FIRST TERM BOARD MEMBERS

  • | FIRST TERM BOARD MEMBER (2021-2025)
    Michigan State University|Read More

    Michigan State University

    USA

    Vered Weiss is the Serling Israeli Visiting Scholar and The Israel Institute Teaching Fellow at The Michael and Elaine Serling Institute for Jewish Studies and Modern Israel at Michigan State University. Weiss is a faculty member in the Center for Integrative Studies in the Arts and Humanities, and teaches courses on Israeli culture, Israeli cinema and television, Hebrew literature, as well as world literature. Weiss is co-editor of Tracing Topographies: Revisiting the Concentration Camps Seventy Years after the Liberation of Auschwitz (Routledge, 2017), and is co-editing a volume about Israeli culture and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (Lexington, 2023). Her current research project explores the interplay between the location of marginalized characters and the ways in which narrative empathy is formulated in literature, and she is also collaborating on a co-edited book with Elana Gomel about Israeli speculative fiction (Liverpool University Press). 

  • | FIRST TERM BOARD MEMBER (2021-2025)
    University of Tokyo|Read More

    University of Tokyo

    Japan

    Taro Tsurumi is Associate Professor at the University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Arts and Science, Department of Area Studies. After getting Ph.D. at the University of Tokyo for his study on Russian Zionism, he stayed at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and New York University as a post doc. Specializing in Zionist history in the Russian-speaking world and beyond, and with a historical sociological perspective, he has endeavored to connect East European & Russian history with Israeli history. He has recently engaged in projects on the memory of pogroms in Eastern Europe and its impact on the Zionist perception of Palestine and its people and government. Along with many Japanese books and articles, his articles have been published in English journals including Jewish Social Studies and Nations and Nationalism as well as a few English books. He edited two English volumes including From Europe's East to the Middle East: Israel's Russian and Polish Lineages (eds. with Kenneth B. Moss and Benjamin Nathans, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021). He has organized and hosted several international conferences, and been a board member of a few Japanese associations, including Japan Society for Jewish Studies.

  • | FIRST TERM BOARD MEMBER (2021-2025)

    Israel

  • | FIRST TERM BOARD MEMBER (2021-2025)
    Western Galilee College|Read More

    Western Galilee College

    Israel

    Osnat Akirav is an associate professor in Political Science at the Western Galilee College, Israel. The head of the Galilee research institute and the Western Galilee College president's advisor for gender fairness at the Western Galilee College. Her specialization is in legislative studies, setting the agenda, candidate selection methods, local government, gender and politics, minorities and politics, research methods, and Israeli political system. In 2016 she was a visiting scholar at Stanford University. She has many publications on the representative behavior in local government and in parliaments. She served 10 years as a local council representative. In 2010 and in 2015 she received a prize for outstanding teaching in political science from the American Political Science Association. In 2012 she received Edmond Safra Award for outstanding achievement and excellence. And, in 2022 she received the New Pioneers Award from the Union Sefaradi Mundial for her contribution to the Israeli society. In 2012 and 2016 she received a prize for best article from the Israeli Political Science Association. In 2015, 2018-2023 she received a prize for excellent researcher from the Western Galilee College. Since 2019 she has served as the vice president of the Israel Political Science Association (ISPSA). And, in 2023 she was elected as the temporary president of the Israel Political Science Association.

  • | FIRST TERM BOARD MEMBER (2021-2025)
    Reichman University/University at Albany, SUNY/The Open University of Israel |Read More

    Reichman University/University at Albany, SUNY/The Open University of Israel

    USA Israel

    Dr. Niva Golan-Nadir is a Research Associate at the Center for Policy Research, Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy, The University at Albany, SUNY, and a research fellow at the Institute for Liberty and Responsibility, Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy & Strategy, Reichman University, where she further heads the honors program. Niva also teaches Comparative Politics and methodology courses at Reichman University and the Open University of Israel.
    Her main research interests are within the realm of Comparative Politics (with a special interest in Israel and Turkey), state-religion relations, Public Administration, and Israel Studies. Her research focuses on a comparative analysis of enduring gaps between public preferences, the policy as designed, and policy implementation. Her aim is to establish that within public administration, religion may be considered a paradigmatic case study.
    Her recent studies were published in peer-reviewed journals: American Review of Public Administration, International Review of Administrative Sciences, Australian Journal of Public Administration, Policy Studies, and Israel Studies Review. Her recent book (based on her 'Israel Institute-funded Ph.D. dissertation) was published in 2022 by Palgrave Macmillan and has been awarded final list and honorary mention (second place) by the Azrieli Institute of Israel Studies and Concordia University Library.

