Graduate Seminars

Visiting scholars enhance academic life with bi-monthly seminars.

Spring 2012

  • Tsafrir Goldberg: The Politics and Practice of Israeli High School History Curriculum about the Jewish-Arab Conflict
  • Eitan Bar-Yosef: Cry, The Beloved Country - Blackface, Mimicry, and Ethnicity in the Israeli Theater of the 1950s
  • Oded Haklai: Palestinian Ethnonationalism in Israel
  • Rivka Neriya Ben-Shahar: The Creation of a New Women's Religious Culture: An Integrated Perspective

  • Eric Fleisch: American Jewish Philanthropy to Israel in the Post-UJA Era

  • Efraim Inbar: The Arab Uprising and Israel

  • Abigail Jacobson: Wallahi, al-Umma Matat...": The Ihsan Tourjman Diary as Source for Study of Jerusalem during WWI

  • David Jacobson: The Emergence of Talmudic Legends in Contemporary Israeli Culture

Click here for seminar topics in previous semesters.

Doctoral Students

Although the Schusterman Center is not a degree-granting institution, it supports GSAS doctoral students whose dissertation research focuses on Israel. These Schusterman Scholars are part of the intellectual hub of students, faculty and visiting scholars that make up the Center.

Click here for information on how to apply.

Scroll below for profiles of our current Schusterman Scholars.
 

 

Ofir Abu

Ofir Abu, Politics

Ofir is completing his dissertation in the Politics Department: "Protest Policing and Ethnic Conflict in Israel, 1990-2000." He has written the following chapters in recent publications: All that is Left - The Demise of the Zionist Left Parties 1992-2009; and Citizenship, Identity and Ethnic Mobilization in Israel

 

Aviv Ben-Or, NEJSAviv Ben-Or

Aviv is interested in Hebrew literature and the Jewish literary tradition in a broad sense, ranging from the medieval period to modern times, with a focus on Jewish communities in North Africa and the Middle East. Proficient in Hebrew and entering his third year of Arabic, he is particularly interested in examining the works of contemporary Israeli authors of Sephardi and Mizrahi background.

 

zeynep civcik

Zeynep Civcik, NEJS

In 2003-2004 Zeynep 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 is undertaking a comparative study of the role of the military in the foreign policies of Turkey and Israel.

 

rachel fish

Rachel Fish, NEJS

Rachel's 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 "The State of the American Jewish Philanthropic Partnership: a Case-Based Analysis" is nearing completion in 2012. It looks 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.

 

mostafa hussein Mostafa Hussein, NEJS

Having received an MA degree from Al Azhar University in Cairo, in Islamic Studies in Israel, Mostafa intends to broaden the outlook on Islamic Scholarly works conducted by Israeli scholars and on their connection to the Western oriental studies carried out by Jewish researchers. Aside from his native Arabic language - colloquial Egyptian and Classical Arabic - he speaks Hebrew and German.

 

Matthew Iannucci, PoliticsMatthew Ianucci

Matthew plans to examine political discourse in Israeli society, and Israeli national identity. His The ‘Duality of Structure’ Between the IDF and Israeli Society: The Influence of the Peace Movement was published in the Journal of Near and Middle Eastern Studies in 2010.

 

Susanna Klosko, NEJSSusanna Klosko

After spending a year in Hungary and then a year in Israel, Susanna 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

Laura's 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.

ari moshkovskyAri Moshkovski, NEJS

A student of Israeli and Middle Eastern history and politics, Ari's research interests focus on the roles of security, religion and nationalism in Arab-Israeli relations. He holds a BA (Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa) and an MA from Queens College, CUNY. Ari co-founded the Queens College Center for Ethnic, Racial and Religious Understanding, funded by a US Department of Education grant.

 

Jason Olson, NEJSJason Olson

Jason completed his undergraduate degree (cum laude) in Hebrew Bible, and is planning to build on that knowledge by studying how religious Zionism affects politics in Israel and the greater Middle East.  He is particularly interested in the development of the US-Israel military alliance.

 

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 is spending the 2011-12 academic year in Israel researching the Israel trail network.

 

Gangzheng She

Gangzheng She, NEJS

A native speaker of Mandarin, Gangzheng's language skills include both modern and biblical Hebrew, Arabic and Cantonese. He intends to study Israeli society and Jewish civilization, examining Israel's multi-ethnic and transitional society through a socio-political comparison with other countries in the region.

 

Ruben Shimonov, NEJSRuben Shimonov

Ruben hopes to further his understanding of the political, linguistic and socio-cultural dynamics of the Jewish world and the broader Near East, particularly by pursuing a historical and contemporary study of Mizrahi Jews. Using quantitative and qualitative methods, he intends to conduct comparative research to understand the experiences of these communities in Israel and the U.S. His language skills include Hebrew, Arabic, Persian and Russian. 

 

karen spira

Karen Spira, NEJS

Karen will examine the reconstruction of Jewish family life in Israel among young Holocaust survivors, focusing on a group of child survivors from Slovakia and surrounding areas. She is particularly interested in strategies for effective Holocaust education. Karen’s languages include Hebrew, German and Spanish; she plans to pursue Yiddish and Czech/Slovak, to facilitate her research in Israel and Europe.

Click here for updates on Schusterman Scholars that have completed their doctoral degrees.