Doctoral Students
The central mission of the Schusterman Center is to promote exemplary teaching and scholarship in the field of Israel Studies. One pillar of this mission is nurturing the next generation of Israel scholars. To this end, the Center supports doctoral students enrolled in Brandeis University's Graduate School of Arts & Sciences whose research focuses on the modern State of Israel, in fields such as anthropology, history, sociology, politics, Middle East studies, Israeli art, literature and culture. These Schusterman Scholars, as our doctoral fellows are known, form a vital part of our intellectual community, alongside our core faculty and our visiting scholars and artists.
Want to join them? Learn about our doctoral fellowships and how you, too, can apply to be a Schusterman Scholar.
Our Current Schusterman Scholars
Skyler Inman is a PhD student in Anthropology. Her research interests include ethnicity and migration, nationalism and the self, as well as family, identity, and belonging. She has a BA in English from Yale University, and has previously worked as a journalist and radio producer. Her dissertation will look at the temporal experience of migration, bureaucracy, and everyday life amongst the Eritrean asylum-seeker community in Israel.
Gilli is a PhD student studying Modern Jewish History in the Department of Near Eastern & Judaic Studies. He is interested in the intellectual history of Zionism, Jewish communal politics in the modern period, and the ideological and institutional relationships between the World Zionist Congress and Jewish polities during the pre Israeli state period. He is particularly keen to investigate the role that Zionist leaders, thinkers, and institutions played in the development of a modern Jewish politics distinct from previous epochs. Before coming to Brandeis Gilli was a Netziv fellow at the Pardes Institute for Jewish Studies after receiving his MS (Master of Studies) from The University of Oxford, and his BA from McGill University.
Inbar Shifrin is a PhD student in Musicology. She has a BA in musicology, sociology and anthropology and an MA in musicology from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research involves the contemporary musical choices in synagogues and Jewish music renewal in Israel and their mutual relations with congregations in the US. Before coming to Brandeis she worked in the Music and Social Development Lab at Haifa University, where she conducted experiments regarding synchronization and its effect on group activities. She also led food tours in downtown Haifa. Her research interests include Voice communities, liturgical music, Jewish identity and gender relations and roles in the Jewish communities. She is interested, as well, in other factors contributing to the change in the objectives and content of the local Jewish prayer. For example, the current search for secular spiritual experiences as well as the rising popularity of religious pop music, when those Israeli trends and others challenge the binary categories of secular and sacred. She is also a Shofar blower and loves to give workshops on Shofar blowing.
Leighton Souza is a PhD student in the Department of Near Eastern & Judaic Studies (NEJS). With a lifelong passion for history, Leighton received her BA in history with a minor in Jewish studies at the University of CA, Santa Cruz and her MA in NEJS at Brandeis. Her research focuses on Mizrahi history in the late 20th century, particularly analyzing the state and social discrimination against Mizrahim in Israel. She will be focusing on Mizrahi resistance and agency in the face of oppression, namely the Israeli Black Panther Party, and researching the impact of communism and transnational politics. In her free time, Leighton enjoys reading for pleasure and digital and film photography.