Robert A. Rubinstein is Professor of
Anthropology and International Relations at the Maxwell School of
Syracuse University Syracuse University. Office: 405A Maxwell Hall. Phone:
443-3837. E-mail: rar@syr.edu
From July 1994-June 2005 he directed the
Program on the Analysis and Resolution of Conflicts at the Maxwell School.
Rubinstein is an anthropologist with
expertise in political and medical anthropology and in social science history
and research methods. He received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the State
University of New York at Binghamton in 1977. He received a master’s degree
in public health from the University of Illinois in Chicago in 1983.
Rubinstein has conducted overseas research in
urban and rural Egypt, where he lived from 1988-1992, and in Belize and
Mexico. In the United States, he has conducted research in Atlanta, Chicago,
and Syracuse.
In political anthropology, Rubinstein’s
work focuses on cross-cultural aspects of conflict and dispute resolution,
including negotiation, mediation and consensus building. He is a founder of
the field of the anthropology of peacekeeping. Since 1985, he has conducted
empirical research and policy studies in this field. He examines the ways that
the success of peace operations depend upon cultural considerations, and how
organizational and institutional cultures can facilitate or frustrate
coordination in peace operations. Rubinstein has collaborated on policy
applications of his work with the International Peace Academy, the United
Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations, and the United States Army
Peacekeeping Institute.
As a medical anthropologist, Rubinstein
focuses on conflict and health, disparities in access to health care and the
implications of those disparities for the health of populations, and on the
integration of qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. He has
developed community-based health interventions in Egypt and Atlanta.
Rubinstein has collaborated on health policy issues with the American Academy
of Pediatrics, the Carter Center, the Georgia Department of Physical Health,
and the Onondaga County Health Department.
Rubinstein’s work has been supported by
grants from over twenty foundations and agencies, including: The Ford
Foundation, the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, the National Institutes of
Mental Health, the Ploughshares Fund, The United States Institute of Peace,
the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, and the William T.
Grant Foundation.
Rubinstein has published more than fifty-five
articles in journals and books and is author or editor of seven books and
research monographs. His books include: Science as Cognitive
Process: Towards an Empirical Philosophy of Science (University of
Pennsylvania Press, 1984); Peace and War: Cross-Cultural Perspectives (Transaction
Books, 1986), The Social Dynamics of Peace and Conflict (Kendall/Hunt,
1997), and Doing Fieldwork: The Correspondence of Robert Redfield and Sol
Tax (Transaction Books, 2001).
In 1983, Rubinstein was a founding member of
the Commission on Peace and Human Rights of the International Union of
Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences. He is co-chair of the commission,
and from 2000--2004 he was editor of the commission’s official journal,
Social Justice: Anthropology, Peace and Human Rights.
Rubinstein received the 2000 Edward
Weisband Distinguished Alumni Award for Public Service or Contributions to
Public Affairs (State University of New York at Binghamton), the 1997 25th Anniversary Class Distinguished Alumni Award (State
University of New York at Oswego), and gave the 1995 with the Hardy Lecture in
Scholarship and Public Interest (Hartwick College).
Rubinstein is a member of the board of
directors of the Ploughshares Fund. He consults and lectures widely, both domestically and abroad.
