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Dr. Dafna Hirsch, Senior Lecturer

Contact Info

Open University of Israel Department of Sociology, Political Science and Communication 1 University Road, Ra'anana
Office:972-9-778-1107 Fax:972-9-778-0660 Email:dafnahi@openu.ac.il
Born:1970, Israel

Additional Information

My CRIS profile

Areas of Interest
  • Jewish society and culture in Mandate Palestine
  • Culture of everyday life
  • Culture theory and research
  • Food studies
  • Gender and ethnic relations
  • Racism and racial thought
  • Historical anthropology

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2006

Ph.D. (summa cum laude), School of History, Tel Aviv University Dissertation: The inculcation of “hygienic” models of conduct to the Jewish community of Mandate Palestine

Supervisors: Prof. Billie Melman, Prof. Debbie Bernstein
2000

M.A. (summa cum laude), Unit of Culture Research, Tel Aviv University University

Supervisor: Prof. Gadi Algazi
1994/5 – 1996/7
B.A. (magna cum laude), General and Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities, Tel Aviv University
1993/4
New York University, NYC, Photography Department (studies towards a BA degree)
1992/3
New School for Social Research, NYC, Faculty of Humanities (studies towards a BA degree)
2017-2020
Chair, Department of Sociology, Political Science and Communication
February 2018
Guest teacher at the the University of Gastronomic Sciences, Pollenzo
2015
Senior Lecturer, Department of Sociology, Political Science and Communication, The Open University of Israel
2014/15
Visiting Scholar, Department of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health, NYU
2009
Lecturer, Department of Sociology, Political Science and Communication, The Open University of Israel
2008
Visiting Lecturer, Department of Sociology, Political Science and Communication, The Open University of Israel
2007/8
Postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
May 2002
Research Fellow, The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin
2020
Research grant from the Open University Research Authority for the project: “Moshe Wilbushewitz and the rationalization of Jewish nutrition patterns in Mandate Palestine.”
2012
Wenner-Gren Foundation Workshop Grant, in the framework of the Van Leer Institute Research Group:
Encounters between history and anthropology in studying the Israeli-Palestinian Space
2011 - 2013
ISF research grant for the project: "Hummus: The Socio-Cultural Life of an Israel Food Icon
2008/9
Post-doctoral fellowship, Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor (declined on request from the Open University)
2007/8
Golda Meir post-doctoral fellowship, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
2004/5
Doctoral Scholarship Grant, The Alfried Krupp von Bohlen and Halbach Foundation, within the framework of the Iganaz Buvis Scholarship Fund
2002
Doctoral Scholarship Grant, Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture
2002
The Pinchas and Sheindil Wald Award of the Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History
2002
The Rabin Center Award for MA thesis
2001
Hadassah International Research Institute on Jewish Women at Brandeis University Research Grant
2001
The Chutick Women Studies Award, The Women Studies Forum with NCJW, Tel Aviv University
2001-2003
Half subsistance scholarship from the school of history, Tel Aviv University
1999
The Puzis Award for Academic Achievements, The Faculty of Humanities, Tel Aviv University
1996
Annual Dean of Humanities Award for Academic Achievements
1995
Annual Dean of Humanities Award for Academic Achievements
2019-
Co-organizer of the research group: "Food: Society, Politics, and Culture," Tel Aviv University (co-sponsored by the Manna Center for Food Safety and Security, and Cegla Cener for Interdisciplinary Research of the Law) 
2016-2017
Organizer of the seminar of the Master's Program in Cultural Studies, the Open University of Israel
2015 -
Member of the organizing committee of the "Culture and Consumption" section of the Israeli Sociological Association
2013
Member of the Young Scholars Forum of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities
2011-2012
Head of research group "Encounters between history and anthropology - studying the Israeli-Palestinian space," The Jerusalem Van Leer Institute
2008 – 2009
Member of research group “Central- and Eastern-European influences on Zionism and the state of Israel,” The Jerusalem Van Leer Institute
2004 – 2005
Member of the Forum for the Study of Israeli Society and Culture, The Jerusalem Van Leer Institute
Summer 2000
International Women’s University (ifu), Hannover, Germany
1996 - 2005
Co-founder of the Gay and Lesbian Studies and Queer Theory Forum and member of the organizing committee of the Annual Gay and Lesbian Studies and Queer Theory Conference, Tel Aviv University

