Dr. Marik Shtern is an urban-political geographer focusing on divided cities and the relations between groups in the space. At the Van Leer Institute he is leading a study of Jewish-Arab relations and the question of shared living after October 7.

Dr. Shtern is a senior lecturer and head of the Urban Living and Society area in the Architecture Department of the Sami Shamoon College of Engineering. Among his research topics are shared Israeli and Palestinian spaces in Jerusalem, comparative studies of urban planning, and relations between groups in Jerusalem, Nicosia, Belfast and Berlin.