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Tenth Annual
Graduate Conference
in Political Science, International Relations &
Public Policy in Memory of Yitzhak Rabin
Call for Papers
‫קול קורא‬
‫פרחי מחקר‬
‫הכנס השנתי העשירי לתלמידי מחקר‬
‫ יחסים בינלאומיים ומדיניות ציבורית‬,‫במדע המדינה‬
‫ע"ש יצחק רבין ז"ל‬
Honored international guests:
Prof. Jeffrey Kopstein, University of Toronto
Prof. Gallya Lahav, Stony Brook University
Prof. David Vogel, University of California, Berkeley
Prof. Dr. Volker Schneider, University of Konstanz
Wednesday-Friday, 10-12 December, 2014
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Mount Scopus Campus, Jerusalem
Call for Papers
Applications for presentation in our conference are invited from graduate students and recent PhDs in
the fields of Political Science, International Relations and Public Policy, as well as from Politics and
Law, Political History, Political Economy, Political Geography, Political Philosophy, Political
Psychology, Political Sociology and Political Communication.
We offer two main tracks for participation:
THEMATIC RESEARCH WORKSHOPS TRACK
This track consists of a variety of thematic research workshops, each focusing on a specific predetermined theme (listed below). While individual workshop formats may vary, each paper will be
thoroughly discussed by all the participants. Consideration for this highly-competitive track is based
on the submission of an abstract (see guidelines below). Because the number of participants in each
workshop is limited, the workshop leaders will choose those proposals most suited to the workshop
and which show most promise. Submissions should represent original research. All workshop
participants must submit a paper ahead of the workshop, read the papers of the other participants,
and take an active part in the workshop. Workshops usually run a full day or a day and a half.
Participants are committed to attend the workshop proceedings throughout this time.
OPEN TRACK
Graduate students are invited to submit abstracts of their work (see guidelines below), on the basis of
which the organizers will establish the themes of either panels or workshops. All submissions should
represent original research. Students should prepare a paper for presentation. While the panels will
mostly be in Hebrew, Israeli students should be prepared to present their papers in English. The
panels and workshops in this track will be held on the main day of the conference- Thursday,
December 11th, 2014. We also encourage submissions of organized full panels by groups of three to
four students. If your proposal is part of an organized panel, please indicate this clearly on the
application form.
METHODOLOGY AND PROFESSIONAL SKILLS WORKSHOPS
In addition to the two main tracks, we are also offering several workshops in methodology and
professional skills. As with the research workshops, the methodology workshops require an intensive
commitment as specified in the call for participants. The methodology workshops will be conducted a
day before the main day in order not to overlap with the other research workshops/panels. All
workshop members are required to take an active part in the workshop. These workshops are
intended largely for students participating in the main conference events, and students are
encouraged to apply for other tracks as well. The list of methodology and professional workshops will
be published soon on our website.
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THEMATIC RESEARCH WORKSHOPS TRACK
Workshop 1: Comparative Perspectives on Environmental Politics and Policies,
Prof. David Vogel and Prof. Eran Feitelson
Workshop2: Ethnic Politics,
Prof. Jeffrey Kopstein and Dr. Dan Miodownik
Workshop 3: Social Change and Political Theory,
Prof. Dani Filc, Dr. Michal Givoni and Prof. Neve Gordon
Workshop 4: The Politics of Memory,
Dr. Becky Kook and Dr. Gal Ariely
Workshop 5: Comparative and International Political Economy,
Prof. Yoram Haftel and Prof. Yotam Margalit
Workshop 6: Immigration and Security: Interdisciplinary Perspectives,
Prof. Gallya Lahav and Dr. Tal Dingott-Alkopher
Workshop 7: Information and Power in the Digital Age,
