Colin. Powell School
Professor Diana Greenwald’s academic journey was profoundly influenced by the post-9/11 era and the subsequent Middle East conflicts. Her academic focus revolves around the examination of local Palestinian politics in the West Bank, carried out under the backdrop of Israeli occupation. Her research encompasses data collection and analysis, including interviews with local politicians, shedding light on the intricate dynamics at play. Her work underscores the complexity of Palestinian lives under occupation and the resilience of individuals navigating these challenging circumstances.
Please share something about your personal and professional background, and what brought you to CCNY and the Colin Powell School.
I began studying Middle East politics while I was in college. 9/11 and the ensuing war in Afghanistan occurred during my senior year in high school, and the war in Iraq started my sophomore year of college. Thus, many of my formative years in my 20s were consumed by the broader “War on Terror.” I became interested in studying the politics of the Middle East and the Arabic language while I was an undergraduate at Georgetown University. After college, I worked for four years in Washington, DC. Before starting at CCNY and the Colin Powell School in 2018, I had finished my PhD at the University of Michigan and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Harvard Kennedy School.
How did you decide to pursue a PhD and discover a passion for your field?
As part of my undergraduate degree, I wrote a senior honors thesis on Egyptian intellectuals and their relationship to the Egyptian state under the former regime of President Hosni Mubarak. I loved the research process — reading primary sources and even interviewing some of the intellectuals themselves and other scholars with expertise in Egyptian politics. I still wasn’t sure that I wanted to pursue a PhD, so, after college, I traveled to Syria for a summer Arabic program. When I returned to the US, I got a job offer to help a displaced Syrian human rights activist reestablish his NGO in Washington, DC. I worked there for two years, then subsequently worked for two years at a DC think tank. I soon realized that I felt more fulfilled in the academic world, not in the policymaking world, so I began applying for PhD programs.
Can you please briefly describe your scholarly work and findings? What’s most meaningful to your field — and to you — about your work?
In my book and in related work, I study how local Palestinian politics works in the West Bank under Israeli occupation. For this research, I got to do what I love most — collect and analyze various kinds of data, including interviews with local politicians from all across the territory, geographic data on Israeli and Palestinian territorial control, and quantitative data on how Palestinian local governments manage and dedicate their resources. I find that Palestinian mayors, municipal councils, and staff operate in a very challenging environment, often stuck in between the Israeli military authorities and their own people. I also find that the way the Israeli occupation works generates fissures and tensions within Palestinian politics, but also, surprisingly, Palestinian politicians from diametrically opposing parties can also be parts of the same social networks, or even family members or friends, with one another. The most meaningful thing I have tried to achieve in my work is to reflect the complex reality of Palestinian lives under occupation, and to highlight the agency and voices of people living within this reality.
Can you say a bit about what you like about CCNY and the Colin Powell School? Perhaps speak to your work with students. What do you like about CCNY?
Our students, and the broader community, are what makes this place special. I teach courses in world politics, courses on the Middle East, and courses on global conflict and economic development. Many of our students at the Colin Powell School and at the college as a whole are first- or second-generation immigrants, or have lived outside of the US for some period of time, so we really do benefit from having a global classroom. I learn something new from my students every day. I have also been able to hire a few students on a part-time basis to assist with research; this has been a great experience for both the students and me.
Share something about your plans — regarding research, teaching, engagement — for the next couple of years?
I am currently exploring several possible future research projects. One builds on a paper I have already published to analyze the impact of generational or cohort membership on political attitudes in conflict settings, such as Palestine. We define generations as cohorts of individuals who were roughly the same age (or in the same age range) at the same period of time. So, to place it in terms that are relatable for all of us — Perhaps having lived through the COVID-19 pandemic shapes one’s attitudes in durable ways. But perhaps it not only matters that you lived through the COVID-19 pandemic, but it matters how old you were when the pandemic occurred. The latter is what we use to define generations. In conflict settings, we might think that exposure to certain key events is likely to have long-lasting effects on individuals’ political attitudes, depending on whether those events occurred when they were at a particularly impressionable age. Another possible future research project will use historical maps of the MENA region to understand certain aspects of contemporary politics. This will involve efforts to digitize and geocode historical maps, something I am currently exploring with collaborators.
What would you want to make sure everyone knows about what makes the Colin Powell School special?
The school is really unique in the communities that it brings together. The social science faculty are conducting rigorous, influential, high-impact scholarly research, while initiatives like the Leadership for Democracy and Social Justice initiative and the Moynihan Center are doing important work to bridge the gap between research and practical change, whether through movement building or public service. As a result, our students are exposed to a wide range of approaches on how to effect change in their communities and around the world, and they engage with these approaches in the classroom, in fellowships and internships, and as they embark on their post-graduate careers.