NOCMES to Receive Education Award From the Niagara Foundation

Photo of Joshua StacherKent State’s Joshua Stacher and Case Western Reserve’s Pete Moore to accept award

The Northeast Ohio Consortium for Middle East Studies (NOCMES) will receive the Education Award at the Niagara Peace and Dialogue Awards ceremony on May 18 at the City Club of Cleveland. 

Accepting the award for NOCMES will be co-directors Josh Stacher, Ph.D., a Kent State University associate professor of political science, and Pete Moore, Ph.D., associate professor of political science at Case Western Reserve University. 

The Ohio Chapter of the Niagara Foundation chose NOCMES for the award in recognition of people and a group that has contributed its time, energy, leadership and dedication to the cause of dialogue, peace, education, community service, tolerance and mutual understanding in the Greater Cleveland area. 

“This award highlights NOCMES’ efforts over the past five years of bringing professional scholars and researchers to our region to speak on and off our campuses,” Stacher said. 

Recent speakers at NOCMES events included Joel Beinin, Ph.D., a Stanford University professor and noted Middle East historian; Noura Erakat, Ph.D., a professor at George Mason University; Hugh Roberts, Ph.D., the Edward Keller Professor of North African and Middle Eastern History at Tuft’s University; Lelah Kalili of SOAS at the University of London; and independent journalist Sharif Abdel Kouddous.   

“NOCMES seeks out difficult topics and not only delivers accessible research to our university campuses and our diverse communities, but also develops synergies with many civic partners as we make the study of Middle East and Muslim Societies a part of the broader community conversation,” Stacher said.

Stacher attributes the success of NOCMES to its interdisciplinary character and its involvement in the surrounding communities and with civic partners, including the City Club of Cleveland, the Cleveland Council on World Affairs, the public library system and WCPN.

“When you have people dedicated to improving understanding and investing in a community that is hungry to learn, it creates a special environment that thrives,” Stacher said. “What NOCMES is ultimately about is a dual commitment – it’s a commitment to the people of the region that we study and a commitment to public education to the people with whom we live among as neighbors.  

For more information about the Niagara Peace and Dialogue Awards ceremony, contact the Niagara Foundation-Cleveland Chapter at cleveland@niagarafoundation.org or 440-520-2269.

About NOCMES
The Northeast Ohio Consortium for Middle East Studies (NOCMES), comprising leading Cleveland-area secondary education and collegiate institutions, seeks to bring the latest scholarship on the Middle East to Northeast Ohio. To learn more about NOCMES, visit https://nocmes.wordpress.com.

About the Niagara Foundation
The Niagara Foundation is a nonprofit organization, founded in 2004, dedicated to the mission of fostering civic conversations and sustained relationships between people of different cultures and faiths. For more information about the Niagara Foundation, visit www.niagarafoundation.org.

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Photo Caption:
Josh Stacher, Ph.D., (pictured) a Kent State University associate professor of political science and co-director of the Northeast Ohio Consortium for Middle East Studies (NOCMES), will accept the Education Award at the Niagara Peace and Dialogue Awards ceremony on May 18 with NOCMES co-director Pete Moore, Ph.D., associate professor of political science at Case Western Reserve University. 

Media Contact:
Joshua Stacher, jstacher@kent.edu, 330-672-8922

POSTED: Friday, May 8, 2015 04:06 PM
Updated: Saturday, December 3, 2022 01:02 AM
WRITTEN BY:
Jim Maxwell