About

Location

Israel

Ayelet Harel

Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Conflict Management and Resolution Program, Faculty Member

Other Affiliations:
Ben Gurion University of the Negev, I-CORE center for the Study of Conversion and Inter-Religious Encounters, Department MemberBen Gurion University of the Negev, Politics and Government, Department Member
add
Research Interests:
Political Science, Comparative Politics, Peace and Conflict Studies, Race and Ethnicity, Conflict Resolution, Minority Studies, and 36 moreEthnic and Racial Studies, Indian Politics, Islam in India, Area Studies, Indigenous Politics, History of India, Comparative Religion, Abrahamic Religions, Religious Conversion, Languages and Linguistics, Democracy, India, South Asia, Israel Studies, Hindi/Urdu, Islamic Law, Islam and Human Rights, Culture, Communities, Post-Conflict and Deeply Divided Societies, Feminist International Relations, Feminist Security Studies, Religion, Women in the Military, Israel/Palestine, Minority Rights, Gender, South Asian Studies, Religion and Society, Critical Security Studies, Religion and Politics, Ethnic Studies, Gender Studies, Feminism, Gender Mainstreaming in conflict zone, and Space and Placeedit
About:
AYELET HAREL (PhD) is a Professor of Political Science at the Conflict Management and Resolution Program, and the Dep... moreAYELET HAREL (PhD) is a Professor of Political Science at the Conflict Management and Resolution Program, and the Department of Politics and Government Ben-Gurion University, Israel. Her scholarly interests center on Critical military Studies; Feminist IR; Deeply Divided Societies; Gender and Politics, India; and Israeli Society and Politics.

She is the author of The Challenge of Sustaining Democracy in Deeply Divided Societies: Citizenship, Rights, and Ethnic Conflicts in India and Israel. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield - Lexington Press, 2010; co-editor of Affect, Interest, and Political Entrepreneurs in Ethnic and Religious Conflicts. New-York & London: Routledge, 2018 (with Arthur Stein).
Her last book was recently awarded ERGOMAS Guiseppe Caforio Book Award 2021 published by Oxford University Press in 2020, Binaries in Security Studies: A Gendered Analysis of Women in Combat, Oxford University press (co-authored with Shir Daphna-Tekoah).

Prof. Harel won the 2017 Glatt teaching award for the 10 best professors at Ben-Gurion University and is also the 2018 recipient of the AIS - Israel Institute Young Scholars Award. The prize is given jointly by AIS and the Israel Institute to researchers under the age of 45 who have made a unique and significant contribution to Israel Studies. Recently, she also won the Roth prize for being an inspiring professor in 2021.

More info could be found here - https://ayeleths.wixsite.com/homeedit
Advisors:
edit

Books

Download (.pdf)

The collective monograph “The Role of a Woman in Jewish World” is a continuation of the scientific discussion that began in December 2019 within the framework of the international scientific conference “The Role of a Woman in Jewish World: from the Prophetess Deborah to Ada Yonath”, in which Russian and Israeli experts took part. Our main goal was to create a space for dialogue between experts from different disciplines to examine the dynamics of changing attitudes towards women from ancient Israel to modern times. The internationally recognized Israeli writer Orly Castel- Bloom was a special guest of the event. This book became a kind of continuation of the discussion of issues and ideas that we began to talk about at the event. In Russian science, gender issues are already reflected in the works of numerous researchers (for example, N. L. Pushkareva and others), in addition, one can see an increasing interest in the study of the role of women in the modern East and even the creation of whole separate scientific areas (for example, gender studies at the Higher School of Economics, Center for Gender Studies at the Institute of Anthropology and Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Sciences or the Gender Studies Group of the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences). An equally important contribution to the study of gender issues in Jewish history and tradition is made by the staff of the Center for Biblical and Judaic Studies of the Russian State University for the Humanities, in particular Galina Zelenina. Yet a comprehensive study covering different periods of Jewish history has not been done. Our collective monograph is intended to fill the existing niche in Israel studies in Russia, as well as to become an impetus for further study of the topics raised in it. The monograph is aimed at already established experts, as well as at those who are beginning of their scientific career, scientists and students studying history, economics, politics and gender problems of the State of Israel. Within the framework of this work, the focus was on the historical aspects and the modern life of a Jewish woman. At the same time, in our opinion, this monography may also be of interest to everyone who is interested in the problems discussed in it or Jewish and / or Israeli history as a whole. We express our gratitude for assistance in promoting the creation of this monograph to the Embassy of the State of Israel in Moscow, the Russian Jewish Congress, in particular the RJC Women’s League, and the Jewish Agency for Israel (Sokhnut). We express our special gratitude to everyone who contributed directly to this monograph and “breathed life into it.”

Page Numbers: 338

Publication Date: 2020

Publication Name: Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences

Research Interests:
Gender Studies, Jewish History, Israel, and Jewish Women's History

Download (.pdf)

ספר חדש על המדף בהוצאת פרדס!

Publication Date: 2021

Publication Name: פרדס

Research Interests:
Gender Studies, International Relations, Women's Studies, War Studies, Political Science, and 2 moreTrauma Studies and Military

Download (.pdf)

שילוב נשים בתפקידי לחימה בצבא מעורר דיון ציבורי סוער ומעסיק את החברה הישראלית בעשורים האחרונים. ויכוחים חריפים על סוגיה זו ניטשים בזירות שונות — צבאיות ואזרחיות כאחד. האם נשים מסוגלות למלא תפקידים אלו? והאם ראוי שנשים ימלאו תפקידים אלו? הן רק שתיים מהשאלות, אשר השיח עליהן משפיע על חיי הנשים בישראל, על מבנה הצבא ועל החברה בכללותה.
בספר מובא, באמצעות סיפורן של עשרות חיילות, סיפור הקרב הכפול של נשים ששירתו בתפקידי לחימה ובתפקידים תומכי לחימה בצה"ל. הקרב הכפול שלהן מתרחש בשדה הקרב (בו הן חשופות לטראומה כתוצאה מהפעילות המבצעית), וכן בחזית המאבק בכוחות המתנגדים להשתלבות נשים בתפקידי לחימה.
הספר מבקש להרחיב את היריעה האקדמית והחברתית שאפשר להפיק מניסיונן של נשים כשהן עומדות במרכז ולא כתוספת שולית לנושא הנחקר. הניתוח תקף לא רק לישראל, אלא מציע תובנות משמעותיות הן על שירות נשים בתפקידים קרביים והן על סוגיות רחבות יותר הבוחנות את הקשרים שבין מגדר למלחמה, לטראומה ולפוליטיקה. יתרה מזו, באמצעות הבלטת נקודת המבט של נשים בצבא, הספר מלמד גם על השירות הצבאי ועל החוויות של גברים לוחמים בצבא. הספר מדגיש את הדיכוטומיות הפגומות הרווחות בחקר המלחמה, האלימות והקרב, ומערער עליהן על ידי הצגה וניתוח של נרטיבים מפי מאה לוחמות משוחררות, המספרות את חוויותיהן בסביבה של סכסוך ומלחמה.
https://www.pardes.co.il/?id=showbook&catnum=978-1-61838-804-9

Publication Date: 2021

Publication Name: Pardes פרדס

Research Interests:
International Relations, Social Work, Feminist Theory, Security Studies, Trauma Studies, and 5 moreIsrael, Military, Idf, Health Science, and Women in Combat

Download (.pdf)

More Info: 9780190072582 ISBN

Page Numbers: 158

Publication Date: Jan 2020

Publication Name: Oxford University Press

Research Interests:
International Relations, War Studies, Security Studies, Gender, Feminist International Relations, and 4 moreTrauma, Military, Women in Combat, and Feminist Security Studies

Download (.pdf)

In the current environment, most political violence occurs between internal
communities, such as ethnic and religious groups, rather than between states.
Such inter-communal conflict threatens both internal political stability and
interstate relations. In this edited volume, a multidisciplinary and multinational group of scholars analyze the bases of inter-communal conflict and its
domestic and international consequences.

