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Professor Michael R. Fischbach |
Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London, has invited Randolph-Macon College
History Professor Michael R. Fischbach to participate in an upcoming meeting on the Palestinian refugee problem. The technical workshop, to be held September 28-29 in Switzerland, will bring together fifteen refugee experts and representatives of various international organizations to discuss international mechanisms for implementing the refugee component of an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement, should such an agreement occur. The meeting is part of a new initiative on the refugees that Chatham House is launching.
Founded in 1920, Chatham House is one of the world's leading and most prestigious institutes dealing with international relations, and was named by
Foreign Policy as the number one non-U.S. think tank for foreign affairs. Publisher of the influential journal
International Affairs, Chatham House and its experts frequently are used to develop new international initiatives for dealing with global problems.
Fischbach, author of three books dealing with refugees and the Arab-Israeli conflict, is regularly consulted for his expertise in Palestinian refugee affairs and the Arab-Israeli conflict. In March 2010, he spoke at an international symposium on the Palestinians hosted in Berlin by the Heinrich Böll Foundation, and in 2008 he was invited by the United Nations to address meetings on the refugees at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris and at the United Nations secretariat building in New York.
Also in the past, the Carter Center in Atlanta, the Library of Congress in Washington, and Middle Eastern negotiators have consulted Fischbach about his research on Palestinian refugee and property issues, research that has been supported by grants from Randolph-Macon College’s Walter Williams Craigie Teaching Endowment and the Rashkind endowment. Fischbach’s latest book,
Jewish Property Claims Against Arab Countries, was a finalist for the Gerrard and Ella Berman Memorial Award, which was presented at the Jewish Book Council's 2009 National Jewish Book Awards. In 2009 the book was awarded second prize in the British-Kuwait Friendship Society Book Prize contest held by the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies.
Fischbach, who joined the faculty at Randolph-Macon College in 1992, earned his B.A. at Northwestern University and his M.A. and Ph.D. at Georgetown University.