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PhD honors 2017/18 | Jack, Joseph & Morton Mandel School for Advanced Studies in the Humanities

PhD honors 2017/18

Yaniv Abir

Yaniv Abir

Department of Cognitive Sciences

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Research subject: Epistemic bridges between different levels of explanation in the study of consciousness - a data driven approach

Supervisor: Prof. Ran Hassin

Abstract: Using data-driven methods we are constructing high-dimensional models of the preferences of the human unconscious. Using these models we seek to directly compare the results of different methods of measuring conscious experience and its neural correlates, thus constructing bridges between sometimes disparate methods, anchored in different levels of explanation - biological and psychological.

Bio: I study high-dimensional models of selection for consciousness, hoping to understand the basic priorities of human cognition, and learn about the mechanism behind emergence of content into consciousness.

 Publications:

Abir, Y., Sklar, A. Y., Dotsch, R., Todorov, A., & Hassin, R. R. (Under review). Determinants of conscious experience – a data-driven approach.

 

Presidential Stipend 2017/18

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Avigail Aravana

Avigail Aravna

Department of Bible Studies

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Research subject: Isaiah 24-27 and its Reception in Second Temple literature 

Supervisor: Prof. Michael Segal, Dr. Ronnie Goldstein

Abstract: The study seeks to trace the textual expressions of the unit of prophecies called "The Apocalypse of Isaiah", chapters 24-27, and its development in Second Temple literature.

Bio: Avigail Aravna is a graduate of the Department of Bible at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and will be a doctoral student at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, under the President's Fellowship and a colleague at the Mandel School of Advanced Studies in the Humanities. Her research deals with biblical and external apocalyptic literature during the Second Temple period.

Publications: 

“Sending Subtle Threads of Influence into the Past: A Reexamination of the Relationship between Isaiah 24:6 and Jeremiah 23:10” in:The History of Isaiah: The Making of the Book and its Presentation of the Past (FAT). Edited by T. Hibbard and J. Stromberg. Mohr Siebeck. (forthcoming 2021)
 

Presidential Stipend 2017/18

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Miri Avissar

Miri Avissar

Department of General and Comparative Litrature

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Subject: Ludic Quests: Gogol, Melville, Nabokov

Supervisor: Prof. Ilana Pardes

Abstract: In my doctoral research, provisionally titled "Ludic Quests: Gogol, Melville, Nabokov," I offer a comparative reading of three novels: "Dead Souls," "Moby-Dick," and "Lolita." The focal point of my analysis is the examination of correspondences between the geographic and the poetic-cum-interpretive quests performed in each work. I argue that both types of quests—the literal and the figurative—are characterized by distinct playfulness, a particularly significant manifestation of which is the personages' and speakers' continual digression to the margins of the road and of discourse alike. In addition to explicating philosophical and formal affinities between the three novels with regard to the benefits and the hazards of ludically going off track, my study seeks to trace the Russian-American dialogue in which Nabokov engages with two of his nineteenth-century predecessors.

Publications:

* "על העיוורון: ספר איוב כמודל להארה רוחנית בסונטה התשע-עשרה של
מילטון", מוזה: כתב עת לתלמידי מחקר במדעי הרוח, גיליון 1 (2017): 7-22.

 

Rotenstreich Stipend 2017/18

Presidential Stipend 2015/16

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Dr. Tali Banin

Department of English

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Research subject: Posthuman Intimacy: Birds in the Discourse of Love of D. H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, and Ford Madox Ford

Supervisor: Dr. Ruben Borg

Abstract: In my doctoral dissertation I look at how early 20th-century British writers employ bird imagery to define love. Using three points of focus - bird song, bird movement, and nesting - I examine how D. H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, and Ford Madox Ford renounce romantic conventions in favor of a "nonhuman love" inspired by bird courtship rituals and behaviors. By working at the intersection of literary modernism, critical animal studies, ornithology, and philosophies of love, I hope to gain a fresh perspective on these canonical writers, which feeds into contemporary discourse both on the posthuman and on the dissolution of the Victorian courtship plot in modernist fiction.     