Prof. Volker Schneider and Prof. Alon Peled
Workshop 8: Jewish Political Thought,
Dr. Moshe Hellinger and Dr. Jeff Macy
Workshop 9: Neoliberalism beyond the Economic Crisis,
Prof. Zeev Rosenhek, Dr. Ronen Mandelkern, and Mr. Amit Avigur-Eshel
Workshop 10: Political Parties: Change, Continuities and their Future,
Prof. Gideon Rahat
Workshop 11: Regulation, Governance and the Mass Media,
Dr. Sharon Yadin and Prof. David Levi-Faur
Workshop 12: Political Psychology,
Dr. Pazit Ben-Nun Bloom and Prof. Daphna Canetti
Workshop 13: Urban Governance and Regulation,
Prof. Eran Razin and Dr. Itai Beeri
Workshop 14: European Integration – Between Convergence and Differentiation,
Consolidation and Diffusion,
Dr. Sara Kahn-Nisser and Dr. Maya Sion-Tzidkiyahu
Workshop 15: Challenges to Democracy,
Dr. Gayil Talshir and Dr. Ayelet Banai
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METHODOLOGY AND PROFESSIONAL SKILLS WORKSHOPS, ROUNDTABLES
AND SEMINARS
(Some of the workshops in this track will be offered on Tuesday 9th of December,
the rest on Wednesday 10th 2014)
Workshop 16: Experimental Methods,
Dr. Raanan Sulitzeanu-Kenan, Tuesday, 9th December 2014, 9.00-15.00
Workshop 17: Developing Questionnaires for Quantitative Research (Workshop
language: Hebrew),
Mr. Andrey Elster, Wednesday, 10th of December, 2014, 10.30-13.30
Workshop 18: Social Networks Analysis,
Prof. Amalya Oliver, Wednesday, 10th of December, 2014, 12.30-14.00
Workshop 19: Text & Data Mining: Utilizing Computers' Abilities to Find and Analyze
Data,
Mr. Zvi Ben-Ami, Wednesday, 10th of December, 2014, 16.30-18.30
Workshop 20: Facet Theory: Partial Order Scaling in Political Analysis,
Prof. Volker Schneider, Wednesday, 10th of December, 2014, 17.00-19.00
Workshop 21: Discourse Network Analysis,
Prof. Volker Schneider, Tuesday, 9th December 2014, 15.00-17.00
Workshop 22: Introduction to Structural Equation Modeling,
Dr. Marina Goroshit, Tuesday, 9th December 2014, 17.00-20.00
Workshop 23: Social Media Analysis for Social Scientists,
Dr. Anat Ben-David, Wednesday, 10th of December, 2014, 10.30-13.30
Workshop 24: Introduction to Python for Social Scientists,
Mr. Yair Fogel-Dror, Tuesday, 9th December 2014, 9.00-15.00
Workshop 25: What R can do for U (I): Fast and Efficient Data Preparation,
Mr. Amit Gal, Wednesday, 10th of December, 2014, 12.30-14.00
Workshop 26: What R can do for U (II): Creating superior graphics Logically,
Mr. Amit Gal, Wednesday, 10th of December, 2014, 14.30-16.00
Workshop 27: Casing and Case Selection in Comparative Analysis,
Prof . David Levi-Faur, Wednesday, 10th of December, 2014, 10.30-12.00
Roundtable 28: Women in Political Science,
Prof. Gallya Lahav, Prof. Erika Weinthal and Prof. Orit Kedar, TBC
Seminar 29: Group decision making: Groupthink, Polythink, and Con-Div,
Prof. Alex Mintz, Wednesday, 10th of December, 2014, 13.00-17.00
Seminar 30: Introduction to the Philosophy of the Social Sciences,
Dr. Gadi Prudovsky, Wednesday, 10th of December, 2014, 18.30-20.00
Workshop 31: Academic Research using Amazong's Mechnical Turk,
Mr. Itay Sisso and Mr. Asher Strauss, Wednesday, 10th of December, 2014, 16.30-18.00
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SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Application forms are available on our website. The applications should be submitted as
soon as possible and no later than October 27, 2014. Please note that you must choose
between the open track and research workshops track. Abstracts for the panel track may be
submitted in Hebrew or in English. Workshop abstracts must be submitted in English.
Abstracts should not exceed 300 words.
 Applicants will be notified by October 31, 2014 regarding acceptance of their paper.
 Upon acceptance, registration for the conference (including payment) should be completed by
November 13, 2014. After this date, late registration fees will be incurred.
 If you wish to be considered for a partial/full waiver of conference fee, please contact us no later
than November 4, 2014.
 Applicants for the Best Paper Award should submit their papers no later than November 20,
2014.
 All papers should be sent to discussants and workshop leaders by December 1, 2014.