The authors focus on inter-communal conflict through the lenses of political struggles in the Middle East and Asia, which provide fertile grounds for
assessing the viability of new social constructions and the continuing impact
of ancestral ties. Containing theoretical, regional, and country studies, the
chapters tackle such issues as: the implications of changes in the institutional
rules for political competition; how explanatory narratives for conflict are
selected when multiple attributions are possible; the bases of ideological
conflict that have arisen within Islam; the problems of ethnic competition that
remain unresolved in powersharing arrangements; the consequences for
international relations when national boundaries do not circumscribe ethnic
and religious communities; and the subordination of women’s interests to reli-
gious conflict and its resolution. Since identities are shaped by multiple quali-
ties, the contributions examine the role of ideologies, institutions, and
politicians in shaping political cleavages, communities, and conflicts.

Publication Date: 2018

Publication Name: ROUTLEDGE

Research Interests:
Gender Studies, Comparative Politics, International Relations, Political Economy, Religion and Politics, and 2 morePolitical Science and Race and Ethnicity

Download (.pdf)

Publisher: Cambridge University Press and Foundation Books.

Research Interests:
Political Science

Download (.pdf)

Publication Name: BOOK - Lexington Press

Research Interests:
Comparative Politics and Political Science

Download (.pdf)

Papers

In Israel, most citizens are obligated to serve in the military for a mandatory period of about two and a half years and subsequently in the reserve forces for about 21-45 days per year up to the age of 44. Many veterans continue to serve in the reserves for even longer periods. However, uncharacteristically, during 2023, reservists were linked to the social protest in Israel. The ever-widening public protest in Israel was unprecedented. Every Saturday night, from January 2023 until the War of October 7th began, 5–10 percent of the Israeli population headed out to demonstrate in the streets of various cities and regions against the anti-democratic legislation that was under consideration or had been passed. Among the protesters were many citizens serving in the reserve forces—some still doing their mandatory reserve duty and others who were no longer obligated to serve but volunteered to do so. These opponents of government policy voiced their protest, saying loud and clear that if the legislation continued, they would not serve, unless a war would erupt; indeed. many of them had already quit the reserves only to rejoin when the October War started. And thus, without intending to do so, the army (or at least parts of the army) has become a political player in the political struggle currently taking place in Israel. The wide-ranging protest in Israel and the massive number of reservists who had voiced a decision not to show up for reserve duty are indications of an unprecedented social phenomenon in Israel that is worthy of scholarly attention. How do we, as critical scholars put an identity on the military? Is it a part of the state? Is it an autonomic body? How do we interpret situations in which the military is more democratic than the government and the state?

DOI: 10.1080/23337486.2024.2324210

Publication Name: Critical Military Studies

Research Interests:
War Studies, Political Science, Democracy, Military and Politics, Idf, and 2 moreVeterans and Military Reserves

Download (.pdf)

ליאור לנדר, אפרת הוס ואילת הראל

Publication Date: 2024

Publication Name: נייר עמדה

Research Interests:
War Studies, Military and Politics, and Military Reserve and National Guard

Download (.pdf)

The current research aims to explore the nature of trauma experienced by female combatants. Method: Data were collected from two focus groups and a series of personal interviews with 100 women military veterans who had served in the Israel Defense Forces as combat or combat-support soldiers. Results: Interviews with these veterans revealed a variety of narratives about their war experiences, including an intertwining of the emotional and the physical. The ongoing danger and traumatic events that the combatants and combat-support soldiers faced on a daily basis were woven into their stories. These narratives indicated that-alongside their exposure to traumatic and potentially life-threatening situations-the soldiers also felt empowered and valued as a result of their military service. The women soldiers' perspectives regarding their military service covered three main themes, "experiencing trauma," "meaningful combat experiences," and "the need to be heard." Conclusions: Through qualitative research and narrative analysis, this study offers mental health professionals, policy makers, and scholars ways to gain a nuanced insight into women's combat trauma that avoids categorization. Based on the research findings, we suggest that additional aspects of trauma can be understood through the study of women soldiers, who face a "double battle"-combat, with the attendant trauma, and the gendered biases of the masculine military environment. Our findings suggest that there is value in engaging with and listening to diverse narratives of trauma and emphasize the need for a critical perspective in the study of trauma and combat trauma. Clinical Impact Statement The research sought to listen attentively to narratives of women combatants and combat-support soldiers with the aim to find the most appropriate means to make their voices heard and to reveal their military experience, including their trauma as well as their strengths and capabilities. Examining the military experience as a whole, and not merely the traumatic events, may assist mental health professionals to deepen the understanding of the experiences of women in the military and to create a more equitable military environment. Consequently, the research provides data to inform policy decisions and to help create effective support programs for veterans.

DOI: 10.1037/tra0001622

Publication Date: 2023

Publication Name: Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy

Research Interests:
Social Work, Feminist Theory, War Studies, Gender, Feminist International Relations, and 5 moreTrauma, Military, Veterans, Combat trauma, and Women in Combat

Download (.pdf)

פציעה מוסרית לאומית התמודדות לטווח ארוך עם טראומה, אלימות, כאב ואכזבה... more

פציעה מוסרית לאומית
התמודדות לטווח ארוך עם טראומה, אלימות, כאב ואכזבה

https://www.kriot.co.il/%D7%A4%D7%A6%D7%99%D7%A2%D7%94-%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%A1%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%AA-%D7%9C%D7%90%D7%95%D7%9E%D7%99%D7%AA-%D7%94%D7%AA%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%93%D7%93%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%9C%D7%98%D7%95%D7%95%D7%97-%D7%90%D7%A8/

Publication Date: 2023

Publication Name: קריאות ישראליות

Research Interests:
Terrorism, War Studies, Trauma, Moral Injury, Betrayal, and Collective Trauma

Download (.pdf)

Chapter no 7 - in an edited volume.
This book explores the why and the how of women's participation in armed struggle, and challenges preconceived assertions about women and violence, providing both a historic and a contemporary focus. The volume is about women who have participated in armed conflict as members of an armed group, trained in military action, with different tasks within the conflict. The chapters endeavor to make women's own voices heard, to discover the untold stories of women as perpetrators and facilitators of military violence, and the authors do this through the use of personal interviews and the study of primary documents. The work widens the geographical perspective of feminist security studies to discover in what ways the historical, political and social context has motivated the women to participate in military action, and presents new case study data from Germany, Ukraine, Turkey, Israel, Palestine, Cameroon, India, the Philippines, Vietnam and Latin America. Temporally, the chapters cover almost two centuries, from the late 19th century to the present day, touching upon a wide variety of examples of armed conflict, from wars of independence to the Second World War. Bringing together approaches from politics, history, anthropology and area studies, the chapters are informed by the fundamental insights of feminist research and address such pivotal questions as hegemonic masculinity in the armed forces and the relation between women's armed violence and female agency. This book will be of much interest to students and researchers in gender and security studies, armed conflict and history.

