Amy Dockser Marcus is a staff reporter for The Wall Street Journal based out of Boston. She was awarded the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting for a series of stories that she wrote about the physical, monetary, and emotional costs of living with cancer.
From 1991 to 1998, she was based in Israel as the Journal’s Middle East correspondent, and has written two books that grew out of her reporting about the region. Her first book, The View From Nebo: How Archaeology is Rewriting the Bible and Reshaping the Middle East, was named one of the top nonfiction books of the year by the Los Angeles Times. Her most recent book, Jerusalem 1913: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, was published by Viking in 2007.
Herman Hertzberger, a strong proponent of education, taught at the Academy of Architecture in Amsterdam (1965-69), the Technical University of Delft (1970-99), the University of Geneva (1983-93), and various universities and architectural institutes around the world. In 1960, he established an architectural practice, Architectuurstudio HH Architects and Urban Designers. His designs include the Centraal Beheer head office, Apeldoorn, the Music Centre Vredenburg in Utrecht and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment office,
In addition to his time as on of the editors of FORUM, a Dutch magazine (1959-63), he has written several books, including Space and the Architect (2000), Herman Hertzberger: Articulations (2002), Shelter for Culture (2004), Herman Hertzberger Lessons for Students in Architecture (2005), and Waternet Double Tower (2006).
Ute Meta Bauer is the director of the Visual Arts Program and an associate professor at MIT. She has served as professor of theory, practice and mediation of contemporary art at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (1996 – 2006) and as founding director of the Office for Contemporary Art Norway in Oslo (2002 - 2005). Additionally, she was artistic director for the 3rd Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art (2003-2004) and was co-curator of Documenta11 (2000 - 2002) in the team of Okwui Enwezor.
Professor Bauer has done work as a free-lance curator and was editor of several art periodicals such as META (Stuttgart), case (Barcelona, Porto) and Verkstedt (Oslo). She is advisor of a number of high profiled cultural boards such as the chairwomen of the Art Advisory Board of the Goethe Institute, a member of the International Board of the Bauhaus Foundation in Dessau and most recently was nominated as a member of the Curatorial Advisory Team of the 3rd Yokohama Triennale 2008.
William J. Mitchell holds the Alexander W. Dreyfoos, Jr. (1954) Professorship and directs the MIT Design Laboratory and the Smart Cities group at the Media Laboratory. He was formerly Dean of the School of Architecture and Planning and Head of the Program in Media Arts and Sciences, both at MIT. During the recent period of extensive construction of major projects on the MIT campus, he served as Architectural Advisor to the President of MIT.
Before coming to MIT, he was the Travelstead Professor of Architecture and director of the Master in Design Studies program at the Harvard Graduate School of Design; he has also served as head of the Architecture/Urban Design program at UCLA's Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning, and he has taught at Yale, Carnegie-Mellon, and Cambridge universities. Mitchell holds degrees from the University of Melbourne, Yale University, and Cambridge. He is a Fellow of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Mitchell's research focuses upon new technologies in architecture, urban design, and product design. His books include City of Bits, E-topia, Me++, Placing Words: Symbols, Space and the City, and most recently Imagining MIT: Designing a Campus for the 21 Century. His latest, World’s Greatest Architect, is forthcoming from the MIT Press. He writes a monthly column for Building Design in London, and has also served as a regular columnist for the Royal Institute of British Architects Journal.
Sadako Ogata assumed office as one of the Co-chairs of the Commission on Human Security in June 2001. While operating in New York, she was also appointed as the Special Representative of Prime Minister of Japan on Afghanistan Assistance in November 2001. In 2002, she served as co-chair at the International Conference on Reconstruction Assistance to Afghanistan (Tokyo, Japan). Dr. Ogata served as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees from 1991 to 2000.
Before her career as UNHCR, she was the Independent Expert of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights on the Human Rights Situation in Myanmar (1990), the Representative of Japan on the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (1982-1985), and Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at the Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations (1978-79). From 1976 to 1978, Dr. Ogata served as Minister of the Permanent Mission of Japan to the UN.
A prominent academic figure, Dr. Ogata is a Scholar in Residence of The Ford Foundation since 2001. Additionally, she was Dean of the Faculty of Foreign Studies at Sophia University in Tokyo (1989) and Director of the Institute of International Relations (1987-1988). She has also taught International Relations at International Christian University in Tokyo (1965-76) and the University of the Sacred Heart in Tokyo (1965-1974).
Suha Özkan has undertaken extensive research on the theory and history of architecture, design, vernacular form and emergency housing, and has published numerous articles and monographs. At METU, he has taught architectural design and design theory for fifteen years, and became Associate Dean of the Faculty of Architecture in 1978; he was appointed Vice-President of the University in 1979. He has taught and lectured extensively in North America, Europe, Central-, South-, and South-East Asia, and throughout the Middle East. He has served as jury members for many architectural competitions, and as an external examiner for diploma and doctoral assessments at the Schools of Architecture at the Universities of Paris, Lausanne, York and Trondheim. With the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in Geneva, Dr. Özkan served as Deputy Secretary General from 1983 to 1990, and has been the Secretary General since 1991. On behalf of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, he has organized two international architectural competitions for the Revitalization of Samarkand, Uzbekistan (1991), and for the new Museum of Islamic Arts in Doha, Qatar (1997).
Salim Tamari is director of the Institute of Jerusalem Studies and professor of sociology at Birzeit University. He was also a visiting professor at University of California at Berkeley (2005, 2007), New York University (2001-2003); Cornell (1997), and University of Chicago (1991-92).
Tamari is the editor of Hawliyyat al Quds and Jerusalem Quarterly. He is also the author of several works on urban culture, political sociology, biography and social history, and the social history of the Eastern Mediterranean. Recent publications in English include: Jerusalem 1948: The Arab Neighbourhoods and their Fate in the War (2002); Mandate Jerusalem in the Memoirs of Wasif Jawahariyyeh (with Issam Nassar, 2005); The Mountain against the Sea: Studies in Palestinian Urban Culture (2005); Pilgrims, Lepers, and Stuffed Cabbage: Essays on the Cultural History of Ottoman and Mandate Jerusalem (editor) (IJS, 2005).
Meron Benvenisti is a political scientist, geographer and writer who served as deputy Mayor of Jerusalem from 1971 - 1978. Outside of his political career, Benvenisti has published several books focusing on the history of Jerusalem, as well as the larger politcal and institutional landscape surrounding the city. His writing has also been regularly featured in Haaretz Daily Newspaper Israel.