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Dafna Hirsch, 2014. 'We Are Here to Bring the West': Hygiene Education and Culture Building in the Jewish Society of Palestine during the British Mandate Period. Sde Boker: The Ben-Gurion Research Institute for the Study of Israel and Zionism.

Dafna Hirsch (ed.), 2024. Entangled Histories in Palestine/Israel: Historical and Anthropological Perspective. London: Routledge. (a different, English version of the Hebrew volume Encounters). 

Dafna Hirsch (ed.) (2019). Encounters: History and Anthropology of the Israeli-Palestinian Space. Jerusalem: The Jerusalem Van Leer Institute.​

Yasmin Einav-Aharoni and Dafna Hirsch, 2023. "The Family Dinner in a Period of Culinary Transformations: A Case Study from Israel," Food and Foodways, 31.4: 296-318.

Dafna Hirsch, 2023. "Moshe Wilbushewich, 'Vitamin Bread,' and Rationalizing the Jewish Diet in Mandate Palestine," Jewish Social Studies, 28.1:23-18

Dafna Hirsch, 2019. "Food, Give me Food," Theory and Criticism 50: 89-107 (invited review essay, Hebrew). 

Dafna Hirsch, 2017. "Who is a Man? Masculinity Theories in a Critical Perspective," Theory and Criticism 48: 9-32. Best article award, the Israeli Sociological Society, 2018.

Dafna Hirsch and Dana Kachtan, 2017. "Is “Hegemonic Masculinity” Hegemonic as Masculinity? Two Israeli Case Studies,"　Men and Masculinities, online first (1097184X17696186).

Dafna Hirsch, 2016. "Hummus Masculinity in Israel," Food, Culture and Society 19: 337-359.

Dafna Hirsch, 2015. "Hygiene, Dirt and the shaping of a new man among the early Zionist halutzim", European Journal of Cultural Studies 18: 300-318.

Dafna Hirsch and Ofra Tene, 2013. "Hummus: The Making of an Israeli Culinary Cult", Journal of Consumer Culture 13: 25-45.

Dafna Hirsch, 2011. ""Hummus is Best when it is Fresh and Made by Arabs": The Gourmetization of Hummus in Israel and the Return of the Repressed Arab," American Ethnologist 38: 617-630.

Dafna Hirsch, 2011. "Gender and Ethnicity in Zionist Nation-Building Project: The Case of Hannah Helena Thon," Ethnic and Racial Studies 34: 275-292.

Dafna Hirsch, 2011. “ Medicalization of Motherhood, Ethnic Relsations and the Education of Mizrahi Mothers to 'Hygienic' Treatment of Babies”, Yiunim Betkumat Israel: Gender in Israel (eds. Margalit Shilo and Gideon Katz), pp. 106-139 (Hebrew).

Dafna Hirsch, 2009. “We Are Here to Bring the West, Not Only to Ourselves”: Zionist Occidentalism and the Discourse of Hygiene in Mandate Palestine,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 41: 577-594.

Dafna Hirsch, 2009. “Zionist Eugenics, Mixed Marriage, and the Creation of a New Jewish Type”, The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 15: 592-609.

Dafna Hirsch, 2008. “ ‘Friend and Supervisor’: The Public Health Nurse in Mandate Palestine as a Cultural Agent,” Zion 73: 453-484 (Hebrew).