BEST PAPER AWARD
A committee comprised of leading Israeli scholars in the fields of Political Science, International
Relations, and Public Policy will select the best paper presented at the conference. Papers submitted
via email by midnight November 20, 2014 will be considered for the award. Co-authored papers
may be submitted on condition that all the authors are graduate students. The length of the paper
should not exceed 10,000 words (including bibliography and footnotes). Although PhD dissertations
and MA theses are not eligible for the competition, papers based on these may be submitted.
Academic Conveners
Prof. David Levi-Faur, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Dr. Galia Press-Barnathan, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Conference Administrator
Mr. Chanoch Wolpe
Administrative Coordinators
Ms. Ronit Sebty & Hila Bar-Ner
Conference website address:
http://gradcon.huji.ac.il
Conference e-mail:
[email protected]
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Workshop 1
Comparative Perspectives on Environmental Politics and
Policies
___________________________________
Prof. David Vogel (University of California, Berkeley)
Prof. Eran Feitelson (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
___________________________________________________________________________________________
_
Virtually all governments have adopted a wide range of environmental regulations. They
address issues such as air and water pollution, chemical safety, energy, climate change,
eco-system protection, and natural resource conservation. The purpose of this workshop is
to present research that compares and explains patterns of environmental policy-making
between or among governments. What explains differences and similarities in their
environmental policy choices? What accounts for the variations in policy instruments they
have adopted and in the effectiveness of their regulations? Why have some governments
been more or less willing to support bi-national, regional and/or international policy
initiatives? The papers presented to this workshop will vary in terms of the environmental
policy or policies they address, and in the number of countries on which they focus. But all
should both describe and explain patterns of differences and/or similarities in national
environmental politics and policy-making and thus contribute to our understanding of the
dynamics of national environmental policy convergence and divergence.
______________
Leaders
______________
David Vogel is a Professor in the Haas School of Business and the Department of Political Science
at the University of California at Berkeley. He has written extensively on the comparative and
international dimensions of environmental policy. His books include National Styles of Regulation:
Environmental Policy in Great Britain and the United States (Cornell University Press, 1986), Trading
Up: Consumer and Environmental Regulation in a Global Economy (Harvard University Press, 1995)
and The Market for Virtue: The Potential and Limits of Corporate Social Responsibility, Brookings
Institutional Press, 2005). The Politics of Precaution: Regulating Health, Safety and Environmental
Risks in Europe and the United States (Princeton University Press, 2012) received the 2013 Charles
H. Levine Memorial Book Prize from the International Political Science Association’s Research
Committee on the Structure of Governance and the 2014 Lynton Keith Caldwell Prize from the
Science, Technology, and Environmental Politics Section of the American Political Science
Association for the best book on environmental politics and policy published in the past three years.
Eran Feitelson is a Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. A previous chair of the
Department of Geography, he was for five years the head of the Federmann School of Public Policy
and Government. Currently he is head of the newly established Advanced School for Environmental
Studies. He holds an MA in Geography and Economics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and
a Ph.D from the Johns Hopkins University. He has edited or co-edited three books, and published
over seventy papers in refereed journals and edited volumes. In addition to his academic work Eran
Feitelson has participated in several national planning teams and has been a member of many
national committees. He has also served as chair of the Israeli Nature Reserves and National Parks
Commission for ten years.
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Workshop 2
Ethnic Politics
___________________________________
Prof. Jeffrey Kopstein (University of Toronto)
Dr. Dan Miodownik (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
___________________________________________________________________________________________
_
One of the big surprises of modern politics has been the continued salience and even
strengthening of pre-political identities as a determining factor in conflict. Although scholars
disagree as to the sources and importance of "ethnic" identity, few have failed to notice the
potential for these kinds of conflicts to escalate from tensions to violence. Others, however,
point to the relative rarity of violence, but this raises the question of what are the factors that
yield different kinds of ethnic conflict. What are the causes of ethnic harmony and violence?
Are these questions best approached from a micro or macro perspective? What kinds of
theories and methods are best equipped to deal with this issue and how similar or different is
ethnic conflict from other forms of cleavage driven politics. The purpose of this workshop will
be to bring together young scholars engaged in different aspects of the study of ethnic
politics and conflict. Both empirical and theoretical research is welcome, as are case study,
cross-national, or micro level approaches. Graduate students outside of the field of political
science such as history, sociology, geography, social work, economics, and education are
welcome to apply.
