Doctoral students

​Amir Schwarz Eisler

Amir is A doctoral student in the department of Politics and Government. His current research focuses on the effect of Neoliberalism on the Israeli public governance and the public’s ability to shape policy. Amir completed His M.A degree at the  Herman Institute of Contemporary J​ewry at the Hebrew University. His research examined the Privatization of Israeli immigration encouragement policies. Beyond academia, he is a private researcher for non-profits, companies and other organizations deal mainly with public policy, business development, education, and taxation. ​

Born in 1978, holds a B.A. in History from Tel Aviv University, M.A. in Latin American History, Tel Aviv University, graduate of the thesis completion course at the Department of Politics and Government, Ben Gurion University of the Negev. My thesis research focused on the commemoration of the 1948 War in Kibbutz Nirim, the formation of a unique local ethos and the interaction between national and local aspects within the local narrative. My doctoral research deals with the remembrance and commemoration of local battles that took place in five Negev kibbutzim, and seeks to examine issues such as peripheral and frontier identities, and local, regional and national identities within the kibbutz communities. It also aims to explore the local ethos as a means to cope with the kibbutzim's diminishing cultural, political and economic status in the national arena throughout the years.

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Aya Shoshan is a PhD candidate in the department of Politics and Government. She is interested in organizational structures and forms of decision-making in social movements. She uses sociological theories to explain differences between movements. Her current research focuses on the 15M movement in Spain and the social protests of summer 2011 in Israel.  She completed her B.A. at Yale University and her M.A. in the department of Politics and Government in Ben Gurion.

 

​Ayala Hendin

Ayala is a PhD candidate in the department of Politics and Government in Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Her PhD research deals with student composition diversity policies in higher education in Israel, focusing on the diversity perceptions, policies and practices, within the national, institutional and departmental arenas. Her research is supervised by Prof. Guy Ben-Porat and Dr. Yariv Feniger. Ayala holds a BA in International Relations and in Spanish and Latin-American Studies, and a MA in Public Policy, both from Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In her MA thesis, supervised be Dr. Anat Gofen, she researched the participation of Arab students in higher education in Israel

Curriculu​m Vitae​​   

My name is Ayala Paz and I'm a PhD student in the Politics and Government department in the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. My main interest is in Political Theory, Holocaust Memory and the ability of the individual to be a political agent in the modern world. I completed my M.A. in the department, and under the guidance of Dr. Becky kook I researched the contemplation of the political theorist, Hannah Arendt, focusing on the universal memory of the Holocaust and the need to learn lessons exceeding the solution of the Jewish problem. I offered an original reading of Hannah Arendt's book, Eichmann in Jerusalem, as an expression of her perception of the political sphere, the individual's mental and moral activity and totalitarian regimes, in accordance to the way she analyzed them in her book, The Origins of Totalitarianism.

My current research deals with the crisis of humanity in the modern era, according to Arendt's theory which originates in a sharp thinking crisis, and the strong interaction that exists in her theory between critical thought and a moral political action. The research focuses on the meaning and placement of the definition of "the dialogue" in the modern era, according to Arendt's theory, and the absence of the dialogue as a modern phenomenon which constitutes the essence of the crisis which befalls today's humanity. The concepts "Dialogue" and "Resistance" are in the core of the study, and they are discussed through their contemporary aspects, that are relevant to the political day by day existence in democratic societies in our time.

Curriculum ​Vitae​​   

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Debby Farber is a scholar and curator. Her PhD research in the department of Politics and Government in Ben Gurion, supervised by Prof. Haim Yaacobi and Dr. Michal Givoni
, concerns the performative practices of border in relation to archival images of the built landscape in the state of Israel, taken between 1949-1967. Debby is interested in the linkages between Visual Culture, History and Political Geography focusing on the visual historiography of Israel/Palestine. She completed her MA with distinction in the Cultural Studies Program from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and BA in Fine Arts from the Bezalel Academy for Arts and Design, Jerusalem.

Curriculum Vitae​

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Gita Kiper’s research deals with the connection between the political and therapeutical fields. Her research looks into the practice known as “Re-evaluation Counseling”, which offers a radical combination between p​sychology and politics through peer counseling. Gita holds a B.A (cum laude) in Psychology, Literature and Gender from Ben Gurion University, an M.A. in Clinical Psychology from Tel-Aviv University, and takes part in various activist organisations.

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Liat Milwidski is a PhD student in the Department of Politics and Government at the Ben Gurion University in the Negev. She has a BA from the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and the Department of International Relations and an MA with an honors scholarship from the Department of Sociology and Anthropology – all in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her MA thesis, supervised by Prof. Judith Shoval, analyzed the case of dual nurses who redefine the boundaries between conventional and alternative medicine. In her current PhD research, supervised by Profs. Dani Filc and Nadav Davidovich, she examines the boundary work between different types of knowledge and perceptions of risk in the case of mobile phones in Israel. At the same time, she coordinates research on Formulating Environmental and Health Policy under Conditions of Scientific Uncertainty, sponsored by the Environment and Health Fund. Liat is the secretary of the Israeli Sociology Society (ISS), co-edits its newsletter Sociology, and coordinates its Health and Medicine professional community. Over the past six years, she has also served as a teaching assistant in MA programs of family studies and organizational consulting and development, as well as the BA program of behavioral sciences at the College of Management – Academic Studies Division.

 

Naama is a doctoral student at the Department of Politics and Government at Ben Gurion University in Israel, and a visiting researcher at the Department of Anthropology, Archaeology and Sociology at James Cook University in Townsville. Naama holds an MA in Sociology and Anthropology from Tel Aviv University. Her thesis dealt with perceptions of sovereignty by two juxtaposed groups – settlers in the outpost Amona and demonstrators against the Separation Wall in Bil’in. Naama’s PhD research is a comparative study of indigenous mobilities to settler cities in Israel and Australia. After having completed her fieldwork in Israel, Naama is currently conducting a second period of field research in the city of Townsville in northern QLD. Alongside her studies Naama maintains strong ties to local civil societies; she is a human rights activist with extensive professional experience in non-governmental organizations.

 

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My PhD research is focused on independent migration of unaccompanied children and adolescents in Southern Africa. My main focal point is Zimbabwe as source and transit country for many migrants and asylum seekers. I'm interested in understanding the ways in which local perceptions of childhood and adolescence influence migration and the dynamic between these realities and international policy making.

 

 

​Omri Evron

Omri Evron is a PhD student in the Politics and Governance Department at Ben Gurion University. His research focuses on political theory and in particular the distributive justice discourse and Marxism, as well as Leftwing & party politics. His research question is " What is the treatment of relations of production within the platforms of current Center-Left and Left parties in Europe, and what does this treatment indicate regarding the current distributive justice discourse?". This research uses current political discussions in the European Left regarding relations of production in multiple spheres to develop the theoretical exchange between the distributive justice discourse and its Marxist critics, as well as critically examine proposed contemporary leftwing alternatives to neoliberalism. 

Other areas of interest include the modern political history of mainly Africa, the Middle East and Europe, critical pedagogy, game design and modern Marxist schools of thought, chiefly Social-Reproduction Feminism. The interplay and connections between theoretical research, education and social and political activism inform all three fields. 

​Ornit Avidar​

I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Politics and Government Department, African Studies. My interests are in water in rural Africa, sustainability of water projects and natural resources, the dynamics and discourse between society, natural resources and sustainability. My dissertation is titled:  The reasons for lack of sustainability in rural water projects in sub-Saharan Africa - The case of Siaya county, Kenya. Advisor, Prof Lynn Schler. In the last five years, I have been working on water issues in the continent and witnessed a vast amount of defunct water projects a source of much discouragement to villagers and an impediment to their wellbeing. This intrigued me to look for the reasonsfor this lack of sustainability. I am a former diplomat and former partner in a private equity fund and currently I spend the majority of my time on this research. 

​Rafael Barak

Rafael Barak is a PhD  student in the Department of Politics and Government at Ben-Gurion University . His research, under the direction of Prof. Sharon Pardo, seeks to understand the nature of Research and Development diplomacy and its contribution to advancing the relationship between Israel and the European Union as well as with other European countries.

Rafael earned a Bachelor in Arts Political Science at Tel-Aviv University and completed a Master in Arts degree in Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Rafael Barak is a retired Israeli Ambassador, at the end of a 40-year career at the Foreign Ministry, where he held many positions at home and abroad, including Director General of the Foreign Ministry, Ambassador to Canada, Deputy Chief of Mission in Washington DC ,Charge d' Affaires in France, Counselor in Brussels at the Israeli Mission to the European Community ,Deputy Chief of Mission to Belgium and Luxembourg,and First Secretary in Lima,Peru.

