PhD - Current

Subject: Parafiction Art in Israel and Palestine

Supervisor: Dr Noam Gal

Abstract: My research examines the phenomenon of parafiction art in Israel and Palestine in the past two decades. Parafiction art was first defined in 2009 as works of art that imitate, make believe, fake or create fictive stories, events or people, which are then grounded in the world and are experienced as facts. I would like to offer that the unique parafictional aesthetic representation, and its relation to questions of truth and belief, should be examined in light of the specific geopolitical context of its creation. Focusing on the geopolitical context of Israel and Palestine will allow me to consider the definition of parafiction art critically, to examine its validity, and to offer a typology based on case studies. Case studies include works by Public Movement, Tamir Zadok, Khalil Rabah and Khaled Jarrar, among rest, and will be read using reception theories.  

Bio: I hold an MA in Critical Writing in Art and Design from the Royal College of Art, London, and a BA in Interdisciplinary Program in the Arts and Psychology from Tel Aviv University. Currently, I am a PhD student at the Art History Department, where I research parafiction art in Israel and Palestine in the last two decades, supervised by Dr. Noam Gal. I am also an art writer and critic, and contribute regularly to various art magazines such as Erev Rav, ArtReview, Mousse, Frieze, art-agenda, ARTnews, and Art Monthly, as well as to various catalogues. I lead an art magazine reading group in Tel Aviv, and guide workshops in art writing and criticism in art schools, such as Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem, Shenkar College of Engineering and Design; Ramat Gan, Faculty of Arts – Hamidrasha, Beit Berl College and Minshar School of Art, Tel Aviv. 

Publications: 

2021 – (forthcoming, accepted) “From Unaware Participants to Aware Spectators: Parafiction Art in Israel and Palestine as Case Study” (tentative title), Walking with the Enemy: Reclaiming the Language of Power and Manipulation in the Post-Truth Era, eds. Gediminas Gasparavicius, Maia Toteva and Tom Williams.

2021 – (forthcoming, awaiting publication) “The Double, the Fictional and the Critical: On the (Im)Possibility of an Ontology for the Contemporary Work of Art” (Hebrew), Bezalel Journal of Visual and Material Culture, Issue no. 7: Philosophy and The Arts, ed. Adam Aboulafia.

2015 – “The Melting Pot: Parafiction Art in Israel and Palestine”, JAWS: Journal of Arts Writing by Students, Vol. 1 No. 1.
 

President Stipend 2018/19

Supervisor: Nigel Goring-Morris

Abstract: The doctoral dissertation focuses on one of the important developments in the of ancient hunting methods in the southern Levant. This change took place during the transition between the transition from the Upper Paleolithic to the Epipaleolithic periods (some 25,000 years ago), due to the development of microlithic tools (small stone tools, carefully designed in standard shapes, used to form composite projectile tools).
The study examines stone tool assemblages from several sites in the southern Levant from the end of the Upper Paleolithic and the beginning of the Epipaleolithic. By combine three different methods to analyze stone tool production (attribute analysis, experimental knapping and core refitting) the study aims to trace the source of this change and its evolution in terms of chronology, technology and style.
 

Bio: I have a BA and MA from the Classics Department of the Hebrew University. My PhD study deals with the verbal conceptualization of nonverbal cues in Ancient Greek. I am also interested in Greek phraseology in general, Greek sociolinguistics, representation of interpersonal communicative conventions in classical literature and characterization techniques in Greek literature. Also, I teach Greek and Latin and write and translate poetry (in and into Hebrew).

Publications:

From Jonah to Jesus and back: three Ways of Characterization and their Reverse Application (Paper in proccess)

President Stipend 2018/19

Supervisor:  Dr. Jonathan Vardi 

Abstract:  During the 15th century, while Europe is swept by the Renaissance, numerous Jews of various ‎origins immigrate to Italy. Hebrew writers from Ashkenaz, Provence and Spain, alongside their ‎coreligionists of the local Italian communities, combine trends and traditions, composing a ‎literature that merges the religious and the secular, the old and the contemporary, the ‎imported and the local. ‎
My research begins with "Niv Sefataim (“Fruit of the Lips”), a collection of over 120 poems ‎written by Yosef Zark, an immigrant from Spain, and his circle of associates in northern Italy. ‎Through the network of relationships and exchanges reflected in this collection, I examine the ‎history and poetics of 15th-century Hebrew poetry in Italy.‎

Bio:  A graduate student in the department of Hebrew literature. I have studied my B.A. and M.A. in Jerusalem, first in Hebrew literature and Philosophy, later specializing in Medieval literature. I work mainly on Hebrew poetry written in Medieval and Renaissance Italy, and maintains an interest in analytic theories of literature and the philosophy of imagination.

President Stipend 2021/22

MA Alumni 2019/20