The Office of the Dean of Research held the first session of the Research & Innovation Day for the 2021-2022 academic year on Thursday, May 19, 2022.
In his welcoming remarks, the Vice-Chancellor of Bethlehem University, Br. Peter Bray spoke to faculty, staff, students, and guests about the importance of research as a key to understanding the “mystery of the world.” He reflected on his personal experience in research and his fascination with the book stacks in the library that made possible his ever-widening understanding of the world. He urged everyone to keep themselves fascinated by the power of research.
Dr. Mohammad Tamimi, Assistant Professor of English at Palestine Polytechnic University-Hebron, Palestine, gave the keynote address titled, “A Holistic Approach to E-learning in the Palestinian Higher Education Sector.” The talk addresses the challenges and enablers for developing e-learning in the Palestinian HE (PHE) sector and examines how a holistic approach to e-learning can be conceptualized and developed.
He described the collaborative research project, a six-year-long project funded by NORAD and carried out by two Palestinian and two Norwegian HEIs, upon which the talk is based. In the project, the researchers examine multiple factors informing e-learning, including pedagogical, organizational, and policy contexts.
He also encouraged Bethlehem University faculty to get involved in this project. He mentioned various opportunities for involvement in research clusters that can lead to co-authored publications in Scopus-indexed international journals. He expects that the project will yield about 20 publications. He also stated that the project can help with capacity building and training as well as course transformation.
The keynote address was followed by two presentations. In the first, Mr. Nader Hazboun, Lecturer in the Department of Biology presented a paper titled, “The Frequency of ICA Autoantibodies among Healthy Young Adults from Bethlehem District as a Predictive Biomarker for Latent Autoimmune Diabetes: A Pilot Study.” Prof Dr. Jamil Khader, Prof of English and Dean of Research, presented his paper titled, “Neoliberal Contradictions in Ahmad Sa’dawi’s Frankenstein in Baghdad.
The second and third sessions of Research and Innovation Day will be held on the two following Thursdays (May 26 and June 2)