  • | FIRST TERM BOARD MEMBER (2021-2025)
    Franklin & Marshall College|Read More

    Franklin & Marshall College

    USA

    Marco Di Giulio is an associate professor of Hebrew Language and Literature at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA.  He has written on the vernacularization of Hebrew, especially in nineteenth-century Italian Judaism and the Yishuv. His most recent research interests focus on the history of disability in Israel.

  • | FIRST TERM BOARD MEMBER (2021-2025)
    New York University|Read More

    New York University

    USA

    Lihi Ben Shitrit is the incoming director of the Taub Center for Israel Studies at New York University. She is also an associate professor at the School of Public and International Affairs, University of Georgia, Athens. Her research focuses on the intersections of gender, religion, and politics in the Middle East. She is the author of Righteous Transgressions: Women’s Activism on the Israeli and Palestinian Religious Right (Princeton University Press, 2015) and Women and the Holy City: The Struggle over Jerusalem’s Sacred Space (Cambridge University Press, 2020) as well as numerous articles and book chapters. Ben Shitrit’s work has been supported by various fellowships including from Harvard Law School’s Program on Law and Society in the Muslim World (2023), ACLS/Luce Religion, International Affairs and Journalism fellowship (2019-2020), Harvard Kennedy School’s Middle East Initiative (2018-2019), University of Pennsylvania’s Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies (2017), and Harvard Divinity School’s Women’s Studies in Religion Program (2013-2014). She holds a Ph.D., M.Phil., and M.A. in political science from Yale University and a B.A. in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University.

  • | FIRST TERM BOARD MEMBER (2021-2025)
    Bar-Ilan University|Read More

    Bar-Ilan University

    Israel

    Kimmy Caplan teaches Modern Jewish History in the Koschitzky Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry at Bar-Ilan University. His field of scholarly interest is Jewish Religious History in the 19th and 20th centuries, with a focus on religious streams, popular religion, preaching, and homiletics. His prime focus in recent years is Haredi society in the 20th century.

  • | FIRST TERM BOARD MEMBER (2021-2025)
    Emory University|Read More

    Emory University

    USA

    Eli Sperling served as the Senior Academic Research Coordinator at Emory University’s Institute for the Study of Modern Israel from 2012-2020, and taught as a guest Professor at the Tam Institute for Jewish Studies from 2019–2020. Eli received his PhD from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Fall 2019; and from 2020-2022, he served as a Postdoctoral Associate in Duke University’s Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. Since Fall 2022, he has served as the Israel Institute Teaching Fellow in the University of Georgia’s Department of International Affairs. Eli is the author of the forthcoming book Singing the Land: Hebrew Music and Early Zionism in America, University of Michigan Press.

  • | FIRST TERM BOARD MEMBER (2021-2025)
    The Open University of Israel|Read More

    The Open University of Israel

    Israel

    Professor (emerita) Aviva Halamish is a historian at the Open University of Israel. Her research encompasses the history of the Jewish people and of Palestine in the twentieth century, focusing on the history of Zionism; Jewish immigration in the twentieth century including illegal Jewish immigration to Mandatory Palestine; history of the Yishuv and of the state of Israel; the kibbutz; and historical biography. She authored or edited over a dozen books and published scores of articles on various aspects of her fields of expertise. Among her books The Exodus Affair: Holocaust Survivors and the Struggle for Palestine (1998) and Kibbutz: Utopia and Politics / The Life and Times of Meir Yaari, (2017). Served as Vice President (2007-2009) and President (2009-2011) of the AIS and on various Nominations and Ad-hoc committees of the Association. Member, in the past and present, of Editorial Boards including The Journal of Israeli, Cathedra for the History of Eretz Israel and its Yishuv, Iyunim bi-Tkumat Israel, Moreshet: Journal for the Study of the Holocaust and Antisemitism; Yad Yitzhak Ben Zvi Press, The Ben-Gurion Research Institute Press. Founder and first Director and Editor-in-Chief, The Open University Press Member of Israel Council for Higher Education (2016-2022).