Publication Date: 2023

Publication Name: Female Fighters in Armed Conflict Listening to Their Own Stories

Research Interests:
Gender Studies, War Studies, Politics, Military and Politics, Narratives, and Women in Combat

Download (.pdf)

Abstract: The past few decades have witnessed significant increases in levels of education among women members of conservative religions. Contrary to the expectations of both researchers and policymakers, this trend has not been accompanied by decreases in levels of piety. The purpose of this article is to explore what it means to educated religious women to belong to conservative religious communities that embody values and practices that do not conform to the values of modernity
associated with exposure to higher education. On the basis of a series of group interviews with educated Jewish Haredi women in Israel, we examined this very question. We found that the women we interviewed demonstrated a deep pride in their religious identity and an ongoing and
strong commitment to their community. At the same time, they regarded membership in their community as a form of social capital enabling them to secure a wide array of benefits, which provided compensation for the demand to conform to conservative practices. We conclude that through a process of exchange (social capital against the price of conforming), the women challenge existing norms while maintaining strong religious identities, taking part in democratic processes, and, together, forging articulated bonds of membership and belonging.

DOI: 10.3390/rel14081020

Volume: 14

Page Numbers: 1020

Publication Date: 2023

Publication Name: Religions

Research Interests:
Education, Women's Studies, Israel Studies, Belonging, Agency, and 2 moreDemocracy in Deeply Divided Societies and ultra-Orthodox

Download (.pdf)

Publication Date: 2023

Publication Name: חברה צבא וביטחון לאומי

Research Interests:
War Studies, Protest, Israel, Military, Idf, and Reserve Forces

Download (.pdf)

A chapter in Female Fighters in Armed Conflict - Listening to Their Own Stories, edited By Béatrice Hendrich, Routledge.
PP. 128-147.

Publication Date: 2023

Publication Name: Female Fighters in Armed Conflict - Listening to Their Own Stories

Research Interests:
Gender Studies, International Relations, War Studies, Political Science, and Women in Combat

Download (.pdf)

Recently, a colleague gave me a compliment (I think); he said that in a recent controversy in my academic community (in which the misconduct of some senior colleagues was under discussion), I had acted like the child in “The Emperor’s New Clothes” who reveals and expresses outrage that the Emperor is naked. He said that I was one of a few who had dared to speak up. In that incident, as in others, I do tend to speak up, even if this speaking up or expressing an opinion has consequences. This “compliment” led me to think about positionalities in academia and in other contexts – whether one tends to speak up or to be silent, while considering one’s own rank, gender, race, location, and other positionalities. Eviatar Zerubavel’s (2006) brilliant book The Elephant in the Room: Silence and Denial in Everyday Life starts with the tale of “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” From there, it builds into an exploration of the social patterning of conspiracies of silence – the active collective avoidance of saying particular things, or the tendency to favor the silencing of problematic incidents in the name of discretion, convenience, or public order. Studies of feminism and activism regularly deal with the presence of the “elephant,” in that discussion about silences is very much on the feminist agenda; indeed, it pervades feminist research and epistemologies seeking to identify voice as an expression of women’s agency (Parpart and Parashar 2018). Critical scholars and feminists are thus often drawn to investigating and exploring those actors who tend to speak up. This trend might represent, perhaps, wishful thinking on the part of those scholars who want to believe that the research participants in feminist studies would always be in a position to resist patriarchy, point out injustices (whatever they are), and speak up. But

Publisher: Informa UK Limited

Publication Date: 2020

Publication Name: International Feminist Journal of Politics

Research Interests:
Sociology, Feminist Theory, Social Sciences, Research Methodology, Qualitative methodology, and 6 morePolitical Science, Politics, Voice, Carol Gilligan, Silences, and Feminist Politics

גיליון זה מוקדש לעיון מעמיק בנקודות ההשקה, החפיפה וההתנגשות הסוערות בין לאום, דת ומגדר, ובהרחבה אף מעמד ואתניות, בהקשר המקומי הסבוך שבו אנו חיים. דת, לאום ומגדר אינם ניתנים להפרדה – ברמה המושגית הם נבנים הדדית וברמה הפוליטית וברמת החוויה היום-יומית מתקיימת ביניהם אינטראקציה (הרצוג, 2014; Herzog and Braude, 2009). גיליון זה עוסק בשאלה: כיצד הצטלבויות בין דת, מגדר ולאום מכוננות תצורות שונות של כוח, זהות, משמעות, מבנים וגבולות חברתיים וסימבוליים? כיצד ההצטלבויות יוצרות הזדמנויות או חסמים לשוויון מגדרי ולאזרחות מלאה עבור נשים שונות החיות כאן בעת הזו? המאמרים דנים במגוון מקרי בוחן הנטועים במציאות הישראלית/פלסטינית המורכבת. נקודת המוצא היא הצטלבותיות ומגוון, והמאמרים בוחנים את הדרכים שבהן קטגוריות חברתיות-פוליטיות, זהויות ואסטרטגיות פעולה מתעצבות היום בישראל, בדגש על חוויות החיים של נשים יהודיות (חילוניות, מסורתיות, חרדיות ודתיות, אשכנזיות ומזרחיות) וערביות פלסטיניות (דרוזיות, בדואיות ומוסלמיות). הגיליון מתבונן במארג החברתי ובמערך המדינתי הישראלי מן השוליים, תוך הרהור בשאלה האפיסטמית, הפוליטית והאתית – מה מתגלה כאשר שמים במרכז התמונה את השוליים, או כאשר מתבוננים במרכז מנקודת המבט של השוליים? במקום להציג תמונת מצב סטטית, המאמרים בגיליון מתמקדים בתמורות, במתחים ובדינמיקות, ומבקשים לברר כיצד מתחולל שינוי ביחסים בין קבוצות שונות לבין עצמן, וגם ביחסים בינן למדינה.
הגיליון חושף מנגנונים שמהווים כיום חסמים משמעותיים או פתחים לשינוי עומק במבני הכוח המגדריים, הלאומיים והתרבותיים-דתיים, על מגוון הזיקות ביניהם. התופעות הנחקרות מתקיימות במקביל במרחב המקומי העכשווי אך רובן טרם נחקרו, ובוודאי שלא נידונו זה לצד זו. אנו מאמינות שהניתוח שלהן רלוונטי גם מעבר לגבולותיה של ישראל, ותורם לדיון על מגדר, דת ולאומיות במרחב המזרח-תיכוני בפרט ובעולם בכלל.

