Rice Reflects, an initiative from the Office of the Provost, brought bestselling author Sandy Tolan to McMurtry Auditorium March 10 to discuss free speech and the historical context of the Israel-Palestine conflict.
“If you’re faculty or a student here, you know we have a rich, diverse community that is really deeply grounded in a culture of care, compassion and understanding,” said Amy Dittmar, the Howard R. Hughes Provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. “This offers an ideal environment for reflection and for dialogue surrounding complex issues like the one that we’re here to discuss tonight.”
Tolan is a professor at the University of Southern California Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism and director of the school’s graduate program on specialized journalism. His work focuses on the intersection of land conflicts, racial and ethnic identity, natural resources and the global economy.
“As the author Sarah Schulman says, ‘We need to explain history and context,’” Tolan said. “As she says, ‘Explanations are not excuses.’ They’re about understanding, about acquiring knowledge — the essential purpose of the university, right?”
Tolan is also an award-winning radio and print journalist who reports on and comments frequently about Palestine and Israel. He has reported from more than 40 countries over the last four decades, written for more than 40 nonfiction outlets and produced hundreds of documentaries, features and podcasts for NPR and other outlets.
"A just and durable peace doesn't mean singing Kumbaya,” he said. “It doesn't need to be based on love or even appreciation, but it must be based on dignity, equality and mutual respect."
His international bestsellers “The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East” and “Children of the Stone: The Power of Music in a Hard Land” explore the lives of Palestinians and Israelis and the themes of memory, identity, loss and the struggle for peace.
"Dalia Eshkenazi Landau, Israeli protagonist of The Lemon Tree, endorses the three ‘As,’ acknowledgment, apology and amends as a kind of mutual witness, a wrenching encounter based on understanding the past and embracing the future. Such lofty goals may seem unlikely now, but who could have predicted the fall of the Berlin Wall before it suddenly happened?"
This signature event from the provost’s Rice Reflects series was an opportunity to continue the mission of exploring complex issues from multiple perspectives.
“Feeling uncomfortable is part of why we get an education, to learn new perspectives, to get out of our comfort zone,” Tolan said.
Rice Reflects will provide opportunities for students, faculty and staff to have constructive conversations across differences, informed by scholarly expertise from within and outside the Rice community. Learn more about future events here.