Curriculum Vitae

 

 

Higher Education

Ph.D. Social-cultural anthropology, Boston University, 2000

          Department of Anthropology, University of Rochester, 1994-1995

 

MA     Social-cultural anthropology, University of Haifa, 1994

 

BA     Sociology, Arabic language and literature, Hebrew University, 1987

 

 

Employment

 

2000                   Post-Doctoral Fellow at Tel Aviv University                      

2001                   Lecturer, University of Haifa

2008                   Senior Lecturer, University of Haifa

 

 

Ongoing Research

 

I did ethnographic fieldwork in two urban communities of Palestinian citizens of Israel, in 1993-1994 and in 1997-99. Since 2003 I have engaged in a series of studies, using mixed methodology, on a range of economic empowerment schemes for low-income women of diverse ethnic and national backgrounds in Israel. My theoretical focus has been the intersections of gender and power, and their various ramifications. Thematicaly, my writings have addressed the following topics:

• Feminine and masculine identities
•  Articulations of national and gender subordinations
•  Women, work and citizenship
•  Sexualities
• Collective identities
• Civil society, consumption, and urban experience
•  Action research

I am particularly interested in the gaps between formal and practical (embodied) knowledge, and the dialectics of social reproduction and social change that such gaps facilitate.

 

Current Research Projects 
 

2010 -- Member of a research group on "women's organizations in Israel's civic space", supported by the Van-Leer Institute. This group project attempts to conduct an integrative study of women's citizenship that includes structural, institutional, historical and cultural dimensions. Within this joint venture, my work on women in economic empowerment projects (see below) focuses on culturally-mediated processes of feminine neo-liberal subject-making.

2010-- Action research, with Nisreen Mazzawi, in an empowerment project of Bedouin women in Galillee, carreid out by al-tufula, Nazareth, who also invited the study.

2009 -- Women, work and citizenship: the quest for inclusion from the margins. This project, which is supported by a three-year Israel Science Foundation grant, focuses on the work experiences of low-income Jewish and Arab women in Israel. Alongside the women's own efforts to acquire the skills that would facilitate their civic inclusion, I look at the structural dynamics of the field of community economic development, where NGOs, state and municipal agencies, and various financial bodies collaborate in attempts to empower such women.

2009-- Collaborative research with Dalit Simchai and Alisa Lewin on attitudes toward feminism among students in Israel. This is part of my ongoing study of inter-generational relations within the feminist movement. The first phase, conducted with Sigal Gooldin, looked at young activists at the core of the movement. The present phase looks at the second tier of exposure to feminism, through academic studies.

 

 Other recent Projects

2002-2006, longitudinal evaluation research of a micro-enterprise project among low-income women of diverse ethnic and national backgrounds in Israel, sponsored by Israel's National Insurance Institute.  

2009 Attitudes toward feminism among students in the northern periphery of Israel (with Dalit Simchai). This research is a second tier in my ongoing exploration of the influence of Israeli feminism on the younger generation. The first tier, with Sigal Gooldin, focused on self-declared activists within the movement (2005-2006).

2004-2005, a collaborative research project with Dalia Sachs and Sarai Aharoni on the impact of the armed conflict on women of a variety of ethnic and national backgrounds in Israel. This research was initiated as part of an effort to promote the implementation, in Israel, of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on gender mainstreaming of the management of armed conflicts and peace negotiations. Preliminary findings were presented to the UN, at the 49^th meeting of the CSW (Beijing +10), March 2005. 

 

 

 

Fellowships and Grants

 

2010-2011   Van Leer research-group grant “Women’s NGOs in Israel’s Civil Scape”.  
2009-2011   Israel Science Foundation three-year grant

2002-2005   Israel's National Insurance Institute three-year evaluation research fund

2000            Tel Aviv University Post Doctoral Fellowship

1997-1998   Lady Davis Graduate Fellowship at the Hebrew University

1997-1998   Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research

 

 

Membership in Academic Associations

 

Israeli Anthropological Association

Israeli Sociological Association

American Anthropological Association

 

Membership in Grassroots Associations

 

Isha-L-Isha, Haifa Feminist Center

 

 

Offices in University Academic Administration

 

2011-                  
BA coordinator, Dept. of Soc. and Anth., Haifa U
2008-                  
Head of anthropology program, Dept. and Soc. and    Anthro., Haifa U
2001-2004, 2011-12
Organizer of the Anthropological Forum @ the Sociology and Anthropology Department, Haifa U

 

 

 

Scholarly Activities Outside the University

Representative in Academic Committees

 

2001-2006, 2011-              Representative of the University of Haifa in the organizing committee of the Annual conference of the Israeli Anthropological Association

 

 

Referee in Academic Journals

 

Journal of Anthropological Research
International Journal of Middle East Studies

Sex Roles

American Ethnologist 

Ethos

Anthropological Quarterly

Cultural Anthropology

American Journal of Sociology            

Gender & Society           

J. of Historical Sociology 

Hagar                            

Theory and Criticism      

Israeli Sociology             

 

 

 

Referee in Other Forums      

 

Israel Ministry of Science

Israel Science Foundation
Bi-National Science Foundation

The Open University                

Floersheimer Institute              

U of Haifa Publishing, Bahat Award Competition

 

External Judge of a PhD Dissertation and MA theses

 

MA Theses

Technion, Dept. of Architecture and Urban Studies

Tel Aviv University

U of Haifa History Dept.

 

 

Ph.D Dissertations

The Hebrew University

Ben-Gurion University