 

President Stipend 2017/18

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Idit Ben Or

Dr. Idit Ben Or

Department of History

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Subject:  Governmental Monies in Early Modern England: A Social, Political and Material Culture Analysis 

Supervisor: Prof. Dror Wahrman 

Abstract: 

Azrieli Fellows Program 2017/18

Mandel Scholion Research Group: Materials for Change (2016-2019)

The George L. Mosse Graduate Exchange Fellowship 2014/15

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Shraga Bick

Department of Comparative Religion

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Research subject: "Keep the Commandments": the construction of "the Commandments" and their role in forming social identity in Christianity and Judaism in late antiquity.

Supervisor: Prof. Brouria Bitton-Ashkelony

Abstract: In my dissertation I intend to examine the ways in which the discourse on the Commandments ("mitzvot") functions as a tool in the attempt to reshape religious communities in the Jewish-Christian space of late antiquity. During this period, different communities continue to insist on keeping and practicing in one form or another the "Commandments", but often without a clear definition of the meaning and scope of this term. At the same time, the concept of the "Commandments", serves as a polemical tool in both Christian and Jewish texts, but even there it is difficult to find a clear and unequivocal definition. In my dissertation I will seek to trace the ways in which this category is used to reconstruct the religious discourse and practice in late antiquity.

Bio: I hold a M.A in Comparative Religion (summa cum laude) and a B.A in Law and Comparative Religion (magna cum laude) from the Hebrew University. My thesis, entitled "But I am Prayer: Voice, Body and the Anthropology of the Praying Self in Rabbinic and Syriac-Christian Literature", was written under the supervision of Prof. Brouria Bitton-Ashkelony. For this work I received the Polonsky Prize for Creativity and Originality in the humanistic disciplines (2017). In addition, I am a fellow in the doctoral program on human rights and Judaism at the Israel Democracy Institute.

 

Azrieli Fellows Scholarship 2019/20
President Stipend 2017/18

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Elnatan Chen

Dr. Elnatan Chen

Department of Hebrew Language

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Subject: Issues in the Phonology and Morphology of Rabbi Jonah Ibn Janāḥ

Supervisor: Prof. Aharon Maman

Abstract: The research deals with a number of fundamental and fruitful issues in the fields of the phonology and morphology in the grammar of R. Jonah Ibn Janah, as reflected in all his grammatical works. The study will be based on an available data base that will be built through a systematic collection of all the phonological and morphological phenomena discussed in Ibn Janah's writings.

Bio: I'm working on the grammar of R. Jonah ibn Janāḥ. The subject of my research is "Issues in the Phonology and Morphology of Rabbi Jonah Ibn Janāḥ".

Publications:

  • “Four Comments on the Text of Rabbi Yonah Ibn Janāḥ’s Kitāb al-Mustalḥaq”, Iberia Judaica 10 (2018), pp. 121–138
  • "בעיות מסירה ב'כתאב אלמסתלחק' (ספר ההשגה) לר' יונה אבן ג'נאח", העברית סו (תשע"ט), עמ' 15–31
    "ר' יונה אבן ג'נאח כמפתח ומשכלל את תורת ר' יהודה חיוג': עקרונות וכלים ליישומם", א' בר‏־אשר סיגל וד' יעקב (עורכים), העברית והארמית בימי הביניים: עיונים בלשון ובחוכמת הלשון, ירושלים תש"ף, עמ' 327–355

 

President's Scholarship 2017/18

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Murtaza Shopra

Murtaza Chopra

Department of Archaeology

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Subject: How mathematical astronomy was developed in Assyrya and Babylone

Supervisor: Prof. Wayne Horowitz

Abstract: The astral bodies were of central interest throughout the entire Mesopotamian civilization history. We found tablets of Persian and Seleucid periods with numbers and procedures that allow us an insight into their purely mathematical theory of astronomical phenomena. I try to understand how a mathematical theory of the moon’s behavior was conceived and developed in the first millennium B.C, why they found mathematisation appropriate for better understanding it, and what principals led to this scientific achievement.

Bio: I am an Assyriology PhD candidate, beginning my third year. The topic of my research is trying to understand how mathematical astronomy was developed in Assyrya and Babylone.