______________
Leaders
______________
Jeffrey Kopstein is Director of the Centre for Jewish Studies and Professor of Political
Science at the University of Toronto. In his research, Professor Kopstein focuses on
interethnic violence, voting patterns of minority groups, and anti-liberal tendencies in civil
society, paying special attention to cases within European and Russian Jewish history. His
most recent publications are “Deadly Communities: Local Political Milieus and the
Persecution of Jews in Occupied Poland,” (with Jason Wittenberg in Comparative Political
Studies, vol. 44, no. 5, May 2011, 259–283) and “Between Nationalization and
Internationalization: Electoral Behavior in Interwar Poland” (with Jason Wittenberg in POLIN:
Studies in Polish Jewry, vol.24, November 2011, pp.171–185).
Dan Miodownik (PhD 2005, University of Pennsylvania) is a senior lecturer of political
science and international relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. His
research examines the emergence, unfolding and regulation of anti-regime mobilization,
protest behavior, ethnic polarization, and civil wars. He published in journals such as the
American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Conflict
Resolution, Comparative Politics and other journals and edited volumes. He is the co-editor
of Nonstate Actors in Intrastate Conflicts (Penn Press 2014), and is currently writing a
book titled Worlds within Worlds: Modeling Politics from the Bottom.
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Workshop 3
Social Change and Political Theory
___________________________________
Prof. Dani Filc (Ben-Gurion University)
Dr. Michal Givoni (Ben-Gurion University)
Prof. Neve Gordon (Ben-Gurion University)
___________________________________________________________________________________________
_
Political theories have historically both informed political upheavals and responded to them
as they occurred. Some contemporary theories, particularly the Post-Marxist and PostStructuralist varieties, go so far as to proclaim an allegiance to social change and, at times,
even urge publics to advance social change. While the contemporary political sphere is
charged with many examples of persistent engagement in political struggles, some
progressive and others regressive, it is not always clear how theoretical ventures and
political activism enter into dialogue and how they mutually resonate, whether in the figure of
the lone political theorist or well beyond it, in social movements and broader shifts of
conceptual paradigms. This workshop will explore a broad array of questions that pertain to
the interplay between political theory and social change: How can we use political theories to
make sense of contemporary political mobilizations on the left and on the right? What can be
gained by the critical theorization of social movements, governmental politics and nongovernmental struggles? How have social upheavals and political protests informed the
germination and evolution of political ideas? How have political theories influenced struggles
for social change, and to what extent have they been incorporated within them? And finally,
how do contemporary strands of political theory that do not profess an allegiance to social
change engage with pressing political issues?
______________
Leaders
______________
Dani Filc, MD, PhD. Associate Professor at the Department of Politics and Government, Ben-Gurion
University. Among his publications are the books The Power of Property: Israel in the Globalization
Age, edited with Uri Ram (Van Leer Institute Heb.), Hegemony and Populism in Israel (Resling,
Hebrew), Circles of Exclusion: The Politics of Health-Care in Israel (Cornell University Press) and The
Political Right in Israel (Routledge). Filc was Physicians for Human Rights-Israel's board member
(1993-2012) and chairperson (2005 – 2010).
Michal Givoni works in the field of contemporary political theory and studies the intersections of nongovernmental politics and moral sensibility. Her work explores the history, ethics and politics of
humanitarian action; the ethics of witnessing and testimony ;cosmopolitanism; and innovative
technologies of public participation .Givoni completed her PhD studies at the Cohn Institute for the
History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas at Tel Aviv University (2008) and was a Fulbright
postdoctoral fellow at UC Berkeley (2011). Her book ,Ethical Witnessing: A History of a Problem, is
forthcoming in Hebrew at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute / Hakibutz Hame'uchad publishing house.
Neve Gordon’s research focuses on human rights, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and political theory.
His first book, Israel’s Occupation, was published in 2008 by the University of California Press, while
his second book, The Human Right to Dominate (written with Nicola Perugini) will be published by
Oxford University Press. Gordon has edited two volumes, one on torture in Israel (with Ruchama
Marton) and the other on marginalized perspectives on human rights. Gordon has been a member at
the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, and a visiting scholar at the University of California,
Berkeley, Brown University, and the University of Michigan.
