Dr Benina Gould

Dr Benina Gould received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology. She was awarded a Carnegie Fellowship at the Belfer Center for International Studies at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and grants from the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, UC Berkeley, Fetzer Foundation and the International Abrahamic Network.  She is former Director of the Social Transformation Program at Saybook University in Oakland, California and is presently the Co-Director of the Trauma Certificate as part of the Psychology program and Social Transformation Concentration. Benina was a visiting scholar at the University of California, International and Area Studies. To better understand the next generation of Islamic youth, Benina has completed a research study with her colleagues in Indonesia entitled “Accessing Global Information: The Muslim Youth Internet Survey on the use of the Internet for Current Islamic and Non-Islamic Issues.” This research examined the stereotype that  “Madrassas are the breeding grounds for fundamentalism” and included Islamic communities in California and Pakistan as well as Indonesia.  Her present work on “Religious Based Peace Education” is a long  term program with the “International Abrahamic Network” a Trac 2 project at the Center for Theory and Research at Esalen Institute. As part of this she has developed the “Student Religion/Pluralism Survey” that seeks to understand the role of religion in the daily lives of high school students both at school, with their friends, in their families and during a Political Crises. This has been completed in Indonesia, Muenster, Germany, Pakistan and Oakland, CA, both in religious and secular schools. The last part of this project is facilitating the translation of a “Peace Education on Islamic Base” textbook that was developed by her colleagues in Indonesia for Muslim students, and will be adapted with other global textbooks and programs for use in schools and among interfaith groups.