 

Presidential Stipend 2017/18

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Lena Dubinsky

Lena Dubinsky

Department of Art History

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Subject: Developing a method for analyzing archeological engraving techniques: the study of the "Chariots" engraving at the Timna site

Supervisors: Prof. Leore Grosman and Dr. Gal Ventura 

Abstract: In my doctoral research I aim to develop methods for analyzing archeological engraving techniques through studying the "Chariots" engraving at the Timna site.
The goal of the study is to formulate criteria paving the way for characterizing the engraving techniques used in ancient times. This will be done by clarifying the methods, tools and skills required for making specific rock engravings. The study will couple examining the creative process with digital analysis methods.  This will be accomplished by understanding the way in which the localized craft technology including skills, techniques and material conceptions can be used as a research tool in the effort to examine, analyze and decode archeological findings. 

Bio: Lena Dubinsky studied ceramic design at Bezazel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem. Upon graduation, she opened her own design studio. She shortly returned to Bezalel as an instructor, where she still teaches. While lecturing at Bezalel, she earned a master's degree with honors at Tel Aviv University. Her thesis discussed the aesthetic and political implications of city plans developed by the Jerusalem Committee formed to modernize architecture and municipal design in Jerusalem after 1967. Additionally, she curates exhibitions concerning craft in the modern world, and is included in international exhibitions and collections.

Publications:

  • "העשייה והתעשייה: המקרה של מפעלי הפורצלן באירופה בראשית המאה ה-21", בתוך: 'מחשבות על קראפט', עורכים: ערן ארליך, אורי ברטל, ראובן זהבי, הוצאת רסלינג: ירושלים, 2015
  • "תהליכי ייצור בכבישה יבשה ויישומם בתעשיית האריחים: סיור במפעל נגב", '1280ºc', כתב עת לתרבות חומרית, חורף 2011
  • "רב שיח: קראפט, עיצוב וטכנולוגיה" בשיתוף עם פרופ' גד צ'רני, עינת לידר, הדס רוזנברג-ניר, טל גור, דב גנשרוא ושלומית באומן, קטלוג תערוכת "עיצוב קרמי: כלים טכנולוגיים", מוזיאון ארץ ישראל, תל אביב, 2011

 

President stipend 2017/18

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Lily Eilan

Dr. Lily Eilan

Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern studies

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Subject: Social History of the Western Galilee 1936-76

Supervisors: Prof. Hillel Cohen-Bar and Prof. Liat Kozma

Abstract: My doctorate thesis will focus on the history of inter-communal relations between the varied groups that lived in the western galilee during the British mandate and in the decades that followed. For the first time, this project will put the western galilee on central stage relying on multiple and diverse academic fields and using primary resources and methodology that will bring forth the voices of the different communities that lived in the area.

Bio: I completed my BA in Middle Eastern studies in the Hebrew University and then proceeded to an Mphil in Middle Eastern studies at Oxford University, St. Antony's college. My MA thesis dealt with the history of sectarianism in Israel/Palestine through a work of micro history of an Arab village in the Galilee. My doctorate thesis will focus on the history of inter-communal relations between the varied groups that lived in the western galilee during the British mandate and in the decades that followed. For the first time, this project will put the western galilee on central stage relying on multiple and diverse academic fields and using primary resources and methodology that will bring forth the voices of the different communities that lived in the area.

 

Presidential stipend 2017/18

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Yael Gaulan

Department of Linguistics

Subject: Communication Patterns in Emotional Dicourse in Hebrew

Supervisor: Dr. Elitzur Bar-Asher Siegal, Prof. Zohar Kampf

Gadi Herzlinger

Dr. Gadi Herzlinger

Archaeology

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Subject: Biface Morpho-Technological Variability at Gesher Benot-Ya‘aqov and its Significance to the Cultural, Social and Cognitive Evolution of Middle-Pleistocene Hominins in the Levant

Supervisor: Prof. Naama Goren-Inbar

Abstract: Within the framework of my PhD thesis I wish to test and analyze the morpho-technological variability in the biface tools assemblage from the Lower Paleolithic site of Gesher Bneot-Ya‘aqov. This site is exceptional in the Levant with respect to both the wealth and variety of finds and the cultural tradition reflected in the production of stone tools. Furthermore, the stone tool assemblage in general, and specifically the bifacial component, exhibit a unique similarity to bifacial tool assemblages form Africa. Thus, with respect to the dating of the site, it is interpreted as representing one of the earliest waves of hominin migration out of Africa.