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Workshop 4
The Politics of Memory
___________________________________
Dr. Becky Kook (Ben-Gurion University)
Dr. Gal Ariely (Ben-Gurion University)
___________________________________________________________________________________________
_
The politics of memory has become, in recent decades, a central focus for much interdisciplinary research. Collective memory, as a central dimension of collective identity, refers
to the myriad and often conflicting ways groups remember their own histories. Underlying the
concept is the understanding that collective memories play a significant and often very
meaningful role in politics. The many avenues of research that employ the terms of politics
and memory include – but are not limited to – the analysis of collective memory in the public
sphere; studies of official and unofficial acts of commemoration; the use of collective
memory by states to promote policies or specific values; studies that focus on the formation
of official historical narratives; the emergence of counter-narratives of memory and the focus
on contentious memory or multi-directional memory; the relationship between individual and
collective memory; and the analysis of the collective memory of trauma.
The purpose of this workshop will be to bring together young scholars engaged in the
different aspects of the politics of memory. Both empirical and theoretical research is
welcome, as is research that focuses on the national, regional or international levels.
Graduate students outside of the discipline of political science, such as history, sociology,
geography, education, are welcome to apply as well.
______________
Leaders
______________
Becky Kook is associate professor in the Department of Politics and Government, Ben
Gurion University of the Negev. Becky has published numerous articles on national identity,
commemoration, and democratic politics. She is currently focusing on issues of immigration
and identity.
Gal Ariely is assistant professor in The Department of Politics and Government, Ben Gurion
University of the Negev. Gal studies issues of citizenship and national identity in Israel and
across countries. He published at the Political Research Quarterly, Nation and Nationalism,
Political Studies and at the International Journal of Intercultural Relation. Gal is currently
working on a project that examines the impact of collective memory on different aspects of
national identity.
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Workshop 5
Comparative and International Political Economy
___________________________________
Prof. Yoram Haftel (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Prof. Yotam Margalit (Tel Aviv University)
___________________________________________________________________________________________
_
Recent decades have seen a dramatic process of countries opening up to international
markets and integrating more tightly with the global economy. As a result, citizens are
affected to an unprecedented degree by market forces stemming from well beyond their
national borders. Governments thus face substantial new challenges that this process brings
about, be it the shielding of their citizenry from new sources of labor market insecurities,
growing foreign competition to domestic business, or dealing with regulatory demands of
multinational corporations and foreign investors. This workshop seeks contributions that deal
with such issues and which shed light on the interaction between economic factors and
politics at both the domestic and international levels.
_____________
Leaders
______________
Yoram Haftel is an Associate Professor in the Department of International Relations at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Previously, he was a faculty member at the University of
Illinois-Chicago. He received his Ph.D. from the Ohio State University. His research agenda
touches on major areas in international relations, most notably international political
economy, international security and international institutions. He is especially interested in
the manners by which economic international organizations and agreements shape crossborder interactions and domestic political forces. His recent book, Regional Economic
Institutions and Conflict Mitigation (University of Michigan Press, 2012), explores the
implications of regional economic organizations and their design for regional security and
peace. In another project, he explores the politics of bilateral investment treaty ratification
and renegotiation.
Yotam Margalit is Associate Professor of Political Science at Tel Aviv University. Prior to
that, he was a faculty member at Columbia University. Margalit specializes in the fields of
comparative and international political economy. Much of his work deals with the political
consequences of globalization, examining how its economic and social effects influence
electoral politics and shape mass preferences on issues such as welfare policy, trade, and
immigration. In other recent work he examines why some developing countries are much
more successful than others in attracting foreign direct investment. This project builds on a
large experimental cross-national study of firms that he devised and heads in collaboration
with the World Bank. Margalit received his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 2009.
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Workshop 6
Immigration and Security: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
___________________________________
Prof. Gallya Lahav (State University of New York, Stony Brook)
Dr. Tal Dingott-Alkopher (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
___________________________________________________________________________________________
_
This workshop seeks to explore the immigration-security nexus in a multi-disciplinary
manner. The recent lively, yet contentious discourse on “securitization of migration”
underscores the lack of theoretical consensus and empirical evidence regarding the impact
of diverse and changing security perceptions on democratic governance, and migration
management. The immigration issue involves both ‘objective’ demographic or economic
changes and security threats, as well as subjective perceptions and interests which are
socially constructed around such diverse threat frames. This workshop thus invites a multidisciplinary examination of security approaches to migration, including socio-psychological,
traditional and security IR approaches, political behavioral, neo-institutional, and political
theoretical models that explain the impact of threat on migration. We encourage critical
approaches that can shed light on national and international behaviors and policies toward
immigration as well as inter-state relations in general. The objective is to incorporate
different models and approaches (micro- and macro-) to disaggregate and examine
normative and attitudinal developments and implications related to migration and threat
among security-conscious, market-oriented, liberal democracies.