Volume: 32

Publication Date: 2022

Publication Name: Politics / פוליטיקה

Research Interests:
Religion, Women's Studies, Israel Studies, Political Science, Israel/Palestine, and 3 moreGender, Minority Studies, and Intersectionality

Download (.pdf)

ההגנה על זכויות האזרח היא רכיב מרכזי בהגדרתה של מדינה דמוקרטית. ואכן, ההיסטוריה של הדמוקרטיה היא במידה רבה ההיסטוריה של התפתחות זכויות האזרח. מאז הופעתה של התנועה הפמיניסטית בסוף המאה ה-19, למחויבות להגנה על זכויות האישה יש מקום גדל והולך בזכויות הללו. בעידודם של ארגונים בין-לאומיים כגון האו"ם והארגון לשיתוף פעולה ולפיתוח כלכלי (OECD), משטרים דמוקרטיים מצהירים בימינו על מחויבותם לקידום זכויות נשים ולהגנה עליהן, ומחויבות זו נחשבת סממן מובהק של התפתחות פוליטית וכלכלית. בד בבד, השיח על שוויון מגדרי, זכויות נשים והגנה עליהן הולך ומסתבך בשל הצורך לכלול בו התייחסות להגירה, לתרבויות מיעוטים, לערכי תרבות ולהשתייכות דתית ותרבותית – כולן סוגיות שמעוררות שאלות מהותיות על טבעו של השוויון המגדרי ועל תפקיד המדינה באחריות לשמירה על ביטחונן של נשים ולהבטחת שוויון הזכויות שלהן.
מאמר זה בוחן באופן ביקורתי את תפקידה של המדינה בהגנה על נשים וחוקר את ההקשרים הרחבים שבהם מדינות יוצרות תפיסות של ביטחון וחוסר ביטחון של נשים. אנו טוענות שהמושג ביטחון אונטולוגי חיוני להבנה עמוקה יותר של מגוון המניעים של המדינה בהתייחסותה לנשים מקבוצות מיעוטים ולזכותן להגנה. אנו בוחנות את הקשר בין תפיסות של ביטחון אונטולוגי ברמת הפרט וברמת המדינה ואת היחסים המורכבים שביניהן.
אנו בוחנות סוגיות אלו בהקשר של מדיניות ישראל בנוגע לפוליגמיה. אומנם הפוליגמיה אסורה בישראל על פי חוק, אך היא נפוצה מאוד באוכלוסייה הבדואית בנגב, ואכיפת האיסור רופפת ביותר. במאמר זה אנו מנתחות את השינוי שחל לאחרונה בעמדת המדינה לגבי פוליגמיה ומראות את הדרכים שבהן מדינות משתמשות ביסודות של ביטחון אונטולוגי כדי להצדיק את המדיניות שלהן כלפי מיעוטים, ובעיקר כלפי נשים מקבוצות מיעוט. ניתוח מדיניותה של ישראל לגבי פוליגמיה מבעד לעדשה של ביטחון אונטולוגי חושף את ההקשרים העמוקים והמורכבים שמתקיימים בין היבטים מגדריים, דתיים ולאומיים, כפי שהם באים לידי ביטוי במרחב הפוליטי.

Publication Date: 2022

Publication Name: פוליטיקה

Research Interests:
Religion, Women's Studies, Political Science, Politics, Gender, and 2 moreMinority Studies and Ontological Security

Download (.pdf)

Page Numbers: 109-136

Publication Date: 2022

Publication Name: עבודה סוציאלית תחת אש Social Work Under Fire

Research Interests:
Social Work, Violence, War Studies, Military and Politics, Trauma, and 2 moreVeterans and Combat trauma

Download (.pdf)

Publisher: Frontiers Media SA

Publication Date: 2021

Publication Name: Frontiers in Psychology

Research Interests:
Psychology, Military Veterans, Combat Veterans, War Studies, Political Science, and 6 moreGender, Women, Trauma, Military, Combat PTSD, and Frontiers in Psychology

Download (.pdf)

Feminists and Critical Theorists have long acknowledged the importance of methodologies in research frameworks. They also highlight the necessity for deconstruction as a means to question normalized hierarchies concerning the production of knowledge. These considerations are particularly true in the context of studying violent conflicts, trauma, security, and insecurity. However, to reach a sensitive research framework for examining war experiences, a suitable methodology is critical. Our study implements the Listening Guide method in analyzing the experiences of women in combat. We emphasize the merits of the Listening Guide in the context of research about complex, challenging, and traumatic contexts-in our case the environment of war and armed conflicts. By implementing the Listening Guide, our findings unpack voice and undermine the binary distinctions of active versus passive women, agency versus fragility, women engaged in violence versus women as victims of violence, and silence versus voice, all through the prism of the combatants&#39; multilayered war experiences, as perceived by the combatants themselves. The shift between the combatants&#39; various voices indicated that the &quot;psychological&quot; is not detached from the &quot;political.&quot; By directing scholars to attune themselves to the ways in which interviewees present themselves before they begin to interpret the interviewees&#39; narratives and by guiding them in a search for parallel and silenced voices, the Listening Guide methodology helps researchers peel away the outer layers of perceptions and experiences of war and conflict, thereby allowing new angles and perspectives to emerge.

Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)

Publication Date: 2021

Publication Name: Qualitative psychology journal

Research Interests:
Psychology, Combat Veterans, War Studies, Militarism, Qualitative Research, and 4 moreMilitary, Voices In Translation, Qualitative Psychology, and Listening Guide

Publisher: Springer Singapore

Publication Date: 2021

Publication Name: The Palgrave International Handbook of Israel

Research Interests:
Gender Studies, Military Veterans, Political Science, Feminist International Relations, Israel, and 2 moreMilitary and Conscription

Download (.pdf)

The book focuses on the importance of the study of women combat soldiers and veterans in the fields of Security Studies and International Relations. The chapter addresses this issue by bringing women’s voices and silences to the forefront of research in these domains and by presenting women soldiers as narrators of war and conflict through their alternative and very personal stories. The pivotal motif that runs through the book is the theoretical framework it provides for understanding the process of integration of women soldiers into combat and combat-support roles and the challenges they face. The research seeks to explore narratives of women as violent actors rather than as women struggling for peace. The book prompts scholars to be critical of widely accepted knowledge and binary conceptions in military studies. Chapter 1 outlines the book’s rationale, the research framework, the context of the research, and the contents of the subsequent chapters.

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Publication Date: 2019

Publication Name: Breaking the Binaries in Security Studies

The literature concurs that war is the friend of binarisms, leaving little place for complex identities. This concurrence is the starting point of this scholarly investigation. The chapter addresses the important lack in Critical Studies on Security of narrative research on violent state actors. To understand violence, however, scholars must listen to and explore the narratives of those who are committing violence in the context of armed conflicts. Chapter 2, then, presents the authors’ perspectives about engaging with violent state actors in a non-binary manner and lays down the theoretical foundation of the book. The chapter prompts scholars to be critical of widely accepted knowledge and binary conceptions in military studies. The chapter thus seeks ways to produce emancipatory knowledge and to be critical without being exclusionary, thereby expanding the framework of Feminist IR and knowledge about women in combat.