The bifacial tool assemblage from the site has been typo-technologically analyzed using traditional attribute analysis within the framework of the forthcoming fourth volume of the excavation report. The morphological aspect of the tools has been analyzed using traditional morphological methodologies for biface shape analysis which are based on a small number of metrical indices and qualitative observations. This analysis indicated high morphological homogeneity along the occupational sequence at the site, but due to its relatively low resolution had difficulties in identifying finer morphological trends and patterns.

The renewed analysis within the framework of the current study will apply 3 dimensional digital models of the artifacts, alongside multivariate statistical methods. These provide high-resolution quantitative comparisons which allow the identification of archaeologically significant morphological trends and patterns. Furthermore, the application of computerized spatial tools will allow to correlate morphological patterns to spatial and chronological aspects at the site. Additionally, a comparison of the results to those received from the analyses of additional sites from the Levant and Africa will permit to sharpen the similarities and differences between different cultural traditions at an inter-regional scale. Finally, the integration of experimental results could allow to interpret the observed morpho-technological variability as stemming from cognitive, social and cultural aspects of Middle Pleistocene hominins.

Publications:

 

Books: 
Goren-Inbar, N., Aplerson-Afil, N., Sharon, G., Herzlinger, G. 2018. The Acheulian site of Gesher Benot Ya'aqov volume IV: The lithic assemblages. Springer: Dordrecht. 

Articles:
Herzlinger, G., Goren-Inbar, N. UNDER REVIEW. Do a few tools necessarily mean a few people? A techno-morphological approach to the question of group size at Gesher Benot Ya‘aqov, Israel. Journal of Human Evolution,

Herzlinger, G., Wynn, T., Goren-Inbar, N. 2107. Expert cognition in the production sequence of Acheulian cleavers at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, Israel: A lithic and cognitive analysis. Plos One, 12(11): e0188337

Zaidner, Y., Porat, N., Zilberman, E., Herzlinger, G., Almogi-Labin, A., Roskin, J. 2017. Geo-chronological Context of the Open-air Acheulian Site at Nahal Hesi, Israel. Quaternary International, 464(A): 18-31.

Herzlinger, G., Goren-Inbar, N., Grosman, L. 2017. A New Method for 3D Geometric Morphometric Shape Analysis: The Case Study of Handaxe Knapping Skill. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 14: 163-173. 

Goren-Inbar, N., Aplerson-Afil, N., Sharon, G., Herzlinger, G. 2015. A New Type of Anvil in the Acheulian of Gesher Benot Ya’aqov, Isarel. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 370(1682): 20140353.

Herzlinger, G., Pinsky, S., Goren-Inbar, N. 2015. A Note on Handaxe Knapping Products and their Breakage Taphonomy: an Experimental View. Journal of Lithic Studies, 2(1): 65-82.

Herzlinger, G., Grosman, L., Goren-Inbar, N. 2013. The PPNA Quarry of Kaizer Hill, Modiin, Israel - The Waste Piles. in Stone Tools in Transition: From Hunter-Gatherer to Farming Societies in the Near East. Borrell, F., Inbánez, J.J., Molist, M., (eds.). 395-405

Herzlinger, G. 2012. The Downslope Movement of Lithic Artifacts: A Field Experiment. Journal of the Israel Prehistoric Society, 42: 1-21.

 

 

Rotenstreich stipend 2017/18

Presidential Stipend 2015/16

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Maya Inbar

Maya Inbar

Department of Linguistics

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Subject: Neural oscillations in speech processing: A language-in-interaction perspective

Supervisor: Dr. Eitan Grossman & Dr. Ayelet N. Landau

 

Presidential stipend 2017/18

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Ofek Kehila

Department of Romance and Latin American Studies

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Subject: The Transformative Value of Rewriting in The Works of Reinaldo Arenas

Supervisor: Prof. Ruth Fine

Publications:

Kehila, Ofek, “The Episode of Manuel de Sosa Coitiño: A Story of Love, Madness and Death?”, Anales cervantinos 51 (2019): 179-196 (in Spanish).

