Bio
Raffaella A. Del Sarto is Academic Director, Master of Arts in International Affairs
Associate Professor of Middle East Studies
at SAIS Europe
Raffaella A. Del Sarto is Academic Director of the Master of Arts in International Affairs, and Associate Professor of Middle East Studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, SAIS Europe campus. Her areas of expertise are: the international relations of the Middle East and North Africa—particularly in relation to Europe, the domestic-foreign policy nexus, questions of borders, power and interdependence, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Before joining SAIS Europe, she was a part-time professor at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, where she directed the
BORDERLANDS research project, funded by the European Research Council (ERC). Prior to this she was a Pears Fellow at Oxford University’s St Antony’s College, and prior to this, a Marie Curie Fellow and a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute. She received her PhD (
summa cum laude) from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and her MA from the Albert-Ludwigs University in Freiburg, Germany. In the late 1990s, during the Oslo process, she worked as a project manager with the German Friedrich Naumann Foundation in Jerusalem, managing a German government fund in support of peacemaking.
Del Sarto's articles have appeared in
International Affairs, The Middle East Journal, Journal of Common Market Studies, Democratization, Mediterranean Politics and others. For a recent curriculum vitae including a full list of publications,
see personal website.
Courses
- Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: History, Politics, Narratives
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is among the most protracted and seemingly irresolvable conflicts of modern times. It is also a conflict that attracts much international attention while standing at the center of heated political debates. The objective of this course is to provide an in-depth understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from its origin to the present, starting with the clash between Zionism and Arab-Palestinian nationalism during the British Mandate, the period of interstate rivalry between Israel and its Arab neighbors, the watershed event of the 1967 war, and the return to a struggle between Israel and the Palestinians in the last decades. While the course is structured chronologically, special attention will be paid to the different interpretations of history and the contrasting narratives of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Of central importance are the questions of why the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has not been solved yet, and whether peace is possible.
- History and Politics of the Middle East and North Africa
The course aims at introducing students to the history and politics of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), with a focus on the Mediterranean Middle East/Mashreq and Maghreb. Starting with the exploration of the emergence of the modern state system in the region, the course will examine the post-colonial politics of MENA countries and the current state of affairs. In this context, a number of key issues will be addressed, such as state-society relations, authoritarianism and reform, the role of the military, regional dynamics, conflicts, the strategic importance of the region, political Islam, and democracy and human rights. The course will conclude with a discussion of the Arab uprisings and their outcome, along with the implications for the politics and international relations of the MENA region.
