Prof. David Newman, dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at BGU to be honored.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFQueen Elizabeth at the races 370(photo credit: REUTERS)
Prof. David Newman, dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, will be made an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE), according to the queen’s birthday honors list, which was announced on Sunday, the queen’s birthday.Newman will receive the award for his efforts in promoting academic and scientific cooperation between Israel and the UK, especially during the past decade. Some consider the move a counterbalance to the attempts by a number of British scholars to impose an academic boycott against Israel.The Ben-Gurion professor made aliya from the UK some 30 years ago and has been at the Beersheba university since 1987. Formerly a geographer, he founded the Department of Politics and Government at BGU in 1997, and the Center for European Studies five years later. For the past 10 years, Newman has been the editor of The International Journal of Geopolitics.“I am greatly honored to receive this award, as it brings together the two countries in which I have lived and from which I draw on joint values of democracy, freedom of expression and a search for truth through science and research,” he said.Newman, who was recently elected for a second term of office as the dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, is also known for the weekly column that he writes in The Jerusalem Post that often deals with academic matters.
