Prof. Yael Hashiloni-Dolev, a faculty member in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, has been appointed Advisor to the President of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev for Gender Equity. She replaces Prof. Halleli Pinson upon her completion of a successful term.
Hashiloni-Dolev, a former journalist, holds a bachelor's degree in social work from Tel Aviv University. She completed her Master's in film and television studies at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Her doctoral dissertation on genetic testing and the issue of worthy life in Germany and Israel was conducted at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Tel Aviv University in collaboration with the University of Cologne in Germany.
Her research focuses on the interface between sociology, medicine, gender, bioethics, family, genetics and medical technologies. She has focused on many areas surrounding new reproductive technologies such as: prenatal genetic testing, sex-selection of the future child, post-humous reproduction
and egg freezing. In addition, she supervises a group of research students on issues of the beginning and end of life, surrogacy, abortion, contraception, and more.
"The diverse technologies allow me to ask sociological questions about the connection between science and society, about gender, about family, and about attitudes towards disability and health and illness," she explains. "In my work, I understood that what appears to be progressive and allowing choice or empowerment is often also a loss of freedom and that it is essential that the social sciences contribute to understanding the techno-scientific world, which has great advantages but also considerable dangers."
Hashiloni-Dolev served as co-president of the Israeli Society for the History, Philosophy and Sociology of Science, as a member of Israel's National Bioethics Council, and a member of the Gender Equality Committee at the Council for Higher Education.
Hashiloni-Dolev joined Ben-Gurion University about four years ago, and she already feels at home: "Over the years I have collaborated with many researchers from several departments and schools at Ben-Gurion University, all of whom are first-rate scholars, and people with great social commitment."
