Members of ARCH
Maryvelma Smith O’Neil (Founder and Director of ARCH) received her M.A. from Tulane University and her D. Phil from Oxford University in the history of art. She has taught, researched, lectured and published on he intercultural history of art, cultural politics, arts of the Islamic world and digital tools for cultural heritage preservation. During her sojourn in Jerusalem as a PARC/NEH Fellow (2018-2019), she developed the Mughrabi Quarter Digital Archive. The Virtual Illés Initiative, which produced an interactive website, will soon bring Jerusalem to the world via an immersive, interactive installation.
Maryvelma is the author of several books and numerous articles. Her recent publications are as follows:
- ‘One Giant House’: Civil Society Mobilisation and the Protection of Palestinian Cultural Heritage and Identity in Al-quds Al-Sharif
- The Mughrabi Quarter Digital Archive and the Virtual Illés Relief Initiative
Maryvelma is project director of the Mughrabi Quarter Virtual Archive.
Fajer Abdulrahman Mohamed AlJasmi has an M.A. in Human Rights from University College London and a B.A in International Relations from Webster University, Geneva.
Fajer has attained certificates and qualifications from the UN, UNHCR and International Centre for Parliamentary Studies.
Seamus Cashman taught in Tanzania and in Ireland before joining Irish University Press as editor. He founded Wolfhound Press, a leading literary and cultural publishing house, he remained publisher there until 2001.His poetry collection That Morning will Come: new and selected poems (2007) evokes to issues of justice and memory in Palestine.
Seamus also works as an independent editorial adviser and creative writing facilitator. He was appointed their first International Fellow by The Black Earth Institute; the US based writers and scholars think-tank. He is a former chairman of Children’s Books Ireland. He lives in Malahide, County Dublin, Ireland. Seamus Cashman was a member of the jury and contributing poet at the Mamilla International Poetry Festival. He compiled and edited Poems For Mamilla.
Chandler Collins holds M.A. degrees in Near Eastern archaeology, Old Testament, and Semitic languages from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He has lived in Jerusalem for five years and teaches historical geography courses on site throughout Israel, the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and Jordan. He has participated in excavations at Khirbet Qeiyafa and Abel Beth Ma’acah.
Chandler currently serves as the Administrative Dean at Jerusalem University College on Mount Zion. His research interests include historic Jerusalem with a focus on the Bronze and Iron Ages, as well as the 19th century Ottoman city.
Debjani Chatterjee was educated in India, Japan, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Egypt, and England. She received M.A. degrees from the University of Kent and Leeds Beckett University, and a PhD from Lancaster University. A poet, translator, and children’s writer, she has published over 70 books.
In 2008, Debjani received an MBE for services to literature and was selected in 2012 as an Olympic Torchbearer in the Arts and Culture category. She was a member of the jury and contributing poet at the Mamilla International Poetry Festival.
Jean-Robert Gisler is a Classical Archaeologist. He was also an Expert at the Swiss Federal Department of Justice and Police, Federal Office of Police (fedpol) in Berne, responsible for Stolen Cultural Property. He was a Member of the Interpol Expert Group in charge of Stolen Cultural Property. He teaches regularly Classical Archaeology at the University of Berne.
Marc-André Haldimann studied Gallo-Roman archaeology at the University of Geneva and obtained his doctorate at the University of Lausanne. He is currently expert for the Federal Office for Culture (Bern), Associate Professor (University of Geneva) and is responsible for publication of Gallo-Roman ceramics excavated at Saint-Gervais (Geneva) and the Gamsen excavations (Valais).
Marc led field excavations on behalf of the Archeological Services of Geneva, Vaud, Fribourg and Valais. He led the Foundation Max van Berchem excavation in Umm-el-Walid, Jordan. He was Chief Curator of the Archaeological Department of the Museum of Art and History of Geneva. He curated the exhibition “Gaza—at the Crossroads of Civilizations” (2007).
Anthony Löwstedt studied philosophy and history of ideas in Gothenburg and Vienna, and received his Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Vienna. He is currently a research professor at Webster University Vienna at the Media Communications Department.
Along with journalistic work, including interviews with Ilan Pappe, Shlomo Sand and Desmond Tutu, Anthony has published academic work extensively. Anthony has worked for the International Press Institute, and as a media consultant for the UNDP in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, where he also taught at Bir Zeit University.
Michael D. O’Neil received his B.A. in Marketing from Louisiana State University in New Orleans and his MBA from the University of New Orleans. Mr. O’Neil’s career covered a wide range of organizational types including multinational corporations (e.g., IBM, Intel), United Nations organizations and NGOs. He worked and lived in many countries including the USA, Belgium, Nigeria, United Kingdom, Italy, Switzerland, France and Thailand.
Michael’s areas of competence include Information Technology (building and implementing large business systems), Management and Project Management, Administration, Communications and Finance. Michael is an adjunct professor at Webster University in Geneva. He is a consultant in communications and strategic planning.
Ayda Sakbani was raised in Turkey and educated at the American College for Girls/Robert College. She received her B.A. from Barnard College in NYC , M. A. and Ph.D. from NYU. She was a tenured Associate Professor at the City University of New York.
Ayda was employed at UNHCR. She then taught at Webster University in Geneva and served as Academic Director from 1993-2010. In this capacity she organized student curricula and faculty development within the context of a highly international environment. She was awarded a M.A. in psychology from Webster in 2011 with a specialization in cross-cultural communication. Ayda is active in Geneva in cultural heritage management.
Hans Ucko received his Ph.D. in theology at the Senate of Serampore College, Calcutta, India. He is an ordained minister of the Church of Sweden and has been involved in Jewish-Christian and inter-religious dialogue throughout his career. He has engaged in research at the “Institut Eglise et Monde Juif” in Paris as well as at the Swedish Theological Institute and the David Hartman Institute, in Jerusalem.
Hans served as Programme Executive for the Office of Inter-religious Relations and Dialogue of the World Council of Churches in Geneva, Switzerland. He published numerous articles on Jewish-Christian and inter-religious dialogue and has spoken at many conferences on Muslim-Christian relations and religious pluralism in the contemporary world. Hans is actively engaged in various international projects on interfaith dialogue and protection of cultural resources.
Based in Istanbul, Kateri O’Neil serves as ARCH’s Project Development Liaison. She received her B.A. from Tufts University in Media & Communications and her M.A. from Sabancı University in Visual Art & Communication Design. As Creative Director of the Mughrabi Quarter Digital Archive, she helped develop and launch the cultural preservation project and continues to work on the development of the Virtual Illés Relief Initiative through grant-writing and creative ideation.
René Schegg (Director of the ARCH Scholars’ Support Project) is Head of Programme Development at the University of St. Gallen. He has an M.A. in Educational Sciences from LMU University Munich and and a Master’s In Public Administrations (MPA) from the Université de Lausanne. He led the University of Basel’s accreditation with the British Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA).
René is committed to contribute in bridging academia with civil society and has extensive experience in serving for international NGOs (e.g. The International Federation of Social Workers). He is currently involved in facilitating cooperation between ARCH and other NGOs and civil society.
Magid Shihade is an independent scholar. He has taught and lectured at universities in the US and Palestine. His research interests and publications focus on the social and cultural transformation of Palestinian society: violence, education, global politics, postcolonial studies, settler colonial studies, decolonial thought as well as Arab intellectual history, especially the work of Ibn Khaldun.
© ARCH Jerusalem 2020