Maya
Fennig

Dr. Maya Fennig is a new faculty member in the Bob Shapell School of Social Work at Tel Aviv University. Her research lies in two independent yet inter-related areas of well-being.

The first concerns cross-cultural mental health, exploring how sociocultural contexts shape individuals’ mental health. The second focuses on the psychosocial consequences of exposure to adversity and forced migration on children, youth, and families. As an Azrieli Fellow, Maya will use interviews, focus groups, and innovative arts- based methods – storytelling, drawing, drama and spoken word – in her ethnographic research.

Through these methods, Maya will explore the ways in which protracted displacement unfolds in the lives of war-affected refugee children residing in Italy and shapes their identity, sense of belonging, rights, citizenship, mental health, well-being, and imagined futures.

Her research will be part of a multi-site, multi-year study which will allow Maya and her colleagues to explore protracted displacement in diverse conditions, including reception centres in Italy, urban communities in Israel, and refugee camps and makeshift squats in Greece.

Maya completed her PhD at McGill University’s School of Social Work under the supervision and mentorship of Prof. Myriam Denov. In her dissertation, she explored Eritrean refugees’ interpretations of the effects of trauma, torture, loss, and protracted displacement, as well as their subsequent coping strategies. Maya has worked with non-governmental organizations in both Israel and Canada to promote the health and rights of refugees, for which she received numerous awards including the Jeanne Sauvé Public Leadership Fellowship, and the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship. After living in Montreal for almost a decade, Maya recently moved back to Tel Aviv, where she lives with her partner and two young daughters.