The Duck of Minerva

Mira Sucharov

Dr. Mira Sucharov is Professor of Political Science and University Chair of Teaching Innovation. She holds a PhD in Government from Georgetown University, an MA in Political Science from the University of Toronto, and a BA in Middle East Studies from McGill University. She is the author of Borders and Belonging: A Memoir (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021), Public Influence: A Guide to Op-Ed Writing and Social Media Engagement (University of Toronto Press, 2019), and The International Self: Psychoanalysis and the Search for Israeli-Palestinian Peace (SUNY Press, 2005). She is co-editor (with Aaron J. Hahn Tapper) of Social Justice and Israel/Palestine: Foundational & Contemporary Debates (University of Toronto Press, 2019), and (with Eric Van Rythoven) Methodology and Emotion in International Relations: Parsing the Passions (Routledge, 2019).

Recent Posts

Too much empathy in Israel-Palestine?

by Mira Sucharov | 10 February, 2017 |

So far, 2017 has been a tough year in Israel for its Palestinian citizen minority. From a xenophobic  billboard campaign across the country to a village demolition turned violent in the Negev, the past several weeks have highlighted issues around power and inequality in a country whose democratic aspirations are weighed down by its ethno-national identity. As deep power differentials across society have come to the fore, what does the literature say about whether empathy might help to increase support for social justice? Yale psychologist Paul Bloom’s new book on empathy (called, fittingly,...

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Thoughts (for “both sides”) on the academic boycott

by Mira Sucharov | 12 January, 2017 |

In the wake of the failed attempt at passing a boycott resolution (of Israeli academic institutions) at the recent MLA conference, here are some thoughts. (Readers of the Duck might be aware that last year’s ISA conference saw a modest attempt at bringing a discussion on BDS forward. That proposal was also voted down.) Let’s talk (past each other)! The debate over the academic boycott is often frustratingly unproductive. On one hand, some anti-boycotters accuse boycott proponents of being antisemitic. While some boycotters may be antisemitic (just as some anti-boycotters may be...

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Should we empathize with Trump voters?

by Mira Sucharov | 11 November, 2016 |

In the wake of the shocking US election results, what sometimes seems like an agreed-upon virtue has become controversial: the demand for empathy. Writing in the New York Times, longtime Democrat Rabbi Michael Lerner has put out a call for empathy towards the many voters who supported Trump. As Lerner sees it, there are deep class fissures in America coupled with a spiritual crisis that requires redress. “We need to reach out to Trump voters,” Lerner writes, “in a spirit of empathy and contrition. Only then can we help working people understand that they do not live in a meritocracy, that...

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Are we honest when we write?

Are we honest when we write?

by Mira Sucharov | 23 October, 2016 |

The reactions I’ve received to some of my recent op-eds have led me to reconsider the relationship between scholarship and politics, and to question the role of social capital in shaping scholarly opinion. Over the last several months, I have published some pieces that have strayed from what had been my consistent “liberal Zionist” position. One investigated the dark underbelly of Tel Aviv (where I visited the remains of Palestinian villages with Israeli “decolonial” activist Eitan Bronstein). Another (with independent historian Peter Eisenstadt) challenged the “empathy” discourse prevalent...

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