PhD - Alumni

Supervisor: Prof. Carl Posy

Abstract: I examine the relation between formality and normativity in logic, claiming that there is an inherent tension between the two. I seek to defuse that tension (so to speak) by providing phenomenological foundations for logic.

Rotenstreich Stipend 2014/15

Presidential Stipend 2012/13

Supervisor: Prof. Sarit Shalev-Eyni

Abstract: My area of research is illuminated Hebrew manuscripts from the late medieval ages. I believe that the research of these manuscripts is a fascinating and enriching way to learn about Jewish history. My PhD research deals with illuminated Hebrew medical texts from 15th century, Italy. In my research, I would like to explore the medical history and culture that is revealed from these scientific manuscripts, the way they were used, and their connection to Latin manuscripts, and to give a deeper insight into the relationship between Jewish doctors and artist.

Bio: PhD student. Department of Art History

Publications:

Gottlieb, Sivan. “‘Go and Learn’: The Ashkenazi and Italian Roots of the Sereni Haggadah." Ars Judaica (2018): 63-78.

Presidential Stipend 2016/17

supervisor: Prof. Oron Shagrir

Abstract: I am interested in the role representations have in accounting for our cognitive capacities.  The notion of mental representations might be the single most dominant explanatory posit in the cognitive sciences to date, yet the mysteriousness regarding the nature of representation and its role within our mind (or within theories of the mind) has withstood many years of debate.  The classic debate over the existence of representations has drawn a long standing line between representationalists, who believe cognition must include mental states or structures which represent (or have content/semantics/intentionality) and eliminativists, who believe cognitive theories should dispense with such notions of representation.  I aim to explore and argue for a third option, largely overlooked in the existing literature, which could be called the pragmatic view of representations.  On the pragmatic view, the mind in fact does not use representations but nevertheless- they are still necessary within our cognitive theories.  I intend to offer a complete and thorough account for a pragmatic view of representation in hope that it will help carve out significant room for this view within the traditional representationalist/eliminativist debate.

Presidential Stipend 2014/15

Subject: Musical Pan-Africanism - Ideology, Aesthetics and Technology

Supervisor: Prof. Louise Bethlehem and Prof. Edwin Seroussi

Bio: Yair received his BA in Psychology and Amirim Honors Program and his MA in Cultural Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In the last four years, he was a doctoral researcher in a European Research Council project "Apartheid--The Global Imaginary: South African Cultural Formations in Transnational Circulation 1948-1990", supervised by Prof. Louise Bethlehem. His dissertation research explores interrelations between music and political thought in post-colonial Africa, focusing primarily on Guinea and Côte d'Ivoire. Drawing on methodologies from ethnomusicology, cultural history, and cultural studies, his research seeks to illuminate the role of music created in transnational spaces in discourses of nationalism, decolonization, pan-Africanism, and modernity. His research was presented in international conferences in the U.S, Germany, South Africa, Senegal, and Ghana, and was published in the journals Social Dynamics and Interventions. He has also taught at the Hebrew University (musicology department) and Ben-Gurion University (African studies) courses on popular and African music. Besides his academic activity, Yair plays the guitar and the kora (a West African harp) and performs in international stages with the group Gulaza.

Publications:

Hashachar, Yair. 2017. “Playing the Backbeat in Conakry: Miriam Makeba and the Cultural Politics of Sékou Touré’s Guinea, 1968–1986.” Social Dynamics 43 (2): 259–73. https://doi.org/10.1080/02533952.2017.1364467.

Hashachar, Yair. 2018. "Guinea Unbound: Performing Pan-African Cultural Citizenship between Algiers 1969 and the Guinean National Festivals." Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369801X.2018.1508932

Rotenstreich Stipend 2018/19

Subject:  The Dynamics of Formulae in Biblical Psalms

Supervisor:  Prof. Michael Segal, Dr. Naphtali Meshel

Abstract:  I research the dynamic nature of recurring phrases (“formulae”) in the biblical Psalms. The Hebrew Psalter is a collection of religious poems written over hundreds of years. Poetic prayer in the Bible is highly formulaic, and many compositions consist primarily of traditional phrases. Like all components of language, poetic formulae undergo changes as they are repeated through the ages. Tracking the evolution of a single phrase requires meticulous comparisons of all extant examples within the tradition, including the entire Bible as well as Near-Eastern inscriptions in cognate languages. These diachronic developments often completely change the meaning of a phrase through reanalysis of its components, and they can reveal changes in culture, ideology, theology, and poetic aesthetics.

