —Lord Strang 1 This paper presents a comprehensive review of the conflict resolution and peace‐building literature focused on the issues involved in assessing the impact of peacemaking and peace‐building through people‐to‐people contact. Findings reveal that we are still in the beginning stages of establishing frameworks for the resolution of…
Truth commissions in the established democracies of the Global North
In the wake of South Africa's truth‐telling experiment as part of its transition from apartheid to democracy, truth commissions have become one of the most utilized mechanisms for addressing past atrocities. While most truth commissions are established in countries undergoing “transition” to democratic governance or peace, increasingly, established democracies such as Canada, Norway, Sweden, and Finland have also undertaken such processes to addr…
Solidarity is in the heart, not in the field
The social movement literature suggests that social movement organizations that work across difference and power asymmetry are dependent to some degree on shared and unified action in order to construct and sustain a sense of ‘we.’ Yet ironically, for two joint Israeli–Palestinian peace movement organizations, sustaining a cross-conflict collective identity during the 2014 Gaza War did not require unified action, but rather, independent action fr…
The Unintended Impacts of ‘Material Support’
The USA Patriot Act, passed in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks, spurred a proliferation of federal regulations designed to forbid the provision of ‘material support to terrorism’. This reg
Advocating Peace During the 2014 War in Gaza
During the cycle of violence leading up to the third Israeli War in Gaza, some Israelis from Parents Circle/Families Forum (PCFF)—a peace organization consisting of Palestinians and Israelis who ha
Doing No Harm? Donor Policies and Power Asymmetry in Israeli/Palestinian Peacebuilding
Drawing on data from more than forty peacebuilding initiatives and hundreds of interviews with Palestinian and Israeli peacebuilders, this briefing discusses the impact of international donor policies on peacebuilding in a context of stark asymmetry of power. More specifically, it investigates the way in which specific funding regulations—the designation of primary and subpartners, the location of local donor offices, and the restrictions placed …
P eace‐building
In a world where war is everybody's tragedy and everybody's nightmare, diplomacy is everybody's business. —Lord Strang 1 This paper presents a comprehensive review of the conflict resolution and peace‐building literature focused on the issues involved in assessing the impact of peacemaking and peace‐building through people‐to‐people contact. Findings reveal that we are still in the beginning stages of establishing frameworks for the resolution of…
Prefiguring Peace
Prefiguring Peace: Israeli-Palestinian Peacebuilding Partnerships, a longitudinal study of more than ten years (1993–2008), focuses on the major peacebuilding initiatives with an educational encounter-based approach in Israel and Palestine. It examines how non-governmental peacebuilding initiatives adapt to radically changing environments, the challenges they face, and why some are able to adapt and survive while others do not. Michelle I. Gawerc…
The Unintended Impacts of ‘Material Support’
The USA Patriot Act, passed in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks, spurred a proliferation of federal regulations designed to forbid the provision of ‘material support to terrorism’. This reg
Advocating Peace During the 2014 War in Gaza
During the cycle of violence leading up to the third Israeli War in Gaza, some Israelis from Parents Circle/Families Forum (PCFF)—a peace organization consisting of Palestinians and Israelis who ha
Doing No Harm? Donor Policies and Power Asymmetry in Israeli/Palestinian Peacebuilding
Drawing on data from more than forty peacebuilding initiatives and hundreds of interviews with Palestinian and Israeli peacebuilders, this briefing discusses the impact of international donor policies on peacebuilding in a context of stark asymmetry of power. More specifically, it investigates the way in which specific funding regulations—the designation of primary and subpartners, the location of local donor offices, and the restrictions placed …
Constructing a Collective Identity Across Conflict Lines
For collective action to occur and be sustainable, social movements must construct collective identities and develop a sense of themselves as collective actors. This is especially difficult for movements that work across deep political and cultural chasms, and in situations of protracted conflict. Yet, there has been almost no research on how movement organizations, which work across conflict lines in situations of protracted conflict, are able t…
Solidarity is in the heart, not in the field