SECOND TERM BOARD MEMBERS

  • | SECOND TERM BOARD MEMBER (2021-2025)
    Lafayette College |Read More

    Lafayette College
    USA

    Ilan Peleg (Ph.D., Northwestern University) is former President of the Association for Israel Studies and the Founding Editor-in-Chief of Israel Studies Forum (now Israel Studies Review), the scholarly journal of the AIS (established in 2000). He is the author of numerous articles, appearing in such venues as the Middle East Journal and the Journal of Peace Research, and a series of books such as Begin’s Foreign Policy: Israel’s Turn to the Right (Greenwood, 1987), Human Rights in the West Bank and Gaza: Legacy and Politics (Syracuse University Press, 1995: recipient of the Choice Award for Excellence in Scholarship), Democratizing the Hegemonic State: Political Transformation in the Age of Identity (Cambridge University Press, 2007), Israel’s Palestinians: The Conflict Within (with Dov Waxman, also published by Cambridge University Press, 2011), The Legacy of George W. Bush’s Foreign Policy: Moving Beyond Neo-conservatism (Westview, 2009), and other books on such topics as bi-nationalism in Israel, patterns of censorship in the contemporary world, the peace process and the Arab-Israel conflict, and more. He is also the editor or co-editor of a large number of books on diverse issues of political significance such as Israeli bi-nationalism, peace negotiations in the Middle East, censorship and freedom of expression (cross-cultural) and, most recently, on Victimhood in Contemporary Israel (Lexington Books: Rowman and Littlefield, 2019).  Dr. Peleg is the Charles A. Dana Professor at Lafayette College (where he headed the Government and Law Department and the International Affairs Program) and a scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington, DC.  He has given numerous lectures in scholarly conferences, colleges and universities, civic organizations, religious institutions, and other venues.  Among other places, he has appeared on CNN, Voice of America, National Public Radio, and more.

  • | SECOND TERM BOARD MEMBER (2021-2025)
    College of Charleston |Read More

    College of Charleston
    USA

    Yaron Ayalon is associate professor of Jewish and Middle Eastern studies and Director of the Yaschik/Arnlod Jewish Studies Program at the College of Charleston. Ayalon is a historian of Sephardic Jews in the Ottoman Empire, the Middle East, and Israel, and the author of Natural Disasters in the Ottoman Empire: Plague, Famine, and Other Misfortunes (Cambridge University Press, 2015) and over 20 articles. He has taught courses on the Middle East, Israel, and Jewish history at five institutions. Ayalon earned a BA from Tel Aviv University in 2002, and a PhD from Princeton in 2009.

  • | SECOND TERM BOARD MEMBER (2021-2025)
    Zefat Academic College / University of Haifa|Read More

    Zefat Academic College / University of Haifa
    Israel

    Dr. Ofira Gruweis-Kovalsky is a Senior Lecturer at Zefat Academic College and Associate researcher at Herzl Institute University of Haifa, Israel. She received her PhD from University of Haifa, Israel Studies Dep. (2010), Summa cum Laude. Gruweis -Kovalsky continued post-doctoral at Bar-Ilan University Geography Department. (2010-2011). She was a Visiting Scholar (2015), and Associate researcher (2015- 2020) at HBI, Brandeis University, USA.

    Dr. Ofira Gruweis-Kovalsky field of interest is the political history of the State of Israel. Her research is interdisciplinary and is developed along two theoretical lines: (1) exploring myths, symbols, and commemoration from a political and national perspective; and (2) exploring the geographical issues and their impact on Israeli politics. Gruweis -Kovalsky primary focus is the history of the Israeli right-wing and its cultivation of Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel.

