Tomer Amit

Tomer Amit is a PhD candidate in the Department of Molecular Chemistry and Materials Science at the Weizmann Institute of Science under the supervision of Dr. Sivan Refaely-Abramson. Tomer uses theoretical computational approaches to study excitons, particles formed in semiconducting materials upon interaction with light.

By developing and solving quantum mechanical equations, he calculates the properties of solid materials which include structural complexities, such as defects in the periodic crystal lattice. Tomer predicts and explains properties and experimental measurements of the light–matter interactions in real materials, specifically in two-dimensional materials where the electric and optical properties are particularly intriguing.

His research focuses on tracking the real-time dynamics of the particles that build the material due to interactions with other particles. The materials under study can be used for applications in solar energy conversion and quantum information technologies and for quantum computing.

Tomer grew up in Ganey Hadar and currently lives in Tel Aviv. He obtained a BSc in chemistry at Tel Aviv University, after which he pursued an MSc in chemistry at the Weizmann Institute of Science and continued to a direct PhD track. He volunteers at 180 Degrees, a social organization which works to integrate people with different types of special needs in sports. In his free time, Tomer enjoys cooking, practicing Pilates, and trail running.

/by

Tamar Luster

Tamar Luster is a PhD candidate in the Zvi Meitar Center for Advanced Legal Studies of the Buchmann Faculty of Law at Tel Aviv University under the supervision of Prof. Eliav Lieblich.

Her research explores the systematic denial of basic needs from civilians in armed conflicts – a phenomenon she has termed “deprivation atrocities.”

Despite deprivation leading to huge numbers of civilian casualties, public international law has sidelined the issue, and relevant legal norms reveal significant shortcomings. Tamar’s research examines the doctrinal and theoretical reasons for this neglect, drawing normative insights from the efforts of civil society organizations. As the topic remains under- researched, Tamar hopes to fill this scholarly gap by conceptualizing deprivation more holistically and reigniting a pressing debate: do we need more, and perhaps different, laws to counter deprivation, or is the law part of the problem?

Tamar, a mother of two, grew up in Arad and currently lives in Tel Aviv. She completed her LLM at Columbia University in the City of New York, where she was awarded the James Kent Scholar honour and a Human Rights LLM Fellowship. She obtained an LLB (magna cum laude) at Tel Aviv University and an MA in international development (summa cum laude) at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Tamar is a lawyer and has worked extensively on social and economic rights and humanitarian law in both governmental and non-governmental bodies. She is currently co- teaching a workshop on transitional justice in Tel Aviv University’s Buchmann Faculty of Law with Prof. Leora Bilsky. In her free time, Tamar plays the piano, hikes, and loves reading and writing. Her book of poetry, Executor, was published in 2017 by the Bialik Institute.

/by

Tal Yehezkely

Tal Yehezkely is a PhD student in the Program of Comparative Literature of the School of Cultural Studies at Tel Aviv University under the joint supervision of Prof. Galili Shahar (Tel Aviv University) and Dr. Chiara Caradonna (Hebrew University of Jerusalem).

Tal examines expressions of smell in Hebrew and Italian literature and explores the intersections between the sensory, the literary, and the political.

Her research focuses on Hebrew and Italian literary texts that react to social and political conflicts. Given the difficulty of expressing smell in words, Tal traces the diverse creative strategies through which writers have overcome this challenge. She also explores how smell is used to express various forms of otherness, be it ethnic, political, or gendered. Her research is interdisciplinary and combines comparative literature, critical theory, and critical phenomenology along with scientific findings. Tal hopes to articulate the potential of smell for both political and literary theory through the very challenges it presents.

Tal grew up in Jerusalem and moved to Tel Aviv for her studies. She worked as a journalist for GLZ radio, covering religious, immigration, and legal affairs. She obtained her MA in the Adi Lautman Interdisciplinary Program at Tel Aviv University, where she wrote her thesis in philosophy on the theory and poetics of smell. Tal co-coordinates the humanities program of the Polyphony Foundation for young Jewish and Arab musicians and the interdisciplinary research group, The Sense of Smell. She has taught courses in philosophy and literature in both academic institutions and high school programs and completed a year-long research fellowship at Yale University. Tal is a translator of Italian theory and poetry and a cat lover. She is devoted to the promotion of humanities as a tool for social change.