The social movement literature suggests that social movement organizations that work across difference and power asymmetry are dependent to some degree on shared and unified action in order to construct and sustain a sense of ‘we.’ Yet ironically, for two joint Israeli–Palestinian peace movement organizations, sustaining a cross-conflict collective identity during the 2014 Gaza War did not require unified action, but rather, independent action fr…
Promoting Peace While Memorializing the Fallen
This is the twelfth year we gather together to remember the loved ones we have lost, and to remember that war is not our fate, and we can change reality with our own hands. ... We have learnt from ou
Diverse social movement coalitions
Coalitions are among the most important tactical tools available for social movements and civil resistance campaigns, as they enable the sharing of networks, resources, expertise, and information, while simultaneously projecting an image of power through unity and numbers. Though exceptionally challenging to build, diverse coalitions are viewed by many as particularly important. However, there is considerably less literature that explicitly discu…
The Centrality of Difference in Coalition-Building across Divides
Collective identities, as literature suggests, are constructed via an emphasis on sameness within a group and in the downplaying of internal difference. This study, however, found that collective agency, and resultingly, collective identity, was fueled just as much by a careful negotiation of difference as it was a group's core similarities. Based on interviews with Palestinian, Israeli, and international activists involved in two Palestinian-led…
William A. Gamson and His Legacy for Academia and Social Movements
William A. Gamson's career was nothing less than remarkable. A prolific scholar, Gamson wrote at least eight books and more than a hundred articles from 1961 to 2014. And he bequeathed social movement studies substantial theoretical contributions and methodological innovations in numerous areas including coalitions, resource mobilization, political opportunities, framing, and culture. His legacy also includes pioneering simulation games both for …
Coalition‐building and the forging of solidarity across difference and inequality
Diverse coalitions hold great potential for social movements, but they also face tremendous challenges. In this article, I review the literature on diverse alliances with a focus on how trust, commitment, and ultimately, solidarity can be developed and sustained across divides. The article begins by discussing the needs of diverse alliances to build trust and commitment, and the coalitional characteristics deemed vital for doing so, with a focus …
Gamson, William A. (1934–2021)
William A. Gamson, former President of the American Sociological Association and Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, was a prolific scholar whose work helped articulate both the conflict perspective in sociology and the resource mobilization approach in social movements. In the field of social movements in the United States, Gamson also helped to bring back social psychology after its temporary hiatus, and his work on framing and…
Cooperation and conflict across ideological and strategic divides
The literature on social movement coalitions highlights the tremendous challenges posed to coalitions by ideology. Yet, coalitions do occasionally form across contrasting ideological lines. This study investigates how the Palestinian‐led Sumud Freedom Camp coalition in the occupied West Bank was able to reach agreement across ideological divides, thereby enabling an ambitious collective action that actively sought to reestablish a Palestinian vil…
Truth commissions in the established democracies of the Global North
In the wake of South Africa's truth‐telling experiment as part of its transition from apartheid to democracy, truth commissions have become one of the most utilized mechanisms for addressing past atrocities. While most truth commissions are established in countries undergoing “transition” to democratic governance or peace, increasingly, established democracies such as Canada, Norway, Sweden, and Finland have also undertaken such processes to addr…
Reckoning with Racial Terror Lynchings for Healing and Justice
Truth telling as disruptive resistance
∞ This article explores how the Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission engages in truth telling amid a four-century-long history of systemic racial violence. This study is timely given prominent critiques that truth commissions are ineffective and problematic for confronting White supremacy in established democracies where perpetrators and beneficiaries of injustice remain dominant. While power asymmetry presents severe challenges,…
Political science (15 works) · Law (13 works) · Sociology (13 works) · Law (12 works) · Politics (10 works) · Political economy (7 works) · Public relations (7 works) · Political Conflict and Governance (6 works) · Identity (music (5 works) · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies (5 works)