NOTE: This is an intermittent feature highlighting CSUSB faculty who are mentioned in the news. Faculty, if you are interviewed and quoted by news media, or if your work has been cited, and you have an online link to the article or video, please let us know. Contact us at news@csusb.edu.

Ahlam Muhtaseb, professor of communication studies at Cal State San Bernardino, has been working with Andy Trimlett co-directing a documentary, '1948: Creation and Catastrophe,' for almost a decade, and they talked about their work on KPBS’s “Cinema Junkie” show.

 

The film looks to the pivotal year, 1948, that David Ben-Gurion, the head of the Jewish Agency, proclaimed the establishment of the state of Israel and how that impacted the Middle East. The documentary was designed for an American audience and it looks at the year 1948 to help make sense of the modern conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.

Muhtaseb and Trimlett talk about the challenges of making the film and conducting the research. Their goal in creating the film was to convey both historical information as well as very personal and intimate details from people who experienced that history first hand.

The podcast of the interview was posted Dec. 9, 2016.

Listen to the interview at “Podcast Episode 102: New documentary looks at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

Alexandru V. Roman, associate professor of public administration and coordinator of the Management Certificate of Public Procurement at the Jack H. Brown College of Business and Public Administration, was recently honored by the Institute for Public Procurement with its prestigious Distinguished Service Award, the Redlands Patch reported.

Roman, who joined the college in 2013, received the award for both his innovative research in public procurement as well as his efforts in promoting the field of public procurement. The selection committee wrote, “Dr. Roman is an outstanding scholar who has significantly impacted our profession and has made an important contribution to promoting public procurement and public procurement education.”

The article was published Dec. 20, 2016, and can be read at “International organization for public procurement honors Cal State San Bernardino professor.” Also online is the related news release, “International organization for public procurement honors CSUSB professor.”

Brian Levin, criminal justice professor and director of CSUSB’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, is once again sought for his expertise after two suspected terrorist attacks — one on a Berlin Christmas market that left at least 12 dead, and the assassination of Russia’s ambassador to Turkey — on Dec. 19. He appeared on the Fox 11 morning show “Good Day LA.”

The interview was broadcast Dec. 20, 2016, and can be watched online at “Professor Brian Levin discusses recent terror attacks in Europe.”

Also on Dec. 21, 2016, Pro Publica published a report on the efforts of the New York City Police Department's tracking of hate crimes, which it has done since 1980.

The article noted that hate crimes spike after major events, such as the Sept. 11 terror attacks.  “This is not a new phenomenon,” said Levin, who served on the NYPD prior to attending law school. He said that hate crimes vary widely by city and that local factors will deeply affect how national conversations about hate play out.

Read the complete article at “Rare track record: NYPD’s history chronicling hate crimes.”