Colter Louwerse, a former political science undergrad at UFV, recently completed his PhD in Palestine Studies in October of 2022. According to Adam Magalhães, Louwerse is officially the second UFV student to attain a PhD in political science — a large note of celebration being that the major has only existed since 2010.
With that said, Louwerse’s journey has awarded his passion in the field, stating that he is “immensely grateful to the political science department at UFV, because in applying for MA programs, I had a lot of support in that process, and where I ended up going was to the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom for a one year MA program in Middle East and Islamic Studies.”
As an undergrad, his career incentives truly began in 2014 after witnessing the political climate in the Middle East. “In 2014, the State of Israel launched against the Gaza Strip what was at that time called Operation Protective Edge, [killing] about 2500 people, 500 children, and so on. And for the first time, my interest was piqued by that region of the world.”
“I was just doing things on my own.” Louwerse continued on, detailing how his interests evolved over time, partly due to his own readings. “Part of the reason why I was so drawn to the topic was that what was presented as the truth about Israel/Palestine by popular Canadian media, as well as you know, popular American media, clashed so fundamentally with what I was reading in the academic literature — that the academic literature was much more critical of the creation of the State of Israel — of Israel’s historic policies towards the Palestinian people than was being represented in popular consciousness, so to speak.”
After coming into contact with Dr. Ron Dart, a professor in political science at UFV, Louwerse’s passion flourished with the guidance and mentorship needed to continue his studies. “Ron, he served as part of Amnesty International, the famed human rights organization that won a Nobel Peace Prize in the 1970s. He allowed me to attend some of his upper level political science classes, and to write essays specifically on this question that I was interested in. The Palestine issue… in the process, beginning to do my own research with Ron in the UFV political science department, I gained a real passion for it, and that drove me eventually in 2015 to go visit Israel and Palestine [and] the Palestinian occupied territories.”
“You can only learn so much from a novel or academic research,” Louwerse explained, separating academic experience from the physical experiences he was witness to while in Palestine. “There’s certain realities that, until you come face-to-face with them, you’re not really going to fully appreciate, and for me, when it came to Palestine, it was definitely that trip that really cemented my interest for the long term.”
“I really can’t stress enough how thankful I am for my time at the UFV political science department. Many of the professors who really shaped my understanding of the United Nations, my understanding of what was happening in Palestine and the broader Middle East are still teaching at UFV and it’s been really great to reconnect with them.”
