Israel and Middle East expert Dov Waxman will join Northeastern University as professor of political science, international affairs, and Israel studies and co-director of the Middle East Center.

Waxman, a renowned scholar of Israeli politics and foreign policy, Arab-Israeli relations, and Middle East politics, will bring his expertise to Northeastern in the fall as a visiting scholar of political science and will begin his role as co-director of the Middle East Center. His tenured faculty appointment will take effect in 2014.

“Professor Waxman’s depth of knowledge and experience make him a leading voice in the field of Middle East politics,” said College of Social Sciences and Humanities Interim Dean Uta Poiger. “He fosters robust academic and public discourse on compelling questions and will be an invaluable resource for students across disciplines.”

Waxman comes to Northeastern with more than 10 years of teaching experience and a strong scholarly publication record. In the mainstream media, he has been a champion of intellectual freedom and the open exchange of ideas.

“I am very excited to be joining the faculty at Northeastern,” Waxman said. “Being a member of the Political Science Department and the International Affairs and Jewish Studies programs is really a perfect fit for me in terms of my research and teaching. I also particularly hope to develop Israel Studies at Northeastern and to increase the profile and activities of the Middle East Center.”

For the past nine years, Waxman has been in the Department of Political Science at Baruch College in New York and at the CUNY Graduate Center. Prior to that appointment, he taught in the Department of Government at Bowdoin College.

Waxman has conducted research as a visiting fellow or scholar at a number of universities, including the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University; the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey; the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University; the Avraham Harman Institute for Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University; and most recently at St. John’s College and the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies at Oxford University.

“Professor Waxman’s perspectives will enrich our academic community,” said Stephen W. Director, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs. “He has a rich and multifaceted perspective, informed by deep historical understanding, on the complicated issues facing the Middle East today and in the future.”

Waxman is the author of The Pursuit of Peace and the Crisis of Israeli Identity: Defending / Defining the Nation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006) and the co-author of Israel’s Palestinians: The Conflict Within (Cambridge University Press, 2011). He frequently comments on Israeli-Palestinian relations and Middle East affairs in the press, including The Washington Quarterly, Ha’aretz, The Jewish Quarterly, The Jerusalem Post, Foreign Policy Magazine, and The Daily Beast.

At Northeastern, Waxman will teach undergraduate and graduate courses on Israeli politics and society, the Arab-Israeli Conflict, Middle East politics, and international relations theory.