A well-timed trip to Israel in February 2020 has resulted in yet another successful collaboration for Bar-Ilan University (BIU), this time with Regent University (RU), a private Christian institution in Virginia Beach, Virginia, US.
Shortly before the world changed so dramatically, faculty and some graduate students from RU’s Robertson School of Government were on a tour of the country. Part of this tour included a lecture given by Dr. Menahem Merhavy, an authority on Middle Eastern Affairs and a lecturer at BIU.
After the tour, Dr. Merhavy reached out to Dr. Stephen Perry, RU’s Interim Senior Associate Dean in the Robertson School of Government and Professor of Communication, to discuss the possibility of developing a collaboration between the two universities.
Dr. Menahem Merhavy
“Spending a couple of hours in Jerusalem on that day in February with Dr. Perry and RU staff was enough for me to see the potential for collaboration between our two universities,” Dr. Merhavy says. “The combination of curiosity and fascination with Israel and its unique situation, together with the special connection to the land and its religious meaning that resonated from RU staff, convinced me the match was a promising one.”
Dr. Perry agrees. “Bar-Ilan University is one of the top universities in areas like biblical studies, biblical archaeology, and Middle Eastern studies. We have a strong Middle Eastern emphasis in our Robertson School of Government and many of our students have an interest in the Middle East and in how their faith connects back to Israel. These are just a few of the good reasons to collaborate with Bar-Ilan University,” he says.
Virtual Guest Lectures
Initially, the collaboration will include hosting guest lecturers between the universities, and it has already yielded results. The first one took place in December 2020 when Dr. Perry gave a lecture to students in Dr. Jonathan Fox’s doctoral research methods course. Dr. Fox is the Yehuda Avner Professor of Religion and Politics in BIU’s Department of Political Studies.
Dr. Jonathan Fox
“Dr. Perry’s lecture was well received by my class of 18 doctoral students from the Political Studies and Communications programs,” says Dr. Fox. “The students were engaged and asked several insightful questions about Dr. Perry’s research.”
Other lectures have already been planned, including one involving Dr. Fox as a guest speaker in a course run by Dr. Andrew J. ‘AJ’ Nolte from Regent University.
“I’m thrilled to have Dr. Fox lecture in our new Religion and Global Politics course this summer, and excited about ways in which this collaboration might expand in the future,” Dr. Nolte says.
“Dr. Nolte currently uses a textbook written by Dr. Fox in his course, so this lecture will provide strong, added value for the students,” says Dr. Perry. The textbook is titled, An Introduction to Religion and Politics: Theory and Practice.
“It’s always enjoyable interacting with a new group of students and getting feedback on how they react to my textbook, and I look forward to meeting Dr. Nolte’s students,” says Dr. Fox.
Dr. Merhavy plans to teach a joint course of RU and BIU students on a topic related to religion and its role in the contemporary Middle East. He would also like to host RU faculty in some of his courses at BIU enabling an exchange of ideas between lecturers as well.
Dr. Perry states that the upcoming lectures will involve the government programs initially, “but future collaboration may include our Divinity School and the Biblical Studies team at Bar-Ilan University. We hope to begin allowing students to cross-enroll in courses in our MA programs in Government with possibly two or three students attending courses via Zoom.
Dr. Stephen Perry
“Ultimately, we would love to have groups spend some time traveling to Israel from Regent and experiencing some lectures at Bar-Ilan in the process, and vice versa. But that will have to be after the pandemic has been curtailed sufficiently and we’ve had a couple of years of cross-enrollment,” he says.
The Advantages of Collaboration
Asked why collaborating with other universities is so important, Dr. Perry stated that the expertise of scholars is usually limited to a relatively thin area of knowledge. “No university can have experts who cover everything, so to find an expert in new areas, we must collaborate to enable students to be exposed to new depths of scholarship in unique areas.
“The collaboration also provides students the opportunity to interact with those from different backgrounds and with different cultural expectations. Regent University is particularly supportive of Israel as a nation. Therefore, we would love to have our students get to know others from Israel to foster their own lifelong connections to your great country,” he says.
In addition, collaboration typically includes seeking scholarship opportunities and developing research grants.
“As a former Fulbright Scholar, I know it is beneficial to have international connections to facilitate invitations to study as a Fulbright Fellow in some universities. It also enhances grant applications, so having an ongoing relationship between Bar-Ilan University and Regent University can augment the ability of students to receive one of the several fellows’ programs scholarships to study internationally, both from Israel to the US and from the US to Israel,” Dr. Perry says.
Dr. Fox agreed. “Social science students profit from a diversity of views on the topics they study. Collaboration between universities allows them to benefit from a broader range of experts on a wider variety of topics. This is enhanced when the collaboration is international because this tends to broaden the spectrum of views,” he says.
About the Players
Dr. Menahem Merhavy, Bar-Ilan University
Dr. Menahem Merhavy earned his PhD from Tel Aviv University’s Department of Middle Eastern and African History in 2012. He is formerly a researcher at the Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations at The Hebrew University and a Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Texas in Austin.
Dr. Merhavy currently teaches at Bar-Ilan University and is a fellow at The Harry S. Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace at The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, where he teaches at Rothberg International School.
His academic expertise includes Modern Iran and Shiism, and Radical Islamic Movements in Iran and the Arab World. Dr. Merhavy has published a few articles on Iran and his book, National Symbols in Modern Iran: Identity, Ethnicity, and Collective Memory was published in 2019.
Dr. Stephen Perry, Regent University
Dr. Stephen Perry, a Fulbright Scholar (University of Mauritius, 2004-2005), has a Masters in Telecommunication and Film and a Doctorate in Mass Communication from the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. He has been lecturing to graduate and postgraduate students for more than 25 years, nearly seven of them at RU.
Dr. Perry currently chairs the Publication Committee of the Broadcast Education Association (BEA) and is the former editor of Mass Communication and Society.
Some of the courses he teaches include Communication Research: Historical/Critical; Philosophy and Communication; Communication in a Global Environment; Academic Writing for Publication; Seminar in Peace Journalism; and many more.
Dr. Jonathan Fox, Bar-Ilan University
Dr. Jonathan Fox (PhD, University of Maryland, 1997) is the Yehuda Avner Professor of Religion and Politics, director of the Religion and State (RAS) project, and a senior research fellow at Bar-Ilan’s Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (BESA). He specializes in the influence of religion on politics which he examines using both quantitative and qualitative methodology.
Dr. Fox’s research also investigates the impact of religion on domestic conflict, terrorism, international intervention, and international relations. His other research interests include the quantitative analysis of Samuel Huntington’s “Clash of Civilizations” theory, nationalism, and ethnic conflict.
He has written a few books on these topics including Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods Before ME: Why Governments Discriminate against Religious Minorities; An Introduction to Religion and Politics: Theory & Practice; and Political Secularism, Religion, and the State: A Time Series Analysis of Worldwide Data.
Prof. Fox teaches courses on religion and politics, civil conflict, US politics, methodology, and “Political Science Fiction – Political Science and Science Fiction Literature.” He is the author or editor of 14 books and more than 100 research articles and book chapters.
Dr. Andrew J. “AJ” Nolte, Regent University
Dr. Andrew J. Nolte received his PhD in Politics from the Catholic University of America (CUA). His dissertation focused on the relationship between political Islam and high modernism in Turkey and Indonesia’s state-formation processes.
Dr. Nolte worked for the Religious Freedom Project at Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs, and at the Center for Complex Operations at National Defense University. From Fall 2013 to Spring 2017, he served as an adjunct professor of politics at Messiah College. He also taught at George Washington University, Catholic University, and National Defense University.
