Korbel ranked 12th best place in the world to earn a master’s degree in international relations.
Korbel ranked 20th in the world for the best undergraduate degree in international studies.
Korbel ranked 12th best place in the world to earn a master’s degree in international relations.
Korbel ranked 20th in the world for the best undergraduate degree in international studies.
Professor
Director, Center for Middle East Studies
Micheline Ishay is Professor of Human Rights and International Studies and Director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the Korbel School of International Studies. As a political scientist, she is known for her work in human rights, political theory, the Middle East, and international affairs. She was the founding director of Korbel's International Human Rights Program, leading it for almost two decades as it became one of the country's top graduate programs in human rights. In 2022, she received the Human Rights in Higher Education Award from the University and College Consortium for Human Rights Education (UCCHRE), an international award for outstanding contributions to higher education and research in human rights. In 2008, Ishay was named the University of Denver Distinguished Scholar.
Ishay received a Ph.D. in Political Science and International Studies from Rutgers University. She was a fellow at the Center for Critical Culture and Contemporary Analysis at Rutgers and Assistant Professor at Hobart and William Smith College. She was a Senior Fellow, Center for Democracy Collaborative, University of Maryland (2004); Lady Davis Visiting Professor, Hebrew University (2006); Visiting Professor, Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (2010-2013); Resident Fellow, Bellagio Center, Rockefeller Foundation, Italy (2015); Guest Fellow, Institute for Human Sciences (IWM), Vienna (2021); Visiting Professor, Tel Aviv University (2022); Visiting Professor, WZB Social Science Center, Berlin (2023); and Visiting Professor; Sciences Politiques, Paris (2023). She also serves as Vice Director of the International Council for Diplomacy and Dialogue (Paris). Often interviewed in the domestic international press, Ishay frequently contributes to international forums in Europe, the Middle East and the U.S.
Ishay is the author or editor of half a dozen books and numerous articles, including Internationalism and Its Betrayal (1995), The Nationalism Reader (1995, 1999), and The Levant Express: The Arab Uprisings, Human Rights, and the Future of the Middle East (Yale University Press, 2019). Her books, The History of Human Rights: From Ancient Times to the Globalization Era (University of California Press, 2004, 2008) and The Human Rights Reader: Major Political Essays, Speeches, and Documents from Ancient Times to the Present (Routledge, 1997, 2008, 2022), widely used as texts in courses on human rights, have been translated into multiple languages and published in multiple editions. Responding to the recent surge of populism and authoritarianism, Ishay's current research concerns the future of internationalism amidst post-pandemic recession and regional wars. She is also working on a monograph tentatively titled: October 7 and the Future of the Middle East.
From 2010 to 2013, Ishay worked as a professor and consultant in the Gulf region from a unique vantage point, as a female scholar in human rights. She had the privilege to learn from Emirati and Arab nationals about their hopes and fears as upheaval shook the region around them. As Director of the Center for Middle East Studies, she convenes experts from different backgrounds and expertise to shed light on ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and to explore peace processes.
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CMES
International Human Rights
2022 The Human Rights Reader: Major Political Essays, Speeches and Documents from Ancient Times to the Present. Third Edition. New York: Routledge Press.
2019 The Levant Express: The Arab Uprisings, Human Rights, and the Future of the Middle East (New Haven: Yale University Press).
2008 The History of Human Rights, from Ancient Times to the Globalization Era. Revised second edition (Berkeley, CA: The University of California Press).
2007 The Human Rights Reader: Major Political Essays, Speeches and Documents from Ancient Times to the Present, Second Edition. Revised and expanded. (New York: Routledge Press).
2004 The History of Human Rights, from Ancient Times to the Globalization Era (Berkeley, CA: The University of California Press).
1997 The Human Rights Reader: Major Political Essays, Speeches and Documents from the Bible to the Present (New York: Routledge Press).
1995 Internationalism and its Betrayal. Preface by Craig Calhoun. Political Science/Sociology Series (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press).
