Dr. Doron Pely is the Executive Director of the Sulha Research Center in Shefa’amer, Israel, where he conducts extended ethnographic study of Muslim/Arab customary justice practices. He also teaches in Israel at Bar Ilan University’s Graduate Program in Conflict Management and Negotiations. Dr. Pely’s work focuses on the ways different cultures interact with each other, particularly in conflict and conflict-resolution contexts. He teaches and lectures on cross-cultural conflict mitigation, conflict de-escalation, and Muslim/Arab dispute resolution practices at universities such as Tufts, Hampshire College, UMASS Boston, the U.S. military academy at West Point, the Inter Disciplinary Center (IDC), the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv University, as well as at community centers and mediation groups in mixed-communities municipalities.
Previously, Dr. Pely served in roles including active duty military service, undercover police intelligence, scientific programming and system analysis, journalism, international business intelligence, executive management, large-scale risk analysis, and cross-cultural negotiations and conflict resolution.
Dr. Pely publishes in peer-reviewed journals, exploring the place of honor, revenge and forgiveness in Muslim customary justice, the place of women in Muslim dispute resolution, and the similarities and differences between Muslim and Western dispute resolution approaches. Additionally, he has published several fiction and non-fiction books, including his most recent book, Muslim-Arab Mediation and Conflict Resolution: Understanding Sulha (Routledge 2016).
He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from California State University, Hayward, a Master of Arts degree in Dispute Resolution from UMASS Boston, and a Ph.D. in Middle East and Mediterranean Studies from King’s College, London.