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Publication Date: 2019

Publication Name: Breaking the Binaries in Security Studies

Research Interests:
Sociology and Oxford university

Chapter 6 concludes the book with a discussion about the gendered meaning of protection in the military and an exploration of changing gender roles in the military in the context of the evolvement of the new war. It further discusses the false dichotomy between “feminine care” and “masculine protection” in the context of women in the military. In addition, the chapter provides a summary and a comprehensive analysis of veteran women soldiers’ narratives of security and insecurity. It also presents theoretical insights and final reflective remarks on the implications of our findings. The stationing of women in a variety of combat and combat-support roles in conflict zones and in conflicted border areas challenge traditional concepts of security, war, and gender roles. The narratives of women soldiers serving in such roles can thus provide critical insights into the nature of women’s involvement in the act of making war and the possible militarization of women.

Publication Date: 2019

Research Interests:
Sociology

Chapter 5 addresses narratives of women in combat and in combat-support roles regarding their bodily experiences and struggles to integrate in traditionally masculine roles in the military, particularly in the light of objections to women’s integration into combat forces. Accounts of bodily experiences disturb conventional IR and hegemonic masculine war metanarratives, whose tendency is either to abstract or to glorify combat (or both). These otherwise silenced narratives reveal juxtapositions of feelings of competence and vulnerability. The chapter shows how women combatants situate themselves in a masculine environment and demonstrates the ways in which, having crossed the pre-established imaginary boundary between male and female, they form unique meanings for their war experiences. Through the women’s narratives, issues of body and sex/gender are addressed, alongside nuanced interpretations of what it means to be feminine or masculine in the military environment, to carry a weap...

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Publication Date: 2019

Publication Name: Breaking the Binaries in Security Studies

Research Interests:
Psychology and Oxford university

Publisher: Rethinking Silence, Voice and Agency in Contested Gendered Terrains

Publication Date: 2019

Publication Name: Rethinking Silence, Voice and Agency in Contested Gendered Terrains

Research Interests:
Psychology

In this article, we examine the special challenges posed by the practice of polygamy to minority women, focusing on the ways that the state and the women confront the related experiences of violence and trauma associated with this practice. Based on analysis of both policy and interviews with women, we demonstrate the tension between the different mechanisms adopted by the state as opposed to those adopted by the women themselves. We suggest that the concept of ontological security is valuable for a deeper understanding of the range of state motivations in cases related to minority women, violence, and the right for protection. Our case study is the Bedouin community in Israel. We explore the relationship between individual and state-level conceptions of violence and trauma and the complex relationship between these two. We examine state discourses of ontological security through a gendered lens, as frameworks of belonging and mechanisms of exclusion.

Publisher: Frontiers Media SA

Publication Date: 2021

Publication Name: Frontiers in Psychology

Research Interests:
Psychology, Gender Studies, Political Science, Women, Citizenship and Identity, and 5 moreDemocracy, Minority Rights, Polygamy, Ontological Security, and Frontiers in Psychology

Download (.pdf)

Abstract The Ultra-Orthodox community in Israel is undergoing massive changes, and these changes are clearly impacting the status of women, the different types of goals women set for themselves, and the myriad of ways in which they act towards achieving them. In this article, we examine these changes, focusing on how these women formulate and reformulate articulations of domestic femininity in ways that do not challenge the ‘Orthodox Ideal’ in the fundamental sense. We argue that the focus on these reformulations adds an additional and understudied arena – that of the household – in which to examine innovative representations of agency of women belonging to conservative religious groups. Our position thus contributes to a wider understanding of how religious women express agency while adhering to an overall religious patriarchal structure. Based on a series of group interviews with Ultra-Orthodox women, this article investigates the ways in which these women narrated their experiences within the changing gendered structures and spaces of Ultra-Orthodox society. By focusing on an analysis of women’s agency in the context of changing patriarchal practices, this article contributes towards an understanding of the role of women in promoting change within religiously conservative communities. The analysis highlights the ways in which women traverse and constitute boundaries between the domestic and the public, and how they narrate gender relations within their community and their own households.

Publisher: Informa UK Limited

Publication Date: 2020

Publication Name: Gender, Place & Culture

Research Interests:
Sociology, Human Geography, Gender Studies, Political Science, Gender, and 3 moreMinority Studies, Agency, and Public Administration and Policy

Reserve duty is described as cyclical, ambivalent, and complex and as involving traumatic elements in all militaries. However, to our knowledge, little has been written about how the soldiers themselves phenomenologically define the experience within specific social contexts. Israel has mandatory military service for all citizens, many of whom continue to serve in the reserves. Given the ongoing conflicts in the region, combat reservists are often called upon to serve. Our aim in this paper is to investigate these soldiers’ transitions from their call up to their engagement in battle, and finally, to their return home. Our methods will be to use the narratives of twelve such soldiers. The central themes describe a deep conflict between collective versus individual cultural narratives that create dilemmas and stress at each of these stages of transition. The narrative framework and culturally contextualized, rather than trauma-related, focus of the findings shed new light on combat soldiers, self-defined stressors, and their relationship to specific socio-cultural contexts.

Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Publication Date: 2019

Publication Name: Clinical Social Work Journal

Research Interests:
Psychology, Social Work, Narrative, Combat Veterans, Political Science, and 5 moreMilitary, Clinical Social Work, Transition, Critical Military Studies, and Military Reserves

Publisher: Informa UK Limited

Publication Date: 2018

Publication Name: Journal of Gender Studies

Research Interests:
Sociology, Gender Studies, Literature, War Studies, Narrative Methods, and 3 moreNarrative Analysis, Routledge, and Listening Guide

Download (.pdf)

ABSTRACT At present, women serve in a variety of combat roles and combat support positions in various militaries around the globe. In parallel, new technologies of warfare are transferring more and more soldiers, including women, from the sidelines into the heart of the battlespace. More women soldiers are thus becoming significant participants in war by virtue of their assignment to strategic war rooms. As one of the women soldiers interviewed in this study explained: ‘In the war-room, you see everything. You see more than the soldiers in the field see; you see the whole picture’. Even though such women soldiers are not located physically in the battlefield, they do indeed participate in warfare by promoting ‘security’ for their countries and for their comrades in arms and by being responsible for injuring the ‘other’. The stationing of women in war rooms located on the borders of conflict zones, which are equipped with the latest technologies that bring the reality of the warzone into the war room, may challenge traditional concepts of security, war, and gender roles. The narratives of women soldiers serving in such war rooms can thus provide critical insights into ‘experiencing war’ and ‘making war’ in battlespace. Personal interviews with 30 Israeli women whose mandatory military service was spent in war rooms revealed multiple narratives of war, including the intertwining of protection, security, and insecurity. The paper thus sheds new light on the role of women in the military by exploring women ‘in a room of their own’ in battlespace.

