Alyssa G. Bernstein, PhD, JD

Author of Palestinian Political Organizations in Israeli Prisons, out now from Oxford University Press.

I am an attorney and scholar studying confrontation in politically prisons.
My work is interdisciplinary, drawing on fields ranging from international relations, to prison sociology, to theories of how social movements disintegrate.
National and religious identity, group cohesion, and even the prison canteen reflect and more importantly affect national and international politics. I study these dynamics by looking closely at prisons in societies in conflict.
Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Former Visiting Scholar at the Institute of Criminology, Cambridge University, Münster University Peace Research Prize recipient, and Adjunct Lecturer at Georgetown University.
Palestinian Political Organizations in Israeli Prisons, my book on Palestinian prisoners, looks at united actions and schisms among Palestinians in Israeli prisons from 1967-2016. It is a close academic examination of the forms of power and resistance within prison under the pressures of external political transformation.
Other empirical and theoretical work on resistance in prison include a project titled *Release, Rehabilitation, Recompense: Palestinian Prisoners’ Influence on Domestic and International Negotiations*. I also research Israeli hostage-prisoner release negotiations between Israel, the Palestinian Liberation Organization, and Hamas.
As an attorney, I work in national security and international disputes, including federal litigation, investigations, and transnational corporate and individual legal violations. My pro bono and service work has included work within the criminal justice system, on behalf of victims of international conflict, incarcerated peoples’ issues and release, asylum, veterans’ benefits, free and fair elections, and criminal defense.

My PhD in Law is from Queen’s University of Belfast and my JD is from Harvard Law School. I am a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the Law & Society Association, the Rebel Governance Network, and the Global Prison Research Network.

All opinions and posts on this site are my own, independent of my legal work, and do not express or reflect opinions of my employers, past or current.

Curriculum Vitae

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Author of Palestinian Political Organizations in Israeli Prisons, out now from Oxford University Press.

I am an attorney and scholar studying confrontation in politically prisons.

My work is interdisciplinary, drawing on fields ranging from international relations, to prison sociology, to theories of how social movements disintegrate.

National and religious identity, group cohesion, and even the prison canteen reflect and more importantly affect national and international politics. I study these dynamics by looking closely at prisons in societies in conflict.

Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Former Visiting Scholar at the Institute of Criminology, Cambridge University, Münster University Peace Research Prize recipient, and Adjunct Lecturer at Georgetown University.

My PhD in Law is from Queen’s University of Belfast and my JD is from Harvard Law School. I am a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the Law & Society Association, the Rebel Governance Network, and the Global Prison Research Network.