Muhammad Amara

Prof. Muhammad Amara is the head of  Graduate  Studies at Beit Berl Academic College,  and until recently also held the position of senior lecturer in the Political Science and English Departments at Bar-Ilan University. He has also lectured at a number of European and American Universities. His academic interests include language education, language policy, sociolinguistics, language and politics, and collective identities. He has published dozens of academic journal articles and authored numerous chapters in books.

Prof. Amara has been active for many years in strengthening Israeli civil society, and he is highly respected in his community for his contributions, particularly in the area of education. Prof. Amara also served as a consultant to the Yad b-Yad ("Hand in Hand") bilingual schools in Israel; is a co-chair of the Board of Directors of the civil rights organization, Sikkuy; and is now the academic director  of the Arab Center for Law and Policy.  He has  served  as the first chair of the Arab pedagogical Council (2011-2014).

His publications include Politics and Sociolinguistics Reflexes: Palestinian Border Villages (John Benjamins, Philadelphia and Amsterdam : 1999); Language Education Policy: The Arab Minority in Israel (Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht/Boston/London : 2002 (together with Abd Al-Rahman Mar'i)); edited a book entitled Language and Identity in Israel ( The Palestinian Forum for Israeli Studies (Madar), Ramallah: 2002);  Languages in Conflict:  A Study of Linguistic Terms in the Arab-Israeli Conflict  (together with Abd Al-Rahman Mar'i, Dar-Al-Huda and Dar Al-Fiker, 2008);  Arabic in Israel: Contexts and Challenges (Dirasat,  Dar-Al-Huda and Dar Al-Fiker, 2010)