Dafna Hirsch, 2008. “ ‘Interpreters of Occident to the Awakening Orient’: The Jewish Public Health Nurse in Mandate Palestine”, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 50: 227-255.

Dafna Hirsch, 2024. "Introduction: Entangled Histories throug a Magnifying Glass," in Dafna Hirsch (ed.), Entangled Histories in Palestine/Israel: Historical and Anthropological Perspective. London: Routledge, 1-25.

Dafna Hirsch, 2024. "Afterword," in Dafna Hirsch (ed.), Entangled Histories in Palestine/Israel: Historical and Anthropological Perspective. London: Routledge, 315-318.

Dafna Hirsch and Smadar Sharon, forthcoming. "And We Have Falafel: Street Food in Mandate Tel Aviv as a Sphere of Contacts and Conflicts," in Natan Wasserman, Zeev Weiss, Yair Furstenberg, and Dana Kaplan, (Eds), Setting Tables: Commensality, Social Boundaries and Inter-Cultural Exchanges (Hebrew). 

Dafna Hirsch, 2022. "Food Drink Man Woman: On Food and Gender," in Maya Gayer (ed.), Journay around an Idea: Food for Thought. Tel Aviv: Broadcasted University. 

Dafna Hirsch, 2021. "Palestinian Urban Food Venues as 'Contact Zones' between Arabs and Jews during the British Mandate Period," in Anny Gaul, Graham Auman Pitts, and Vicki Valosik (eds.), Making Levantine Cuisine. Austin: Univesrity of Texas Press, pp. 93-114.

Dafna Hirsch, 2020. "Identity, Politics and Everyday Life: Tomer Heymann's The Way Home," in Miri Talmon and Yael Levy (Eds.), Israeli Television: Global Contexts, Local Visions, Routledge, pp. 267-282.

Dafna Hirsch and Smadar Sharon (2019). "'Neglectful Mothers': Constructions of Mizrahi Women's Motherhood During the Mandate and Early State Periods," in Tova Gamliel and Nathan Shifriss (eds.), Awlad al-Kalb - Children of the Heart: Aspects in the Study of the Missing Bablies of Israel (tentative title). ) (Tel Aviv: Resling).

Dafna Hirsch (2019). "Introduction: Towards a Historical Anthropology of the Israeli-Palestinian Space," Encounters between History and Anthropology in Studying the Israeli-Palestinian Space.

Dafna Hirsch (2019). "'The Best Hummus is that Made by Arabs', or: what can hummus teach us about culture contancts in Israel", chapter for the volume Encounters between History and Anthropology in Studying the Israeli-Palestinian Space.

Dafna Hirsch, 2008. “‘Infusion of New Blood Can Only Heal and Strengthen:’ Zionist Physicians and Mixed Marriages”, in Yahouda Shenhav and Yossi Yona (eds.), Racism in Israel. Jerusalem: The Van Leer Institute, pp. 160-185 (Hebrew).

Dafna Hirsch, 2005. “Homotopia: Independence Park in Tel Aviv”, in Rachel Kallus and Tali Hatuka (eds.), Architectural Culture: Place, Representation, Body. Tel Aviv: Resling, pp. 287-310 (Hebrew).​
Reprinted in: Aeyal Gross, Amalia Ziv and Raz Yosef (eds.), Another Sex: Selected Essays in Israeli Queer and LGBT Studies. Tel Aviv: Resling, pp. 443-472.

Dafna Hirsch, 2004. “ ‘We Are Here to Bring the West’: Hygiene Education within the Jewish Community in Colonial Palestine (1920-1948)”, in Body Project (Eds.), Corporealities: Interventions in an Omnipresent Theme. Kצnigsstein/Taunus: Ulrike Helmer, pp. 336-352.

Dafna Hirsch, 2004. “ ‘We Are Here to Bring the West’: Hygiene Education within the Jewish Community in Colonial Palestine (1920-1948)”, in Body Project (Eds.), Corporealities: Interventions in an Omnipresent Theme. Kצnigsstein/Taunus: Ulrike Helmer, pp. 336-352.