 

Rotenstreich Scholarship 2019/2020

MA Honors Program 2015/2016

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Amit Levy

Dr. Amit Levy

Department of History

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Subject: The New Orient: German-Jewish Orientalism in Palestine/Israel

Supervisor: Prof. Yfaat Weiss and Dr. Aya Elyada

Abstract: In my PhD project, I study the history of Orientalism as an academic discipline in Palestine/Israel, and its German-Jewish roots, by focusing on the life and work of prominent German-Jewish orientalists who founded and developed the School of Oriental Studies at the Hebrew University. At the center of my work stands the transfer of orientalist knowledge, which embodied an essential transformation in the encounter with the Orient: from a scientific, textual encounter in Germany, to a living, physical encounter in Palestine/Israel. I attribute great importance to the circumstances and context of this transformation: the Aliyah/immigration of the orientalists, the transfer agents, whether out of Zionist aspirations or pragmatic considerations; and the great changes in the destination country - national Zionist consolidation and an intensifying Arab-Jewish conflict, in a place which was by and large an Arab space, in language and culture.
Therefore, I ask the following questions: how did immigration to Palestine/Israel affect the German-Jewish orientalists, both professionally and personally? What were the models that these scholars develop in order to mediate between the two ends of knowledge transfer? How were Oriental Studies in the Hebrew University shaped, when its German roots were confronted with the local population, the escalation of violence during the British Mandate period, the political and security needs of the Zionist establishment and the state of Israel, and other orientalist approaches?
This study draws from a rich corpus of archival documents from personal and institutional collections in Israel and abroad, as well as personal interviews.

Bio: I am a PhD student in the Department of History, where I also completed my BA (History & Political Science) and MA (History), both with distinction. During my studies I also participated in the Traces and Treasures of German-Jewish History project (a cooperation between the Franz Rosenzweig Minerva Research Center and DLA Marbach, Germany) - preserving, sorting and cataloging archival collections of German-Jewish orientalists in Israel. Born and raised in Jerusalem, I currently live in Givatayim. Married to Moran, father of Ahinoam. A retired amateur bass player.

Publications:

  • “The Archive as a Storyteller: Refractions of German-Jewish Oriental Studies Migration in Personal Archives,” Simon-Dubnow-Institut Yearbook XVII (2018, forthcoming). 
  • “Orientalist Collections at the National Library of Israel,” Geschichte der Germanistik 49/50 (2016), pp. 147-148.
  • “A Man of Contention: Martin Plessner (1900–1973) and His Encounters with the Orient,” Naharaim 10.1 (September 2016), pp. 79-100.
  • “'השייח': ניגודים ויזואליים ונרטיביים בדרך להבנת האוריינטליזם האמריקני בשלושה עשורי ניתוח”, סליל 10 (חורף 2016), עמ' 39-57.
  • “'מַעלֶש, נסתדר': ערבית בפולקלור הפלמ”ח של שנות הארבעים,” היה היה 11 (סתיו 2015), עמ' 46-66.

 

President stipend 2017/18

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Shachar livne

Dr. Shachar Livne

Department of General and Comparative Literature

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Subject: Deauthorizing Dante: Authorship and Readership between Dante and his 14th Century Poetic Heirs

