Professors Honored for Constructive Dialogue Leadership
The Alumni Council lauds two faculty members for helping to guide the campus through a contentious time.
Faculty members Susannah Heschel and Tarek El-Ariss have received widespread praise for their dedication to respectful, constructive dialogue over the past two years. They recently received another accolade, this one from the Dartmouth Alumni Council—the Professor John Rassias Award for Faculty Commitment to Lifelong Learning.
El-Ariss, the James Wright Professor and chair of the Middle Eastern Studies Program, and Heschel, the Eli M. Black Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies and chair of the Jewish Studies Program, have collaborated on several projects over the past decade. Following Hamas’s attack on Israel in October 2023 and the Israelis’ military offensive against Hamas in Gaza, El-Ariss and Heschel organized a series of discussions to deepen Dartmouth students’ understanding of Middle East history and current tensions.
Their work, including the Dartmouth Dialogues’ special topic series Middle East Dialogues, has drawn the attention of multiple national media outlets. In an editorial, The Boston Globe wrote that while many campuses had “erupted into incendiary protests,” the conversations led by Heschel and El-Ariss pointed “to the potential for a better alternative, one grounded in scholarship and nuance, which recognizes that young adults are still forming their opinions and need to be taught—taught about the immensely complicated past and present of the region but also taught how to civilly disagree.”
Presented annually to current or recently retired faculty members, the Rassias Award recognizes professors who have demonstrated a sustained commitment to alumni learning and engagement. El-Ariss and Heschel have jointly presented at Dartmouth’s Back to Class program for alums, and El-Ariss has led alumni trips to the Middle East. Members of the Alumni Council’s Lifelong Learning Committee were particularly impressed with the two professors’ leadership as they guided dialogues at Dartmouth in a time of intense anger and grief, as well as their willingness to visit other campuses, where they shared their expertise and dialogic model, says Taja-Nia Henderson ’97, the committee chair.
“To us, that showed not only a commitment to their current students but also a commitment to the larger Dartmouth community,” Henderson says. “Professors El-Ariss and Heschel have shown 100% Dartmouth heart. And by taking their expertise on the road, they’re modeling for all of higher ed—and even beyond higher ed—what learning can look like and how we can use even contentious, conflict-ridden topics to grow and learn as a community together. The committee thought their work benefits our entire alumni community and contributes to Americans’ lifelong learning.”
Heschel says she is touched to receive an award given by the alumni community.
“There’s something that sets Dartmouth apart, which is the devotion of the alumni to Dartmouth because of the enormous appreciation alumni have for the education that they received, the people they met, the opportunities they had, and also the relationships they formed with faculty members,” she says. “I still receive messages from former students years later, and I appreciate that.”
Heschel adds she would like to develop even closer ties with alumni, including having them come back to campus, sit in on classes, and offer insights into ways to advance classroom conversations.
“I see alumni also as advisors, and I would like to hear from them, especially given the kind of material that Tarek and I teach,” she says. “I want to hear their comments because they can help us refine the kinds of questions that we ask in class. What should we be asking about relations between Arabs and Jews and how Arabs and Jews cope with the modern world?”
El-Ariss says he enjoys connecting with Dartmouth alumni in many ways, such as leading Dartmouth Alumni Travel trips in the Middle East.
“It’s such an honor to receive this award, to also engage with the alumni community in various contexts, to deal with issues that are happening in the Middle East, but also to accompany alumni on their journey of engaging with topics and places in the world,” he says.
Heschel says that she is especially honored to receive an award named for John Rassias, the internationally renowned professor who pioneered new ways to teach foreign languages. “I knew him and admired him,” she says. “He always had a big smile on his face. He did so much for Dartmouth College and for the study of languages all over the world. He was an amazing figure.”