Kent State’s Joshua Stacher and Case Western Reserve’s Pete Moore to accept award

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), accepted 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.

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

NOCMES, comprising leading Cleveland-area secondary education and collegiate institutions, seeks to bring the latest scholarship on the Middle East to Northeast Ohio.

Accepting the award for NOCMES were 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 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 says.

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 says.

Stacher attributes the success of NOCMES to its interdisciplinary character and 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 says. “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.

To learn more about NOCMES, visit https://nocmes.wordpress.com.

For more information about the Niagara Foundation, visit www.niagarafoundation.org.