Crossing Borders

Christa Bruhn is an American author, photographer, and culinary artist with a lifelong passion for peace and justice. She is the daughter of a German immigrant raised under Nazi Germany who spent his post-war life befriending those his fatherland sought to destroy. Through her father's own curiosity to explore his divided homeland as a professor of German, Christa was able to spend time on both sides of the Iron Curtain to witness the dual narrative of one nation.Growing up in the city of Detroit following the rebellion of 1967, which left the city in economic and social disparity, Christa witnessed the hypocrisy of the American national narrative for indigenous peoples and people of color in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. Over her lifetime, Christa has witnessed hopeful change with the fall of the Berlin Wall, reconciliation in South Africa and Northern Ireland, and increased awareness and understanding of racial injustice and inequality in the US.Christa's journey to Israel and Palestine at the height of the Cold War sparked her passion for making a difference in the lives of the Palestinian people fragmented across the globe due to the dispossession of their homeland through the Zionist movement's reconfiguration of Palestine into the State of Israel. As the mother of three Palestinian Americans, Christa's hope is that Jewish Israelis and Palestinians can create a common narrative that honors the tragedies and transgressions of their unique historical experiences so that both peoples can live a life of dignity in a place they call home.Christa holds a bachelor's degree in International Studies from the University of Michigan-Dearborn, a master's degree from the Center for Middle Eastern & North African Studies at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, and a doctorate in Educational Leadership & Policy Analysis from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has studied Spanish, French, Russian, Hebrew, and Arabic. Christa has published academic work on Palestine, peace education, and diversity and led and participated in roundtables on the future of Israel and Palestine. She splits her time between her home in Madison, Wisconsin, and among her extended family in the farming village of Jalameh, Palestine.See https: //christabruhn.com/ for more information.