Supervisor: Dr. Gur Zak

Abstract: Dante’s poetic authority and outstanding reputation is irrefutable today, however, in his days he was regarded as an experimental poet and amateur theologian and thinker whose status and literary abilities were questionable. Special attention was given to the authoritative tactics he employed in his Divine Comedy, in which he notably places himself as the heir of the classic literary tradition and casts Virgil as his guide and mentor, whom he will eventually surpass in the completion of his poetic and authoritative quest. One of the foremost techniques for attaining authority in his Commedia is indeed his ample use of Virgil’s epic, as he openly avails himself of Aeneas’s salvific journey to the new world and bases his own voyage upon this famous connotation, while also undermining the former text, reframing it so as to accommodate his own ideologies. 
This successful authoritative technique unintentionally prompts Dante’s 14th century poetic heirs—namely, Boccaccio, Petrarch, and Chaucer—to apply his method against him, as they use Dante’s fame and acclaim in order to substantiate their own positions as poets. Just like Dante negotiated his poetic authority vis-à-vis the Latin auctores, simultaneously validating Virgil’s poetry as well as negating his legacy and the classic tradition – his successors too employ the Commedia as foil for the construction of their auctoritas, both by relying on Dante’s established reputation and at the same time undermining his poetic choices.
This intriguing dynamic is the focus of this study, examined through two specific episodes which are rewritten by all three poets so as to challenge and question Dante’s authority and authorship. 

 

Shachar is currently a postdoctoral fellow, pursuing research of the cross-cultural as well as intertextual relations between the Italian literary tradition of the 14th century and the Medieval English nascent culture.

 

Azrieli Stipend 2017/18

President Stipend 2015/16

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Yehonatan Naeh

Yehonatan Naeh

Department of Romance and Latin American Studies 

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Subject: Spain's Golden Age Literary Genres in Historical Context: Control and Freedom under eyes of the Inquisition

Supervisor: Prof. Ruth Fine

Abstract: In my Ph.D. dissertation I plan to explore the literary mechanisms of two important Golden Age genres, the Pastoral Novel and the Picaresque Novel, in relation to the historical climate of Spain under the Inquisition. I hope that my research will bring about a new comprehension of the genres in question as well as better understanding of the fascinating complexity of the history of that period. 

Bio: I am a student of Latin languages and Spanish literature. I have studied in Spain (in Salamanca, in 2008, before I started my university studies, and in Granada, in 2016) and in Germany (in Göttingen, in 2012), but I did most of my studies in the Department of Romance and Latin American Studies at the Hebrew University. In my MA studies, I focused on Spanish literature of the golden age, and investigated, under the supervision of Prof. Ruth Fine, two literary genres: the Picaresque novel and the Pastoral novel. In my doctoral dissertation, I intend to expand the literary scope and the historical and social perspective. In addition to my academic activity, my main hobby is chess. I participate in competitions since 2002. I look forward with hope and curiosity to the next four years at Mandel School.

 

President stipend 2017/18

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Jonathan Najenson

Dr. Jonathan Najenson

Department of Philosophy

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Subject:  The unity of memory in neuroscience

Supervisor: Arnon Levy, Oron Shagrir

Abstract:  My PhD project centers on questions concerning the unity of memory as a scientific category in neurobiology.

Bio:  I specialize in philosophy of neuroscience and memory.

Presidential Scholarship 2017/18

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Yonatan_Negev

Yonatan Negev

Department of Arabic Language and Literature

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Subject: The Development of the Shi'a from an Arabic Phenomenon into a Persian-Iranian Phenomenon

Supervisor: Prof. Meir M. Bar-Asher and Dr. Michael Ebstein

Abstract: My research aims at studying the development of the Shi'ite sect , from an original Arabic phenomenon into a clearly Persian-Iranian one. Therefore, I seek to analyze Shi'ite compositions in Arabic and Persian which originated from the Shi'ite centers in Iran, starting from the 9th-10th centuries and ending in the 13th century. Such a study, I hope, would contribute greatly to disperse some of the vagueness surrounding the doctrinal and political development of the Shi'a, as to locating the roots of contemporary Shi'ite-Iranian trends.

Bio: I am a doctoral student in the department of Arabic Language and Literature. I completed my BA studies in the department of Arabic Language and Literature, and in the Department of Islamic and Middle-Eastern Studies, as well as a Teacher's Training diploma in the Arabic language. Among my fields of study are the Shi'ite sect in Islam, Islamic mysticism and Iranian-Persian studies. My MA dissertation studied the concept of 'Allah's Greatest Name', which reverberates through the Jewish concept of 'Shem Hameforash', in different Islamic groups.

 

Presidential stipend 2017/18

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