Publisher: Informa UK Limited

Publication Date: 2018

Publication Name: Critical Military Studies

Research Interests:
Gender Studies, Combat Veterans, Political Science, Security Studies, Military, and 3 moreNew Wars, Women in Combat, and Critical Military Studies

Publisher: Elsevier BV

Publication Date: 2019

Publication Name: Women's Studies International Forum

Research Interests:
Sociology, Cultural Studies, Law, Narrative, Qualitative methodology, and 4 moreFocus Groups, Minority Studies, Pergamon, and Group Interview

Download (.pdf)

Abstract This study analyzes women's narratives of their experiences in an intractable conflict. Data were obtained from a series of personal interviews of diverse women - Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza, Palestinians citizens of Israel, and Jewish Israelis. Interviewing these women revealed narratives of their everyday life experiences. Analyzing the women's responses to challenges and achievements in the context of severe political conflict, gender hierarchies and traditional societies, in a climate of surrounding armed conflicts was the key to understanding their narratives. This paper challenges the intractable conflict paradigm that emphasizes the zero-sum nature of conflicts. The interviewees presented longings for a safe space and home, but simultaneously demonstrated emotional capacity to look beyond their own ‘side’ of the conflict and to reach out to the ‘other’ side. Our study contributes to the ongoing debate on women's narratives of security and insecurity in conflict zones.

Publisher: Elsevier BV

Publication Date: 2018

Publication Name: Women's Studies International Forum

Research Interests:
Cultural Studies, Law, Peace and Conflict Studies, Gender, Feminist International Relations, and 2 morePergamon and Feminist Security Studies

Abstract In this article, we examine the perceptions towards women and gender relations maintained by male, local authority officials within two Bedouin towns in Israel. As such, the current research lies at the intersection of local politics, gender, space and culture. We argue that analysis of these perspectives provides insights into the ambivalent nature of modernity: into the tension between the desire to preserve the traditional role of women in maintaining the family, and the recognition of the powerful potential of women to act as agents of change. Based on an analysis of personal interviews, the study traces the ways in which both power and vulnerability impact the attitudes and perspectives of these men officials. By applying narrative analysis, gendered power structures are examined within Bedouin society in the context of the local authority – zooming in on the narratives provided by the male authority officials. The findings reveal that the officials maintain a series of ambivalent and conflictual attitudes towards the role of women. Bearing in mind their potential impact on the quality of women's daily lives in local public spaces, it seems vitally important to account for the entire matrix of tensions and vulnerabilities that impact the municipal policy instruments at their disposal. The findings are relevant beyond the Bedouin communities in Israel and may serve as a platform for a wider discussion of the dilemmas of minority women in rapidly changing cultural environments, and ambivalent modernity.

Publisher: Informa UK Limited

Publication Date: 2018

Publication Name: Gender, Place & Culture

Research Interests:
Human Geography, Gender Studies, Political Science, Politics, Local Government and Local Development, and 3 moreEthnic minorities, Public Administration and Policy, and Ethnic Minorities

ABSTRACT This article discusses the importance of including the voices of violent state actors in critical research about security and terrorism. Critical Studies tend to avoid narrative research about such actors or to give them “face” and place. However, to understand violence, scholars should listen to, and explore, the narratives of those who are committing violence. The article seeks ways to produce emancipatory knowledge and to be critical without being exclusionary. It discusses the difficulties in deciding who merits the researchers’ listening and research focus, and who does not. These issues are explored and contested by presenting an analysis of women combatants’ experiences.

Publisher: Informa UK Limited

Publication Date: 2017

Publication Name: Critical Studies on Terrorism

Research Interests:
Criminology, International Relations, War Studies, Critical Security Studies, Military and Politics, and 2 moreFeminist Security Studies and Feminist IR Theory

ABSTRACT Ethnicity, like race, religion, and nationality, is a feature of group identity that is contested. There are literatures devoted to each, and in each there are those who see the origins of identity and affiliation in ancestry and deeply rooted affect and those who see these as socially constructed and instrumentally used by elites. Yet all recognize that the ancestral is socially constructed and that social constructions make use of existing cultural features, and that the vertical cleavages of race, religion, ethnicity, and nationality dominate the horizontal ones of class. This generates implications for institutional changes, for the pursuit of extraterritorial interests, for the selection of explanatory narratives for conflict when multiple attributions are possible, for intra-communal conflict, and for policies for ethnic conflict regulation.

Publisher: Informa UK Limited

Publication Date: 2017

Publication Name: Ethnic and Racial Studies

Research Interests:
Sociology, Ethnic Studies, Race and Ethnicity, Nationalism, Ethnic and Racial Studies, and 4 moreEthnicity, Multidisciplinary, Race, and Routledge

Publisher: Informa UK Limited

Publication Date: 2017

Publication Name: Ethnic and Racial Studies

Research Interests:
Sociology, Gender, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Conflict Resolution, Multidisciplinary, and 4 moreIndia, Power Sharing, Feminist IR Theory, and Routledge

Download (.pdf)

Abstract This article utilizes arts-based methods as a feminist methodology for understanding women’s experiences in military service, according to theories of feminist security studies. It explores how non-combatant women in the army retrospectively narrate stressful situations that happened during their military service. Using arts-based methods, we examine how they derive meaning from their experiences in a masculine, military environment, affected by ongoing conflict. This article analyzes twenty images drawn by Israeli women who served in the army in the previous 2–4 years. The women drew a stressful event from their military service, explained the image, and elaborated on how they coped with the situation. A content analysis of the pictures and the narratives produced three themes: the responsibility for others in life threatening situations, the military as a first professional work experience and the interaction between military and gender hierarchies. In general, women soldiers experienced the army as complex as they encountered their first adult work space in which they learned responsibility and skills of the ‘adults’ world’. However, they were also exposed to a rigid hierarchy and to stressful security situations typical of army contexts. While non-combat women soldiers were allegedly protected from the violence of the army, they are also indirectly exposed to the danger inherent in an army context. This analysis goes beyond the hero narrative, and moves into taboo territories of young women’s narratives and experiences in the military.

Publisher: Informa UK Limited

Publication Date: 2017

Publication Name: Gender, Place & Culture

Research Interests:
Sociology, Human Geography, Art Therapy, Critical Security Studies, Stress, and 11 moreCreative Arts Therapy, Visual Arts, Arts-based methodologies, Feminist Political Theory, Arts-Based Participatory Action Research, Women Soldiers, Arts Based Research, Public Administration and Policy, Feminist IR Theory, Routledge, and Arts Based Educational Research

ABSTRACT In exploring wars and conflicts, Critical Security Studies and Feminist IR use various methodologies, including non-traditional avenues of inquiry. The current study follows these theoretical and methodological perspectives and suggests a methodology that will contribute to contemporary debates in IR. Specifically, the study offers an innovative application of Carol Gilligan&#39;s method, the “Listening Guide.” The research demonstrates the utility of the Listening Guide analysis in uncovering additional forms of knowledge regarding armed conflicts. The context for analysis is women in combat. The implementation of the Listening Guide assists us in uncovering various voices, representing different aspects of the female combatants’ experiences in a conflict zone. In the current study, this analytical tool, applied to conduct narrative research, enabled the researchers to hear both multiple and silenced voices. We suggest that this methodology should continue to be used in future studies and incorporated into the Security Studies and IR toolkit.

Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)

Publication Date: 2016

Publication Name: International Studies Review

Research Interests:
Sociology, Feminist Theory, Peace and Conflict Studies, Narrative, Qualitative methodology, and 8 moreWar Studies, Political Science, Studies, Carol Gilligan, Qualitative Methodologies, Feminist Security Studies, Feminist IR Theory, and Listening Guide

ABSTRACT Our study contributes to the ongoing debate about women in combat by exploring women combatants’ experiences of war through interviews with women soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces who served as combatants or in combat-support roles in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. We proffer that the bodily experiences of women combatants disturb conventional international relations and hegemonic masculine war metanarratives that either abstract or glorify combat. These otherwise silenced narratives reveal juxtapositions of feelings of competence and vulnerability and shed light on the women’s struggle for gender integration in the military. We conclude the article with a reflection on the challenges facing researchers investigating war and terrorism.

Publisher: Informa UK Limited

Publication Date: 2016

Publication Name: Critical Studies on Terrorism

Research Interests:
Criminology, International Relations, War Studies, Political Science, Women in Combat, and 3 moreFeminist Security Studies, Feminist IR Theory, and Routledge

Catharine MacKinnon, in her oft-cited article,1 portrays an imaginary heavenly encounter between a female combat soldier and a feminist activist — … ‘a dialogue between women in the after-life: The feminist says to the [female] soldier, “we fought for your equality.” The soldier says to the feminist, “oh, no, we fought for your equality”…’ In their dialogue, both fight for acknowledgement of their relative contribution to promoting women in society. As Barak-Erez pointed out,2 “military service has traditionally been considered one of the most distinctive signs of full citizenship, and the exclusion of women from military service has been inseparable from their lower civic status”. Nevertheless, women’s struggle for equal participation in the military and for equality is often criticized. Scholars have indicated that this process has many negative side effects, including reinforcing militarism, encouraging the militarization of women’s lives and even legitimizing the use of force.3

Publication Date: 2015

Publication Name: Female Combatants in Conflict and Peace

Research Interests:
Political Science

ABSTRACT Granting legal rights to groups in deeply divided societies is important and necessary, but the cost of awarding these rights-in terms of their negative impact on civil rights, and particularly on women&#39;s rights-are key issues affecting the politics and policy of diverse polities. The article explores the implications for Muslim women of applying minority autonomy in India. In parallel, it delves into India&#39;s policy of religious autonomy for minorities as viewed by the political and legal authorities, and through the eyes of different sectors of the minority community. Analyzing the complex construction of rights within a communalized polity, this article attempts to transcend the ongoing debate on the implications of Muslim Personal Law in India and suggests policy directives aimed at empowering minority women. The Indian case provides a constructive microcosm for studying these tensions comprehensively and comparatively, and holds important lessons for other multicultural societies worldwide.

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Publication Date: 2013

Publication Name: Politics & Policy

Research Interests:
Comparative Law, Gender Studies, Comparative Politics, Political Science, Gender, and 3 moreWomen and Gender Issues in Islam, India, and Public Administration and Policy

Research Interests:
International Relations, Qualitative methodology, War Studies, Qualitative Research, Feminist IR Theory, and Women Combatants

Publisher: Elsevier BV

Publication Date: 2014

Publication Name: Women's Studies International Forum

Research Interests:
Cultural Studies, Psychology, Ethnic Studies, Law, Gender Studies, and 4 morePeace and Conflict Studies, Gender, Conflict and security, and Civil Military Relations

Download (.pdf)

Publisher: Informa UK Limited

Publication Date: 2013

Publication Name: South Asian Popular Culture

Research Interests:
Cultural Studies, Anthropology, Middle East Studies, South Asia, India, and 2 moreHistorical Studies and South Asian Popular Culture

Download (.pdf)

This article deals with the quality of Israel’s democracy from the perspective of what it views as the fundamentally hybrid nature of the Israeli regime. From its inception, Israel has been committed to two seemingly conflicting sets of values, one universal (reflected in democratic institutions, practices and ideals) and the other particularistic (reflected in national institutions benefitting a segment of the Israeli population). This article examines the most recent trends in Israel’s constitutional order, including its political culture and especially its legal developments, and their potential impact on the quality of the democratic order in the country. It points out the threats for the existing, imperfect balance between the traditional albeit contradicting commitments of the Israeli society, state and regime, which might push the country toward a hegemonic order.

Publisher: SAGE Publications

Publication Date: 2014

Publication Name: Contemporary Review of the Middle East

Research Interests:
Sociology and Modern and contemporary art in the Middle East

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Publication Name: The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Global Security Studies

Chapter 3 contributes to the analysis of women’s security and insecurity by paying attention to the multiple voices of the combat veteran. Carol Gilligan’s “Listening Guide” is applied as a platform for evaluating the experiences of women soldiers. The chapter thus presents another deconstruction of binary perceptions in research epistemology through disaggregating the voices and silences of women combat veterans. The combatants’ narratives bring to light their gendered and political reflections about their military service and the political and armed conflict that surrounds them. By tuning in and listening to distinct aspects of their narratives regarding their experiences, the analysis shows that most of the ex-combatants indicated that their service had been an important milestone that changed their lives for the better and made them more mature and confident. While some of them were critical of the political leadership, most chose to discuss only personal, gendered, and social e...

Publication Date: 2019

Research Interests:
Sociology

Establishing an official language in a multi-language state is a complex and extremely important task. Setting a language policy in deeply-divided societies has a long-term influence on the stability of the state and the durability of its democracy. This is due to the fact that language schisms, like religious and ethnic schisms, challenge the stability of a democracy in many ways. Furthermore, the decision to set an official language is only the first stage, since implementation of the language policy is no less important that its formal declaration. Every new state must cope with the challenge of determining which language will be its official national language and the status of the languages of the minority groups (Pool, 1991). The language is recognized as a central symbol of the state's identity and functions as an extremely important cultural institution (Laitin, 2000). From the state’s perspective, the decision over linguistic policy is an important power (Kook, 2000). Th...

Publication Date: 2005

Research Interests:
Political Science, Language Policy, Proportional Representation, and Majority rule

Download (.pdf)

Chapter 4 provides a critical feminist outlook on trauma and presents a deconstruction of binary perceptions about traumatic experiences in armed conflicts. Combat trauma and trauma studies emerged from masculine hierarchic theoretical foundations. Current knowledge about trauma concentrates on men as combatants and women as victims. By focusing on the narratives of women combatants, the chapter’s analysis breaks with the traditional ways in which war-associated trauma has been studied. Hegemonic masculinity has influenced the study of trauma—just as it influences and reinforces everyday practices of gendered identities, particularly gendered identities in a military environment. These overlooked aspects of trauma can be understood through the study of women exposed to combat trauma (as perpetrators or victims or both). By the analysis of the traumatic experiences of women combat soldiers, the chapter challenges disciplinary boundaries by emphasizing the need for a critical and femi...

