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Miami students earn first prize in international competition

03/21/2008

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Michael Lin and Ann Davis, half the winning Miami team

Miami University seniors Ann Davis, Michael Lin, James Orwig and Amanda Zazycki, all international studies majors, placed first in the economic category of a "Just Jerusalem" competition sponsored by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

All four have been awarded fellowships at MIT, a prize worth $50,000 each, and can attend a symposium in Jerusalem to pursue their idea of harvesting rainwater to solve Jerusalem�s water crisis.

Out of 1,150 entries from 85 countries, only 125 eligible proposals were submitted. The competition, the culmination of a larger "Jerusalem 2050" project, included four categories: economic, physical, civic and symbolic. Participants were asked to look beyond the current nation-state conflict and, instead, focus on "just" the city of Jerusalem as a place where, by mid-century, its citizenries co-exist in peace.

Miami's winning proposal, "Look Up: Rainwater Harvesting," was the culminating project for the students' international studies capstone seminar, "Problems in the Middle East," taught by Mark Allen Peterson, associate professor of anthropology and international studies, during fall semester 2007.

"The objective of this capstone course is to push students to apply everything they have learned over the last four years as international studies majors," Peterson explained. "Because we're an interdisciplinary program, students bring perspectives from anthropology, economics, geography, history and political science to bear on international events and issues. I try to have them simulate, on a small scale, the kind of work they might do outside academia. What's amazing and also a testimonial to their work is that these students had one semester to develop their proposal, while many other entrants had a year."

The students studied the political and economic factors surrounding Jerusalem's water crisis and determined that, with the help of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), rainwater harvesting could be successfully implemented. Their proposal outlines steps needed to implement such as education and training, operational components and funding.

All winning submissions from the four categories of the "Just Jerusalem Project" will be displayed at various locations around the world. The proposals serve as a launching point for discussion about initiatives for urban conflict resolution in Jerusalem at a public symposium to be held in Israel December 2008.

The fellowships at MIT will be held during fall semester 2008 with students conducting research, participating in seminars, meeting with government officials and attending the Jerusalem symposium. The fellowship will prepare the students to further develop their proposals for the conference.

Jerusalem 2050 brings together Palestinian and Israeli scholars, activists, business leaders, youth and others to discuss unconventional approaches toward solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. More on the program and winning entries is here: http://web.mit.edu/cis/jerusalem2050/.