/by

Shada Kashkoush

Shada Kashkoush is a PhD student in the School of Education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem under the joint supervision of Dr. Yuliya Lipshits-Braziler and Prof. Ruth Butler.

Shada researches adaptive and maladaptive facets of career decisional procrastination.

Procrastination in educational and career decision-making is a common behaviour that is widely considered undesirable. Shada aims to refine a novel theoretical framework for describing the causes of procrastination in career decision-making and to test this framework empirically using the Career Decisional Procrastination (CDP) questionnaire that she is developing. Her research also seeks to explore the adaptive nature of the causes of career decisional procrastination. Shada hopes that her research findings will help facilitate career decision-making among individuals who are contemplating their next career move.

Shada grew up in Kfar Yasif. She obtained a BA in psychology at the University of Haifa and an MA in educational and clinical child psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is currently finishing her specialization in educational psychology. She has been involved in several voluntary activities and received three awards from the Hebrew University in recognition of her volunteer work. Nowadays, she volunteers as a psychologist. In her free time, she enjoys travelling, watching movies, and spending time with her family and friends.

/by

Sapir Weitz Sobelman

Sapir Weitz Sobelman is a PhD student in the Department of Physics at Bar-Ilan University under the supervision of Prof. Beena Kalisky.

Sapir’s research focuses on the relationship between magnetism and unconventional superconductivity.

She performs local sensitive magnetic measurements using a scanning SQUID technique on various materials systems such as Van der Waals materials, Kagome lattice structures, and Josephson junction arrays. Sapir aims to utilize the high sensitivity of the scanning SQUID system to provide valuable insights into these complex systems and their quantum behaviour. By gaining a better understanding of non-trivial superconductivity and finding ways to control it, Sapir hopes that her research will contribute to advancing quantum technology.

Sapir grew up in Eshchar, a small community village in central Galilee, and currently lives with her husband and daughter in Givat Shmuel. She was attracted to science and driven to better understand the universe around us from a young age. She obtained her BSc in Physics at Bar-Ilan University and continued on to an MSc under the supervision of Prof. Kalisky. In parallel to her academic path, Sapir has always strived to contribute to society through diverse volunteering initiatives. From an early age, she was active in the scouts and volunteered at the local library. She currently takes part in social initiatives, including encouraging young girls to study science. In her free time, she enjoys being with family and friends, travelling, and reading.

/by

Orly Shapira

Orly Shapira is a PhD candidate in the Jamie and Joan Constantiner School of Education at Tel Aviv University under the supervision of Prof. Fadia Nasser Abu Alhija.

Orly’s research emphasizes the importance of interpersonal relationships in the educational process. It focuses on teacher– student relations and the ways in which these are reflected through dialogue in knowledge- building situations within humanistic studies.

Her mixed methods research follows teachers who have been classified by their principals and former students as relationship “experts.” Through classroom discourse analysis and episodic interviews with these teachers and their students, Orly seeks to understand the linguistic expressions and pedagogical practices they employ. She thus hopes to contribute to teachers’ training and professional development programs and to enhance teachers’ relational abilities in classroom interactions.

Orly obtained a BA in communication and social studies at the Open University of Israel (magna cum laude) and an MA in curriculum design and development at Tel Aviv University, where she also received an outstanding academic achievement award. She has been passionate about education her whole life and has worked as a teacher, professional development facilitator, program director, vice principal, and pedagogical consultant in Israel as well as in New York City. She is a former dancer and dance instructor and loves all arts. She also enjoys reading children’s books, especially those that encourage philosophical thought and discussion. She lives in Hod Hasharon with her husband and three children, who are her favourite reading partners.

/by

Orit Chorowicz

Orit Chorowicz Bar-Am is a PhD student in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev under the supervision of Prof. Yael Hashiloni-Dolev (Ben- Gurion University) and Prof. Elly Teman (Ruppin Academic Center).

Her research focuses on the intersection between gender, motherhood, fertility, assisted reproductive technologies, and the emerging generation of surrogates and women’s activism in Israel.

Her study takes a holistic approach to the surrogacy experience over time, drawing on the narratives of retired surrogates to contribute to our understanding of the personal and collective significance of the surrogacy process. The unique connection between various theoretical fields in Orit’s research aims to draw interest and contribute to a more informed public discourse both in Israel and around the world.

