Visiting Scholars
As a research hub for Jewish Studies and Israel Studies, The Crown Family Center is sometimes able to host visiting self-funded academics who need an environment in which to pursue sabbatical research. The Center can help with library credentials and, in some cases, with visa requirements. If you are interested in availing yourself of Northwestern’s first rate resources in Jewish Studies or Israel Studies, please be in touch with the Director.
Our past visiting scholars
Manuel Trajtenberg
Israel Studies Visiting Scholar 2018
Prof. Manuel Trajtenberg is one of Israel’s leading economists. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard and has been a Professor of Economics at Tel Aviv University since 1984. He served as Chairman of the Higher Education System in Israel (2009-2014). Prior to that he established and served as (first) Head of the National Economic Council at the Prime Minister Office (2006-2009). He was appointed Chairman of the Committee for Economic and Social Change following mass social protests which took place in Israel in 2011. Trajtenberg joined the Zionist Union list in December 2014 and was elected to the Israeli Parliament (the Knesset) in 2015. Had his list won the elections, he was slated for Finance Minister. However, he left politics in 2017. He has held visiting positions at Harvard and Stanford and is the 2018 Israel Studies Visiting Scholar at Northwestern. To read more about Prof. Trajtenberg, please click here.
Ruth Gavison
Israel Studies Visiting Scholar 2017
Prof. Ruth Gavison is the Haim H. Cohn Professor of Human Rights Law at Hebrew University. Her areas of research include Ethnic Conflict, the Protection of Minorities, Human Rights, Political Theory, Judiciary Law, Religion and Politics, and Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. She is a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and a recipient of the Israel Prize (2011). She was also a founding member of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI).
Prof. Gavison will be offering Public Lectures during her time at Northwestern with a focus on legal theory, philosophy of human rights and the integration of justice, morals, and ethics, especially as it relates to modern Jewish society in Israel. She will offer a Spring Workshop focusing on challenges faced by modern Israel tentatively titled “Israel Jewish and Democratic?”
Danny Peled
Israel Studies Visiting Scholar 2017
Prof. Peled is Head of the Department of Economics and Senior Consultant to the Vice President and Dean of Research at the University of Haifa in Israel. He is also a Senior Research Fellow at Technion University’s Neaman Institute. Prof. Peled’s research focuses on Economic Growth, Economics of R&D and Innovations, Monetary Theory, as well as the Economics of Uncertainty.
Prof. Peled is involved in academic research and in public policymaking on the economics of research and development, the economics of national security, innovation and technology, and monetary economics. Prof. Peled will be offering public lectures as well as a graduate seminar through Northwestern’s Department of Economics.
Noam Tirosh
Crown Family Center for Jewish and Israel Studies Visiting Scholar 2016-2017
Noam Tirosh, Ph.D. is an assistant professor in Communication Studies at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, is a visiting scholar at Northwestern University, hosted by The Crown Family Center for Jewish and Israel Studies. His research focuses on the relationship between memory, media, and justice. His work has been published in the journals The Communication Review, Telecommunication Policy, Critical Studies in Media and Communications, The Information Society, International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics, and others. Tirosh has participated in various international conferences and his 2015c article “Revisiting the Right to be Forgotten” was awarded “best student paper” by the Research Conference on Communication, Information, and Internet Policy (TPRC). A public intellectual, Tirosh publishes opinions in different Israeli newspapers and online, and he contributes to current public discourse in Israel. With his permanent home in southern Israel, Noam is living in Chicago this academic year, together with his wife and family.