1995/1999 The Nationalism Reader (Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, 1995, reprinted Amherst, NY: Prometheus Press, 1999).
2023 "Israel's Golem and the Crisis of Democracy," New Lines Magazine (October 3).
2020 "Human Rights in the Age of Populism," in The State of Human Rights: Historical Genealogies, Historical Controversies, and Cultural Imaginaries, edited by Kerstin Schmidt (Heidelberg: Winter Universitätsverlag).
2020 "Human Rights Amidst Despair in the Levant and the West," Philosophy and Social Criticism (February 19, 2020).
2019 "Strategizing Human Rights: From Ideals to Practice." A Reply to Kathryn Sikkink and Douglass Johnson, in Bardo Fassbender and Knut Traisbach, ed., The Limits of Human Rights (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
2018 "Human Rights Under Attack: What Comes Next?" Ethics & International Affairs (December).
2017 "Human Rights in the Middle East" in Anthony Chase, ed., Routledge Handbook on Human Rights and the Middle East and North Africa (UK: Routledge).
2016 "Violent Islamism Beyond Borders: Can Human Rights Prevail?" in Philosophy and Social Criticism (January 12).
2016 With David Kretzmer, "Reclaiming Human Rights: Alternative Paths for an Israeli/Palestinian Peace, in John Ehrenberg and Yoav Peled, eds., One or Two State Solution (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield).
2015 "Human Rights and International Criminal Justice: Looking Back to Reclaim the Future," in Cherif Bassiouni, ed., "Global Issues and their Impact on the Future of International Criminal Justice and Human Rights" (Cambridge: Intersentia).
2014 "What Killed Egyptian Democracy? Lessons from a Failed Revolution." Response to Mohamed Fadel. Boston Review (January/February).
2014 "The Role of Interdisciplinary Approaches to Human Rights," in Nigel Rodley and Sheeran Scott, eds., Handbook of International Human Rights Law (UK: Francis Taylor).
2013 "Promoting Human Rights in the Era of Globalization," in Paul James, ed., Globalization and Politics (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications).
2013 "The Spring of Arab Nations? Paths toward Democratic Transition," Philosophy and Social Criticism (April 8).
2011 "Globalization, Religion, and Nationalism in Israel and Palestine," in Timothy D. Sisk, ed., Between Terror and Tolerance (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press).
2010 "The History of Human Rights and Critical Theory," in Michael Thompson, ed., Rational Radicalism and Political Theory (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books/Rowman and Littlefield).
2010 "The Sixtieth Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Exploring the Past, Anticipating the Future." Transnational Law and Contemporary Problems 19 (Spring).
2010 "The Universal Declaration of Human Rights at 60: A Bridge to Which Future?" in Perspectives on Global Development and Technology 9:1-2 (January).
2022 Human Rights Higher Education Award, University and College Consortium for Human Rights Education (UCCHRE). For Outstanding Contributions to Human Rights Education
Fellow, Residency Award, Bellagio Center, Rockefeller Foundation
Visting Professor (2010-2013), Khalifa University
Lady Davis Visiting Professor , Hebrew University
2008 University of Denver Distinguished Scholar Award
2004 Ishay's History of Human Rights was ranked as "Best 10 non-fiction books of 2004" Philadelphia Inquirer
2004 Outstanding Course Award, JKSIS
Internationalism and Nationalism: Human Rights Global Governance
Human Rights and the Middle East
Theories of International Relations
International Law and Human Rights
Introduction to Human Rights: Theory and History
Foundations of Human Rights
The Future of Human Rights in the Globalized Age
The Future of Technology and Human Rights
International Human Rights in the Middle East
International Security and Human Rights
Human Rights and International Law
Capstone Seminar in Human Rights
Comparative Revolutions
Globalization and Human Rights
The Age of Empires
Introduction to Political Theory
Contemporary Political Theory
Epistemology
Critical Theory
Nineteenth century Political Theory
Research Methods
Research Design
Ph.D. Prospectus Workshop
Ph.D., Political Science & International Studies, Rutgers University
M.A., Political Science, Rutgers University
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