    She was the author of "The Vindicated and the Persecuted" The Mythology and the Symbols of the Herut Movement, Sde Boker, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beersheba. (June 2015), (in Hebrew). The editor of 2 anthologies (2016 Bar-Ilan University Press & 2020 Herzl Institute University of Haifa). The editor of the new academic journal 'Artzot Hagalil', Zefat Academic College (in Hebrew) and the author of a selection of articles in Hebrew and English.  Example of articles: 

     1. 'Life after Death: "Yair" (Avraham Stern) as Israeli Myth’, Israel, 26, (July 2020), 95 – 116, (in Hebrew). 

    2. ‘Liminal Condition as Constant Situation, the Israeli Jerusalem Municipality’, 1948-1955, Journal of Israeli History, 38(1), (June 2019), 113 -133. 

    3. ' A hand holding a rifle or two sides of the Jordan River', the symbol of the IZL’, Cathedra, 166, (January 2018). 119 -146, (in Hebrew).4. 'The General Zionist and the WIZO Party, A Tale of Light and Shadows', Israel Affairs, (forthcoming).

  • | SECOND TERM BOARD MEMBER (2021-2025)
    Tel Aviv University|Read More

    Tel Aviv University
    Israel

    Nechumi Yaffe is a faculty member in the Department of Public Policy at Tel Aviv University. She completed her postdoctoral research at Princeton University affiliated with the Daniel Kahneman Center of Behavioral Science and Public Policy, and the University Center for Human Values. Nechumi’s research examines, from a social psychology perspective, how identity, social norms, and authority play a role in creating and preserving poverty. Her work focuses on the ultra-orthodox (Haredi) community in Israel and USA. Before entering to doctoral program, she was an advisor for the Haredi educational system and she wrote the new curriculum and textbook in history, now used by all Haredi high schools in Israel. Nechumi earned a Ph.D. in political science from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, under the supervision by Avner de-Shalit, Eran Halperin, and Tamar Saguy. She has an impressive publication record in academic peer-reviewed journals and policy papers. In her vision, research and practice are intertwined and her academic work is driven from and gear towards improving, reaching out, and helping the community.

  • | SECOND TERM BOARD MEMBER (2021-2025)
    Sapir Academic College / Concordia University |Read More

    Sapir Academic College/Concordia University
    Israel

    Dr. Lihi Lahat is a senior lecturer in the Department of Public Administration and Policy at Sapir Academic College and an Affiliated Professor in the Azrieli Institute of Israel Studies at Concordia University, Montreal. Her research areas are policymakers' perceptions of poverty, the regulation of personal social services, smart cities, trust and well-being among public sector employees, uses of time and policy, and collaborative governance. 

    Dr. Lahat holds a BA in political science, an MA cum laude in public policy, and a PhD in public policy, all from Tel Aviv University. Her doctoral dissertation was on policymakers' perceptions of poverty. Her papers have been published in various journals, including Policy Sciences, Social Policy & Administration, International Review of Administrative Science, Journal of Management & Governance, The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Review of Public Personnel Administration, Journal of European Social Policy, and Poverty & Public Policy. She co-edited (with Dr. Sher-Hadar and Professor Galnoor) the book Collaborative Governance: Theory and Lessons from Israel (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021). In fall 2018, she was a visiting researcher at the Azrieli Institute of Israel Studies at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. She was Israel Institute Visiting Scholar at the Serling Institute for Jewish Studies and Modern Israel at Michigan State University, US, in fall 2019.

  • | SECOND TERM BOARD MEMBER (2021-2025)
    Bar-Ilan University |Read More

    Bar-Ilan University

    Israel

    Prof. Kobi Cohen-Hattab is an Associate Professor at the Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology, Bar Ilan University, Israel. His main research interests are historical-geography of tourism, tourism in historical towns, the development of Holy Sites and the relationships between Zionism and the Sea. His books include: Tour the Land - Tourism in Palestine during the British Mandate Period (1917-1948),  Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi: Jerusalem, 2006 (Hebrew); 2. Tourism, Religion and Pilgrimage in Jerusalem, Routledge: U.K, 2015 (coauthor book with Prof. Noam Shoval); The Maritime Revolution: The Yishuv’s Hold on the Sea and Shores of the Land of Israel, (1917-1948), Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi: Jerusalem, 2019 (Hebrew); Zionism’s Maritime Revolution: The Yishuv’s Hold on the Land of Israel’s Sea and Shores, 1917–1948, De Gruyter: Leiden, 2019; The Western Wall: The Dispute over Israel's Holiest Jewish Site, 1967–2000Brill: Leiden, 2020 (coauthor book with Prof. Doron Bar).  