Publication Date: 2019

The book focuses on the study of women combat soldiers in the fields of Security Studies and International Relations. It addresses this issue by bringing the soldiers’ voices and silences to the forefront of research in these domains and by presenting the women soldiers as narrators. The book introduces a theoretical framework in Critical Security Studies for understanding—by binary deconstructions of the terms used in these fields—the integration of women soldiers into combat and combat-support roles and the challenges they face. The book draws on Feminist IR scholarship and introduces an interdisciplinary theoretical perspective that aims to lead scholars to consider why and how women’s experiences should be incorporated into the analysis of violence, state violence, combat trauma, security, and insecurity. The book therefore emphasizes the importance of including, in critical approaches to security, the understudied topic of the voices of women in combat. The book explores the vo...

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Download (.pdf)

Wars, combat, and political developments triggered the study of trauma. Knowledge about trauma initially emerged from the experiences of men combatants in the battlefield. At a later stage, the study of trauma focused on women and children subject to violence and abuse. The current research suggests that additional aspects of trauma can be understood through the study of competent women exposed to traumatic events and not merely as victims of war or abuse. The study offers an analysis of women combatants' narratives of their exposure to traumatic events in conflict zones. Data were obtained from two focus groups and a series of 30 personal interviews of women veterans who served in the IDF. Interviewing women combat soldiers revealed a variety of narratives of their war experiences, including the intertwining of the emotional and the physical. The window to understanding the trauma was opened by analysis of the responses of the women combatants to potentially traumatic events rather than by focusing on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) per se. We emphasize the need for a critical perspective in the study of trauma and combat trauma and propose that there is value in engaging with and listening to diverse narratives of trauma.

Publisher: Wiley

Publication Date: 2016

Publication Name: Political Psychology

Research Interests:
Psychology, Cognitive Science, Political Psychology, and Political Science

Stability and change in early autism spectrum disorder risk were examined in a cohort of 99 preterm infants (⩽34 weeks of gestation) using the Autism Observation Scale for Infants at 8 and 12 months and the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule—Toddler Module at 18 months. A total of 21 infants were identified at risk by the Autism Observation Scale for Infants at 8 months, and 9 were identified at risk at 12 months, including 4 children who were not previously identified. At 18 months, eight children were identified at risk for autism spectrum disorder using the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule—Toddler Module, only half of whom had been identified using the original Autism Observation Scale for Infants cutoffs. Results are discussed in relation to early trajectories of autism spectrum disorder risk among preterm infants as well as identifying social-communication deficiencies associated with the early preterm behavioral phenotype.

Publisher: SAGE Publications

Publication Date: 2016

Publication Name: Autism

Research Interests:
Psychology, Cognitive Science, Autism, and Medicine

The military service of combat soldiers may pose many threats to their well being and often take a toll on body and mind, influencing the physical and emotional make-up of combatants and veterans. The current study aims to enhance our knowledge about the combat experiences and the challenges that female soldiers face both during and after their service. The study is based on qualitative methods and narrative analysis of in-depth semi-structured personal interviews with twenty military veterans. It aims to analyze the narratives of American and Israeli female combat soldiers regarding their military service, with emphasis on the soldiers’ descriptions, in their own words, about their difficulties, challenges, coping and successes during their service and transition to civilian life. A recurring theme in the interviews with the veterans of both militaries was the need to be heard and the fact that societies, therapists, and military institutions do not always truly listen to female veterans’ experiences and are not really interested in what actually ails them. Our research suggests that conventional methods used in research relating to veterans might at times be inadequate, because the inherent categorization might abstract, pathologize, and fragment a wide array of soldiers’ modes of post-combat being. Moreover, female veterans’ voices will not be fully heard unless we allow them to be active participants in generating knowledge about themselves.

DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.769123

Page Numbers: 1-16

Publication Date: 2021

Publication Name: Frontiers in Psychology

Research Interests:
Psychology, Military Veterans, Combat Veterans, War Studies, Political Science, and 5 moreGender, Women, Trauma, Military, and Combat PTSD

Download (.pdf)

Publication Date: 2010

Research Interests:
Political Science and Democratization

Download (.pdf)

DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.743478

Publication Date: 2021

Publication Name: Frontiers in Psycholgy

Research Interests:
Gender Studies, Political Science, Women, Citizenship and Identity, Democracy, and 3 moreMinority Rights, Polygamy, and Ontological Security

Download (.pdf)

And 50 more

A Note

Check out a short blog about our newly published book! Breaking the Binaries in Security Studies - A Gendered Analysis of Women in Combat... more

Check out a short blog about our newly published book!

Breaking the Binaries in Security Studies - A Gendered Analysis of Women in Combat

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/breaking-the-binaries-in-security-studies-9780190072582?cc=us&lang=en&

Publication Date: 2020

Publication Name: OUP Blog

Research Interests:
International Relations, Combat Veterans, Political Science, Military, Veterans, and 2 moreFeminist Security Studies and Feminist IR Theory

תיאור המצב באזור קשמיר , נכון ל-08.08.2019

Publication Date: 2019

Publication Name: הזירה - דיפלומטיה ויחסי חוץ

Research Interests:
Security, Nationalism, India, Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir, and Internarional Relations

Download (.pdf)

More Info: Co-Authored with Daphna-Tekoah Shir

Research Interests:
Protest _Israel

Download (.pdf)

Book Reviews

A book review by Prof. Bruno Oliveira Martins about our book - "Breaking the Binaries in Security Studies" - OUP 2020.

Publication Date: 2022

Publication Name: journal of peace research

Research Interests:
Gender Studies, International Relations, Peace and Conflict Studies, Political Science, Security Studies, and Feminist IR Theory

Download (.pdf)

Another review of our book - [by Rishika Yadav, LSE]
This essay reviews four disparate studies on war narratives: 'Right to Mourn' by Suhi Choi (2019), 'Fly Until You Die' by Chia Youyee Vang (2019), 'Soldiers in Revolt' by Maggie Dwyer (2018), 'Breaking the Binaries in Security Studies' by Ayelet Harel-Shalev and Shir Daphna-Tekoah (2019). The studies take a 'view-from-below' approach and build new theoretical frameworks that not only expose 'the price of war', but also investigate how 'subaltern subjects' subjects view their place and participation in the conflict and resist over-arching homogenous interpretations. The studies respectively focus on postwar remembrance in South Korea, oral histories of Hmong pilots, mutinying in West African states, and the experiences of female combatants in the Israeli Defence Forces. Although dissimilar in terms of geographic spaces, actors and even methodology, the authors all commonly challenge established binaries within conflict studies that assume a separation of the 'military' and the 'civilian', the prevalence of power-hierarchies within armed forces, and the supposed passiveness of powerless actors in conflict. This essay reviews these books as not individual publications that contribute to the literature of their own disciplines, but as interactive theoretical frameworks that not only dispute prevailing theories of war but also present new understandings on how these narratives interrelate.