Bio: Itai Kagan has a B.A in Bible and Hebrew Linguistics from HUJI, and an M.A in Bible and in Mandel's School's Honorary Program. The focus of his research interests is the evolution of lexemes, formulae, texts and traditions in the Hebrew and general Semitic world. This includes analysis of diachronic changes in small textual units, starting from Ancient Near Eastern sources, through the Bible, Second Temple period and up to early Rabbinic material. More generally, he is interested in philological studies of Hebrew and Aramaic texts, and in Comparative Semitics.

Publications:

• "'מטעת אמת לעולם:' גלגוליו של מטבע לשון בספרות בית שני", מגילות טו (תשפ"א), עמ' 203–247
• "'ספר קללות: היומן של בייניש ברקוביץ, גטו נוֹבוֹגרוּדֶק, תש"ב–תש"ג", יד ושם: קובץ מחקרים מח (תש"ף), עמ' 59–87 (עברית), עמ' 71–107 (אנגלית)
• "האטימולוגיה של חֹק ושל חק"ק", בתוך: מ' ריז'יק (עורך), סוגיות בלשון המקרא, ירושלים תשע"ט, עמ' 278–298
• "נוסחאות חוק במגילת אסתר ובחגי ספר היובלים", מגילות יג (תשע"ז), עמ' 186–196
 

President Stipend 2018/19

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

Supervisor: Prof. Elhanan Yakira and Dr. Tatiana Karachentseva

Abstract: A philosophical-systematical description of the Marburg School and its main three philosophers: Hermann Cohen, Paul Natorp and Ernst Cassirer.

Objectives: 

1. To expose the inner philosophical way of reasoning of the Marburg neokantian systems. That in order to : (a) achieve a better articulation of some key concepts of these systems which are presently still ambiguous, (b) offer new answers to some old questions, (c) situate better the school’s philosophical direction within the history of philosophy in the beginning of the 20th century.
2. To give a clearer answer to the question what is ‘Kantiansm’ and ‘Neo-Kantianism’ according to school and to emphasise and examine their concept of kantianism as a clearly defined philosophical methodology.
3. To show the complexity and problematicalness in understanding the relation between ‘subjectivity’ and ‘objectivity’ in their philosophy, and to present this as a key to articulate deep differences between the three thinkers - a difference which is deeper than what is usually attributed to them.

To reveal the above mentioned inner differences under the following categories: as differences (a) in their ontological premises and ontolgical commitment [‘Being’], (b) in defining the basic principle of objectification and scientificity [‘Prinicple’], (c) in defining what gives a unity to all directions of objectification [‘System’], (d) in defining the objective “material” from which the ways of objectification are to be extracted and how should they be extracted  [‘Method’] (e) the meaning of ‘Subject’ when it becomes a distinct object of their systematical inquiry 

Presidential Stipend 2012/13

Supervisor: Prof. David Fishelov

Abstract: My dissertation addresses the notion of internal canon, namely the selection of works associated with each artist. Many times, only a small portion of an artist's body of work becomes widely known. James Joyce, for example, is widely recognized as the author of the novels Ulysses and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, however few are aware that Joyce was also a poet and dramatist. Although this phenomenon touches most if not all artists of all mediums, it is rarely studied. In my dissertation I focused on a couple of writers and tried to determine which are their most canonical works by examining academic studies, literary anthologies, universities' syllabi, translations, literary adaptations and so on. In addition, I explored in which ways this limited selection of works with which these writers are identified is or isn't representative of their entire artistic production.