  • | SECOND TERM BOARD MEMBER (2021-2025)
    Ben-Gurion University of the Negev |herzogb@bgu.ac.il |Read More

    Jagiellonian University / European Association of Israel Studies

    Poland

    Joanna Dyduch is a Political Scientist and International Relations scholar based at the Department of Israel and Levant at Institute of Middle and Far East of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. Her research interests lie in the area of Israel and European Studies. Joanna is the author of several books and articles. She has been a Visiting Lecturer, including at the University of Vienna (2017), Matej Bel University in Banska Bystrica (2019) and University of Potsdam (2020).Currently, she is the Dean's representative at the Institute of the Middle and Far East for research and international cooperation and deputy Director of the Institute. Since 2019 she has served as the President of the European Association for Israeli Studies.

  • | SECOND TERM BOARD MEMBER (2021-2025)
    Bar-Ilan University|Read More

    Bar-Ilan University
    Israel

    Dr. Elisheva Rosman-Stollman is a senior lecturer at the Department of Political Studies at Bar-Ilan University. Her research and publications focus on civil-military relations, particularly the relationship between the military and religious soldiers, and religious women in the military. She is a founding member of the Association for Civil-Military Studies in Israel. Her recent research projects focus on religious feminism, civilian medicine and the military, and the evolving conscription model in Israel. She is also the Director of the Argov Center for the study of Israel and the Jewish People.

    Education

    B.A Middle Eastern Studies and Political Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

    M.A. Political Studies, Bar Ilan University

    PhD. Political Studies, Bar Ilan University

  • | SECOND TERM BOARD MEMBER (2021-2025)
    Ben-Gurion University of the Negev |herzogb@bgu.ac.il |Read More

    Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

    Israel

    Dr. Ben Herzog, the Michael Feige Career Development Chair in Israeli Society, is a Senior Lecturer (equivalent to associate professor in the US) at the Ben-Gurion Research Institute, at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Dr. Herzog is the head of the Woodman-Scheller Israel Studies International Program (WSISIP).
    Dr. Herzog held few visiting positions in Yale University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University and Quinnipiac University. His articles on refugees and citizenship have been published in Nations and Nationalism, Israel Studies Forum, Research in Political Sociology, European Journal of Sociology, Eastern European Politics and Society, Citizenship Studies, Journal of Immigration Asylum and Nationality Law, and in the American Review of Canadian Studies. His book Revoking Citizenship: Expatriation in America from the Colonial Era to the War on Terror was published by NYU Press.

ISRAEL STUDIES REVIEW

  • | BOOK REVIEW EDITOR, ISRAEL STUDIES REVIEW
    The University of Kansas |Read More

    Book Review Editor
    The University of Kansas
    USA

  • | EDITOR, ISRAEL STUDIES REVIEW
    Queen's University |Read More

    Co-Editor, Israel Studies Review
    Queen's University
    Ex Officio (Book Review Editor, Israel Studies Review)
    Canada

    Oded Haklai is a Professor in the Department of Political Studies at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario. He teaches and researches nationalism and ethnic conflict, Israeli-Palestinian relations, state-minority relations, and the politics of settlers and territorial disputes. Haklai is the author of Palestinian Ethnonationalism in Israel, recipient of the Shapiro Award as well as numerous journal articles. He is also co-editor of Settlers in Contested Lands: Territorial Dipsutes and Ethnic Conflict. Haklai has held several visiting fellowships and scholarships, including at the Truman Research Institute, Moshe Dayan Center, and the Institute for Security and Conflict Studies at George Washington University. 