______________
Leaders
______________
Gallya Lahav is Associate Professor of Political Science at the State University of New
York at Stony Brook, where she has received the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in
Teaching. She holds graduate degrees in political science from the London School of
Economics and the Graduate Center, CUNY. Lahav was visiting Swiss Chair Professor of
Mobility at the Swiss Forum for Migration and visiting professor in the International MA
Program in Migration at Tel-Aviv University, as well as research affiliate at the Center for
European Studies at Harvard University, NYU, and the European University Institute
(Florence). Lahav teaches and writes on the politics of international migration and European
integration. She is also author of Immigration and Politics in the New Europe (Cambridge
University Press, 2004), and co-editor of The Migration Reader (Lynne Rienner, 2006),
and ISA The Compendium on Ethnicity, Nationalism and Migration (Blackwell, 2010). Her
articles have appeared in several books and journals, including Comparative Political
Studies, Political Behaviour, the Journal of Common Market Studies, Journal of Ethnic and
Migration Studies, Global Governance, West European Politics, and the American Journal of
Political Research. Lahav has been the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, and has served
as a consultant and expert witness to the US Special Operations Forces, the Israel
Population and Immigration Authority (PIBA), the European Parliament, and the United
Nations (UN) Population Division on international migration
Tal Dingott Alkopher is a lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her main
research interests are: IR theories, especially Constructivism, the historicity of Just War
Doctrine, European security and Immigration. Among her publications are articles in
International Studies Quarterly, Millennium, and Cooperation and Conflict. Her recent article
"The Political Psychology of Integration Strategies: The Case of the European Commission’s
Interculturalism" is forthcoming in JIRD. Her book Fighting for Rights: From Holy Wars to
Humanitarian Military Interventions has been published by Ashgate in 2013.
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Workshop 7
Information and Power in the Digital Age
___________________________________
Prof. Dr. Volker Schneider (University of Konstanz)
Prof. Alon Peled (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
___________________________________________________________________________________________
_
From President Obama’s open data policy to the Wikileaks and Snowden affairs to Europe’s
struggles to compel Google to “forget” information about individuals, we are reminded time
and again that information is power in our digital age. On the one hand, state organizations
and private corporations are becoming ever more powerful in the digital age. For example, in
2014, the US National Security Agency (NSA) built a facility in Utah that can store every bit
and byte of humanity’s electronic communication over the next one hundred years. In the
private sector, Google continues its tour de force to become the gatekeeper of all human
knowledge. Yet, on the other hand, we have individuals such as Snowden who challenge the
informational power of the state and its bureaucratic organs in a manner that few, if any,
individuals in history have managed to do. We seek paper submissions that explore topics
such as the impact of information and communication technology on politics and policymaking; the ways in which open data and big data change the lives of individual citizens,
society, bureaucracy, and the state; and the emergence of a new balance of information
power between state and society, among the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors, and
among politicians, bureaucrats, technologists, and citizens. We also seek papers that
address the new ethical and privacy concerns of our digital age and how these challenges
may be addressed. We encourage paper submissions that address questions such as: How
does information transform power relationships among different actors in the state? What
are the new ethical, political, regulatory, economic, legal, and technical challenges in our
information state and digital society? How do politicians, bureaucrats, consultants, and
individual citizens use information-as-power to defy and change old norms of behavior and
established rules of the political game?
______________
Leaders
______________
Volker Schneider is the Chair of Empirical Theory of the State at the University of Konstanz. He
received his Ph.D. in political and social sciences at the European University Institute, Florence, Italy.
He served as a research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne, and as
a visiting fellow at Harvard University’s Center for European Studies and at the Annenberg School of
Communications of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Dr. Schneider has published
several books, and dozens of articles in leading political science journals. He also served as the Dean
of the Faculty of Administrative Sciences at the University of Konstanz and as the Head of the
Department of Political and Administrative Sciences at the University of Konstanz. His research
interest is focused on theory of the state, organizational studies, evolution of political institutions, and
network analysis.
