Rubinstein appointed to steering committee of the Peacebuilding Systems Project

Robert Rubinstein, professor of anthropology and international relations in the Maxwell School, has been appointed to the five-member steering committee of the Peacebuilding Systems Project, a program of the Alliance for Peacebuilding. The Peacebuilding Systems Project (PSP) is an effort to build a wider, more systematic approach to peace building practice.

Recently, Rubinstein was presented with the 2010 Textor and Family Prize for Excellence in Anticipatory Anthropology. The Textor Prize, which  is awarded annually by the American Anthropological Association (AAA), encourages and rewards excellent contributions in the use of anthropological perspectives, theories, models and methods in an anticipatory mode, which allow citizens, leaders and governments to make informed policy choices, and thereby improve their society’s or community’s chances for realizing preferred futures and avoiding unwanted ones.

Rubinstein’s award honors his advocacy for the development of the anthropology of peace, security and human rights. In bringing an anthropological perspective to these issues, his research and publications in medical and political anthropology have anticipated the significance of methods and frameworks for peace and conflict studies in the dynamics of the global war on terror, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan.