Graduate Seminars

Schusterman scholars and visiting academics participate in monthly talks on topics related to Israel Studies.


Spring 2009

  • Civil-Military Relations in Israel: A New Perspective
  • Current State of Journalism in Israel
  • Politics of Belonging
  • Framing the Druze Question: A Unique Minority in the Jewish State

Fall 2008

  • Being Indian – Being Israeli: Ethnicity and Identity among Indian Jews in Israel
  • Immigration, Writing and Identity
  • Secular but Illiberal? Paradoxes of Israeli Democracy
  • Civil Society: The Missing Link in Israel Studies

Spring 2008

  • Israeli Diplomacy and Diaspora Communities 1948-1957
  • Nationalism, Religion and the Breakdown of the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process
  • Who Will Build the Third Temple: Jewish Fundamentalism and the Temple Mount
  • Theology of the Disengagement: Rabbinical Response to a Crisis of Faith
  • Bi-Nationalism: Nation-State Creation or Intellectual Framework
  • From Mizrahiyut to Sephardiyut: The Construction of a New Political Subject

Schusterman Scholars

Ofir AbuOfir Abu, Politics

A PhD candidate in the Politics Department, Ofir graduated from Tel Aviv University with a BA (magna cum laude) in Political Science and Sociology & Anthropology and an MA (magna cum laude) in Political Science. His dissertation explores the relationship between multiculturalism and democratic governance in divided societies. His work has been presented at several professional conferences in Israel and the US. He was awarded the Koren Prize for best student essay on Israeli politics and the Best Presentation Award at the Israeli Graduate Conference in Political Science.

 

guy abutbul Guy Abutbul, Sociology

Guy's dissertation explores Jewish and Israeli art and their contribution to Israeli women's self-perception. He examines the relationship between art and women's identities in Yad Vashem. In examining the different ways Jewish women are portrayed in the museum's exhibits (sculptures, paintings and photographs) he will suggest possible sociological explanations for these representations.

 

zeynep civcik

Zeynep Civcik, NEJS

A third-year PhD student in the NEJS department, Zeynep has been interested in Israeli foreign and security policies for many years. In 2003-2004 she conducted a research project at the Moshe Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University and wrote a thesis about the changes and continuities of Israeli security policy. For her dissertation, she would like to undertake a comparative study of the role of the military in the foreign policies of Turkey and Israel.

 

Ehud Eiran

Ehud Eiran, Politics

Ehud hopes to place Israel scholarship in a comparative context and to generate insights and interpretations that will serve scholars and the broader public. Indeed he has already had the chance to do so in a number of media outlets including News Hour with Jim Lehrer and Al-Jazeera. His dissertation compares the Israeli settlement project to three other post-WWII settlement projects.

 

rachel fish

Rachel Fish, NEJS

Rachel is a fourth-year doctoral candidate in the NEJS department. Israel Studies provides the academic framework for her to engage in the studies of Middle East history and memory, as well as Zionist history and thought. Her dissertation examines the concept of bi-nationalism from pre-1948 Israel to contemporary discourse, how the idea has evolved, and the transmission of the idea within societies.

 

eric fleisch

Eric Fleisch, NEJS

Eric's dissertation topic is in the field of NGOs and civil society in Israel-Diaspora relations. He will look at the way American Jewish advocacy agendas and fundraising networks have influenced the debate and activity amongst their counterparts in the rapidly expanding Israeli third sector. Some case studies may include settlement, liberal religious movements and the changing nature of orthodox influence in Israeli civil law.

 

randy gellerRandy Geller, NEJS

Randy is currently researching and writing his doctoral dissertation on the Druze and other minorities in the Israel Defense Forces between 1948 and 1957. He has taught about Zionism and Israel in various English-speaking venues in Jerusalem and taught Israel and Middle Eastern History courses at US high schools.

 

Susanna Klosko, NEJSSusanna Klosko

Susanna graduated from the College of William and Mary in 2006 with a major in History and a minor in Russian and Post-Soviet Studies.  After spending a year in Hungary and then a year in Israel, she's developed a special interest in the ideological views of the Russian Zionists, and the confrontation between these views and the conditions of everyday life in Ottoman Palestine.

Laura Ligouri, AnthropologyLaura Ligouri

As a third-year doctoral candidate in the Anthropology department, Laura has been interested in the intersection of Anthropology and Near Eastern Studies for many years. Her work examines the ways in which Israeli and Palestinian theatre influence the social fabric of the region as both forms of cultural production as well as grassroots methods of conflict management while simultaneously addressing trauma and the development of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) within participating populations.

shay rabineau

Shay Rabineau, NEJS

Shay's doctoral studies are on the modern Middle East with a focus on Israel. He is a National Merit Scholar and award-winning writer, proficient in both Hebrew and Arabic. He earned his BA from the University of Oklahoma in 2003, where he majored in English Writing and minored in Middle East History. With the advent of the Schusterman Center, he believes a gap is being filled and hopes to not only benefit from the program but contribute to its growth and development.

 

joseph ringelJoseph Ringel, NEJS

Joseph is a doctoral candidate at Brandeis' Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies and a rabbinical student at Yeshiva University. His dissertation focuses on Shas, the Orthodox Sephardic political party that has played a central role in reviving Sephardic Judaism in Israel. He plans to reveal the variety of Sephardic religious voices that are represented within the Shas school system and to dispel the common view of Sephardic Judaism and Shas as monolithic entities.