My primary researches are focusing on Latin America Jewry and the contemporary Jewish immigration to Israel from Latin America. The main interest I have concern with the production of collective identity of the Latin American migrants to Israel by the government but also from the migrants perspective as well. I also observe the social relation emerges from the encounter between the Latin migrants and other members from different social groups in Israel. Except of my research about contemporary immigration from Latin America, I am interesting in the history of Latin America Jewry and particularly its life under military, sometime anti-Semite, terror regime at the second half of the twentieth century.

In addition to my interests above I am currently participating in research about the separation wall/fence at the Israel-Palestine border. I mostly interest in the non-physical aspect of borders, meaning the social production and socialization processes of borders that justify its existence.

 

​Saron Bar David

Completed my Bachelor of Arts degree summa cum laude in a double major program, in the Department  of East Asian Studies and the Department of  Political Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI). Studied my Master of  arts degree in the Department of East Asian Studies at HUJI and at the Department of  Political Science at Jiaotong Shanghai. My thesis dealt with the influence of riots on local cadres' promotion in the Chinese Communist Party, ""Understanding the Chinese Political System: the Negative invectives of Cadres Promotion".

Currently I am a Phd candidate in the Department of Politics and Government at Ben-Gurion University, writing my dissertation on the impact of Chinese investments on Africa in various aspects. My advisors are Prof. Lynn Schler and Prof. Ian Taylor (University of St. Andrews, Edinburgh). Main fields of research and interest are: Chinese contemporary politics and bureaucracy, politics and economic policy of developing countries and Neo-Colonialism in Africa. 

​​Sharon Hajabi

Sharon Hajabi's research combines activism with academic research. She is a graduate of the Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yaffo (Behavioral Sciences - B. A) and a graduate of Tel Aviv University (Sociology and Anthropology – M.A). Today, she is a PhD student in the department of Politics and Government at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev .Her research focuses on Neo-liberalization of the Israeli higher education systemand the way in which this process shapes employment patterns, employee relations, and labor struggles. Sharon has been active in the field of organized work in the higher education system for the past five years.

Her interests include: Organizational Sociology,labor relations, protest culture, workers' struggles, and the higher education system in Israel.

​Shmuel Groag

Architect ,town planner and conservation consultant. The head of the Conservation Unit and the  Jerusalem  Built Heritage Workshop-at  the Department of Architecture at Bezalel,academy for art and design in Jerusalem . Graduated the Technion in Haifa 'finished his Msc at the LSE in London with merit.A founding member of Bimkom-"Planners for Planning Rights". His main fields deal with political and theoretical question regarding conservation in Israel and mainly Palestinian heritage in Israel. His Msc dealt with the heritagequestion of the destroyed Palestinian villages.  The subject of his research thesis is the heritage and conservation of Palestinian towns inside Israel, focusing on Jerusalem Boulevard in Jaffa. 

​Suliman Mahameed

I am a Ph.D. student in the Department of Politics and Government. I have completed my Master's degree in the Faculty of Medicine, School of Public Health, Tel Aviv University. My thesis was about evaluating the exposure of air pollution in the area of WadyAra: comparison to the Hadera region and to the standards. My Ph.D. dissertation would be about discrimination in health and environment policy between Jews and Arabs, in the objective and subjective levels, and its effect on the health of the Arab citizens of Israel – case study Um-Al-FAHEM region (northern triangle), Hadera region, and Hadera.

Tal Rippa is a Ph.D. student in the department of Politics and Government at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. In the past Tal has worked in the National Student Union (NUIS) as well as in the local student union of the University, holding the position of academic assistance manager. Today Tal works as the project coordinator of the international research network NEAREU, dedicated to the promotion of research on European higher education. Tal's research deals with the civic studies and history high school program in three conflict zones: Israel, Northern Ireland and the province of Quebec in Canada. His research examines the perceptions and misperceptions presented in the High School textbook towards Europe, the EU, and the EU member states.

 

Yair is a PhD. Student in the Department of Politics and Government, and researches conflict relations between different social groups, the state and its agents. His PhD research, advised by prof. Guy Ben-Porat, studies political violence between minority groups in Israel towards the security forces, and emphasizes on the explanations provided by the violent players to their own acts. He has an M.A. in Conflict Management from Ben Gurion University in the Negev, and, B.A. in Phycology from the Open University. 

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