  • | EDITOR, ISRAEL STUDIES REVIEW
    The Open University of Israel |Read More

    Co-Editor, Israel Studies Review
    The Open University of Israel
    Israel

    Adia Mendelson-Maoz is an associate professor in Israeli literature and culture in the Department of Literature, Language and Arts at the Open University of Israel. She investigates the multifaceted relationships between literature, ethics, politics, and culture, mainly in the context of Hebrew Literature and Israeli culture. Her recent books include Multiculturalism in Israel - Literary Perspectives (Purdue UP, 2014); Borders, Territories, and Ethics: Hebrew Literature in the Shadow of the Intifada, (Purdue UP, 2018); and her Hebrew book Territories and Borders in the Shadow of the Intifada: Ethical Reading of Hebrew Literature 1987-2007 (Magnes Press 2021). Mendelson-Maoz discovered Yoram Kaniuk's unpublished manuscript Sabon (Soap, 2018) and served as a scientific editor for its publication. Currently she writes a manuscript that aims to present a comprehensive picture of Kaniuk's literary endeavor, based on his personal archive. Her new research project, with Avi Shmidman, Bar Ilan University, applies methods from Digital Humanities to the study of Hebrew Literature historiography. The project "Computational Stylistic Profiles for the Analysis of Modern Hebrew Prose" won the Israel Ministry of Science grant for Digital Humanities in 2020. 

AIS EXECUTIVES

  • | PRESIDENT
    Hull University|R.Cohen-Almagor@hull.ac.uk |Read More

    Chair in Politics, and Director of the Middle East Study Group (MESG)
    Hull University, CANADA
    R.Cohen-Almagor@hull.ac.uk

    Raphael Cohen-Almagor completed his DPhil in Political Theory at University of Oxford. He taught, inter alia, at Oxford and Hull in the United Kingdom, Jerusalem and Haifa in Israel, UCLA and Johns Hopkins in the United States, and Nirma University in India. He was twice a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington D.C., and Distinguished Visiting Professor, Faculty of Laws, University College London. In 2023, Raphael was The Olof Palme Visiting Professor, Lund University, Sweden. 

  • | VICE PRESIDENT
    Concordia University|Read More

    Concordia University
    Canada

  • | EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
    University of Haifa, ISRAEL |ashamis@staff.haifa.ac.il |Read More

    Department of Israel Studies
    University of Haifa, ISRAEL
    ashamis@staff.haifa.ac.il

    Dr. Asaf J. Shamis is an assistant Professor of Political Theory in the Israel Studies Department at the University of Haifa. Dr. Shamis is a graduate of the Hebrew University [BA in Political Science and International Relations (Magna cum Laude) and MA in Political Science (Magna cum Laude)]. He completed his Ph.D. in Political Science at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). From 2014 to 2016 he served as a post-doctoral fellow at Columbia University. Over the years, Dr. Shamis has taught a wide variety of courses both in the US and in Israel on Israeli politics, political theory, the politics of technology and the history of Zionism. Dr. Shamis’ scholarly works center on the historical and conceptual intersections between ideology and technology. He is currently working on an extensive project in which he aims to provide a first comprehensive account of the place of technology in early Zionist thought. The study explores the role early Zionist thinkers assigned tools, devices and machines in their vision of a Jewish homeland.

STAFF

  • | Financial Manager
    Association for Israel Studies|Read More

    Department of Israel Studies

    FINANCIAL MANAGER

  • | Communications Manager
    Association for Israel Studies|comm@aisisraelstudies.org |Read More

    Department of Israel Studies

    COMMUNICATION'S MANAGER

    Hebrew University

    comm@aisisraelstudies.org

  • | AIS Conference Coordinator
    Association for Israel Studies|anina@selvefamily.com |Read More

    CONFERENCE COORDINATOR
    Association for Israel Studies
    anina@selvefamily.com

  • | Assistant to Executive Director
    University of Haifa, ISRAEL|ais@aisisraelstudies.org |Read More

    Department of Israel Studies

    University of Haifa, ISRAEL
    scolley@campus.haifa.ac.il