Dafna Hirsch, 2019. Review of Nira Bartal, With You When Needed: Historical Perspectives of Israeli Nursing 1936-2012, Megamot 54(2): 357-360.

Dafna Hirsch, 2019. Review of Studies in Food Law, eds. Yofi Tirosh and Aeyal Gross, Israeli Sociology 20(2): 209-211.

Dafna Hirsch, 2014. Review essay on Hizky Shoham's book Mordecai is Riding a Horse: Purim Celebrations in Tel-Aviv (1908-1936) and the Building of a New Nation, Israel 22: 183-193 (Hebrew).​

Dafna Hirsch, 2015. Review of Anat Helman's book Becoming Israeli: National Ideals and Everyday Life in the 1950s, Israel Studies Review 30 (2).​

Dafna Hirsch, 2009. Review of Aziza Khazzoom's book "Shifting Ethnic Boundaries and Inequality in Israel," Israel Studies Forum 24: 121-123.​

Dafna Hirsch, 2008. Review of Raphael Falk’s book Zionism and the Biology of the Jews, Israeli Sociology, 10: 237-239 (Hebrew).​

Dafna Hirsch, forthcoming. "Cleanliness and Hygiene," in Hani Zubida and Reut Reina Bendrihem (eds.), Writing Mizrahit in the 21st Century. Hakibbutz HaMeuchad [Hebrew].

Dafna Hirsch, 2021. “Food,” in Uri Ram, Shlomo Svirsky, Nitza Berkovich (eds.), Sociological Lexicon for Corona Times. Tel Aviv: Adva Center and Israeli Sociology (Hebrew). 

Dafna Hirsch, "Zionism", Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity and Nationalism (2016).​

Dafna Hirsch, 2007. “Jews and Medicine in the Age of Modernisation and Secularization,” in David Shacham (ed.), New Jewish Time – Jewish Culture in a secular age – Encyclopedic perspective. Tel Aviv: Keter (Hebrew).

Dafna Hirsch and Ofra Tene, 2014. "Hummus: An Iraeli Culinary Cult." Zmanim 128: 84-93 (Hebrew translation of the English article).

Dafna Hirsch, 2009. “Epilogue,” in Chen Mike, Fear, Love: Interviews with Lesbians, Homosexuals and Parents. Tel Aviv: Mifgashim (Hebrew).

Dafna Hirsch, 2002. “Tel Aviv: rendez-vous à l’Independence Park”, Revue Urbanisme, 325: 64-66.

Dafna Hirsch, 2002. “ ‘We Are Here to Bring the West’: The Hygienic Discourse in Jewish Palestine”, Zmanim, 78: 107-120 (Hebrew).

Dafna Hirsch, 1999. “Independence Park: A Homosexual Domain,” Architecture of Israel 36: 60-65 (Hebrew).​

Study guide for the advanced course "Food, Society and Culture".​

Seven chapters for the study guide for the M.A. course "Issues in the Theory of Space."​

Half of the study guide for the M.A. course "Popular Culture."​

Four chapters of the study guide for the M.A. course "Gender: Culture and Identity."​

Study guide for the M.A. course "Body and Culture."​

"Body and Cultures: Outline of a Thriving Academic Discussion" – an opening article for the “Body and Culture” course reader.

Seven sections for the study guide in the M.A. course "Theories and Approaches in Culture Research."​

Translation to Hebrew of a chapter from Judith Butler's Bodies That Matter in Dalit Baum et al. (eds.), Studying Feminism: A Reader (Tel Aviv, 2006), pp. 443-476.​

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  • 2009 - present: Instructor in the course "Body and Culture", Master's Program in Cultural Studies, The Open University of Israel
  • 2006 - 2017 Adjunct teacher, Unit of Culture Reserach, Tel Aviv University