Orit was raised in Tel Aviv and currently lives in Hatseva, a moshav in the Central Arava region with her spouse and two sons. She obtained a BA in behavioural sciences at the Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yaffo and an MA in school counselling with a specialization in early childhood at Tel Aviv University. During her pregnancy as a surrogate, she immersed herself in the surrogate community and became an activist. Through her involvement, she identified gaps between the internal discourse among surrogates and external discourse and academic literature. This prompted her to embark on a feminist study in the field, amplifying the voices of women – who are often marginalized in the public sphere and rarely studied in academia – and adopting the political and ethical principle of “nothing about us without us.” In her free time, Orit enjoys hiking and camping with her family, sports activities, such as jogging and cycling, music, creative writing, and travelling

/by

Ori Kinberg

Ori Kinberg is a PhD student in the Department of Hebrew Literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem under the supervision of Dr. Jonathan Vardi.

Ori examines Hebrew literary culture in fifteenth-century Italy, its place within Jewish everyday life, and its relationship with the surrounding Italian and Renaissance culture.

His work traces poetic revolutions and neo- classicist trends in Renaissance Hebrew writing alongside the personal networks of patrons and writers, masters and students, teachers, and connoisseurs that made up the literary fabric of this momentous period of Hebrew letters. He draws on methodologies from literature, sociology, social history, and anthropology to reconstruct the world of Renaissance Hebrew literature, considers the ways in which Hebrew writing served as an institution of Jewish life, and explores how social and political changes reshaped Hebrew writing on the verge of modernity.

Ori grew up in Ya’ad, a moshav in the Galilee, and has lived in Jerusalem since his high school days at the IASA boarding school. He completed his BA in Hebrew literature and philosophy at the Hebrew University, where he also completed his MA in Hebrew literature under the supervision of Prof. Shulamit Elizur and the late Prof. Aminadav Dykman. He is a member of the European ANR- DFG research group, Rieti – A Hebrew Dante, and a research assistant to Dr. Jonathan Vardi, with whom he is preparing a new critical edition of the poems of Shmuel Ha-Nagid. When not sifting through old manuscripts, he plays the guitar, takes photographs, and backpacks. Some of his poems were recently published in the literary magazine Eruvin.

/by

Ofir Yaish

Ofir Yaish is a PhD student in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at Ben- Gurion University of the Negev under the joint supervision of Prof. Yaron Orenstein and Dr. Nir Shlezinger.

Ofir’s research focuses on developing and applying machine-learning techniques for analyzing and interpreting vast amounts of genomic data.

In particular, he is working on computational modelling of mRNA degradation and a CRISPR gene-editing system based on high- throughput data to help prevent the disruptive unplanned editing of genomic sites. Ofir is also interested in interpretable deep learning in the field of genomics, which can contribute to our ability to interpret models and discover new findings.

Ofir grew up in Beer Sheva, which he hopes will always be his home base. What began as an enthusiastic adventure to tackle computational challenges led him to pursue a BSc and MSc – and now a PhD – in electrical and computer engineering at Ben-Gurion University. Ofir enjoys consuming daily news, especially about political and technological developments which have attracted his interest since his teenage years. As a religious, open-minded, modern orthodox person, his weekends are very quiet and spent mostly with his family. He loves the spirit of the Sabbath and being able to disconnect from the ordinary tasks of the week.

/by

Odeya Eshel

Odeya Eshel is a PhD candidate in the Department of Comparative Religion at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem under the supervision of Prof. Eviatar Shulman (The Hebrew University) and Prof. Charles Hallisey (Harvard University).

Odeya studies the sacred texts of the Buddhist Theravāda tradition, focusing on their literary aspect and on questions of formation and reception.

Her research reconsiders the relationship between the Pāli canon and its commentary and introduces the commentarial technique as a creative literary process integral to the formation of scriptures. Sensitive to the significance of overlooked narratives, her research suggests that scriptures emerge from a vibrant cultural dynamic and work to emotionally engage their audience. She thus wishes to enhance the understanding of scripture literature and the role of commentaries in it.

Odeya grew up in Jerusalem, where she currently lives with her husband and two sons. She received her BSW and BA in the Multidisciplinary Program in the Humanities and her MA in comparative religion from the Hebrew University. She spent several years learning Jewish scriptures in traditional institutions. Her love for Jewish scriptures not only influences her understanding of religious experiences but also enhances her sensitivity to the concept of sacred reading. In her free time, she enjoys reading Hebrew literature and poetry, and baking, especially sweet things.

/by