Alon Peled is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Political Science at the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem. His work has been published in leading public administration journals. His current
research interest is focused on models to commoditize knowledge as a contested commodity (i.e., a
good whose insertion into the marketplace evokes ethical concerns) as a means to improve
information sharing and close data divides within the state and among countries; and on big data
analysis techniques in the social sciences. He is the author of Traversing Digital Babel – Information,
E-Government, and Exchange (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2014). He also served as the big
data analyst and senior data modeler of enterprise-wide data warehouse projects in several Fortune
50 companies.
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Workshop 8
Jewish Political Thought
___________________________________
Dr. Moshe Hellinger (Bar Ilan University)
Dr. Jeff Macy (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
___________________________________________________________________________________________
_
This workshop is designed to present research relating to Jewish political thought from the
biblical to the contemporary period. Its common thread is an examination of the writings of
Jewish thinkers regarded (sometimes in hindsight) as forms of political thought. As a rule of
thumb, works by individuals or "schools of thought" relevant to this workshop will refer to
Jewish sources and/or to issues facing Jewish communal or political life.
We encourage presentations that analyze relationships between various periods in the
development of Jewish language, culture, and/or history and their impact on the formation of
the Israeli polity.
Presenters may be graduate students or recent recipients of doctoral degrees. Presentations
will be based on manuscripts distributed to all participants prior to the conference (in either
English or Hebrew). Interested students and faculty who wish to join the conversation are
also welcome providing they have received prior permission from the conference conveners.
______________
Leaders
______________
Moshe Hellinger is a Senior Lecturer in the Political Studies Department at Bar-Ilan
University, the Academic Director of the Schwartz Institute for Judaism, Ethics and
Democracy at Beit Morasha, Jerusalem, former Director of Bar-Ilan’s Program for
Dialogue between Secular and Religious Students, and former coordinator of the
Taub Program for Citizenship at Bar-Ilan. He is also a senior researcher at the Israeli
Institute for Democracy. His research and publications focus on Jewish political
thought, Judaism and democracy, and religious Zionist thought.
Jeff Macy received his BA in Political Science from Claremont College, California,
his MA in Political Economy from the University of Toronto, and his PhD in Medieval
Jewish and Islamic Political Thought from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Following a post-doctoral position at Harvard, he returned to the Hebrew University
of Jerusalem in 1984, where he became part of the Political Science Department.
Between 2004 and 2007, he served as Chair of the Political Science Department and
between 2007-2010 served as Director of the Gilo Center for Citizenship, Democracy
and Civic Education at the Hebrew University. He has been a Visiting Professor at
Yale University, Wesleyan University, the University of Tulsa and the University of
Crete (Greece). His research and publications focus on medieval Jewish and Islamic
political thought, as well as the link between religion and politics in the ancient and
medieval periods.
01th Annual Graduate Conference
03
in Political Science, International Relations & Public Policy in Memory of Yitzhak Rabin
10-12 December, 2014
Workshop 9
Neoliberalism beyond the Economic Crisis
___________________________________
Prof. Zeev Rosenhek (Open University of Israel)
Dr. Ronen Mandelkern (Van-Leer Jerusalem Institute & Hebrew University)
Mr. Amit Avigur-Eshel (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
___________________________________________________________________________________________
_
The global financial crisis and its economic and political consequences have raised
unprecedented challenges to the dominance of the neoliberal project: discontent with
inequality has risen; new social movements, such as "the 99%", have emerged; and
alternative political ideas and policies, such as Keynesian ideas and counter-cyclical fiscal
expansions, have been suggested and adopted. Yet, despite these challenges,
neoliberalism seems rather resilient, at least in the short run: the role of "technocrats" in
political decision-making seems stronger than ever; the basic economic arrangements have
not changed and economic inequality has intensified; an austerity policy adopted to confront
the "sovereign debt" crisis is likely to transform into a further retrenchment of the welfare
state; and the wave of popular protest that at some points shook neoliberalism from below
has receded. This multifaceted experience provides an opportunity to reexamine essential
questions regarding the politics of neoliberalism: what defines neoliberalism as an ideational
paradigm and as a political project? Has the neoliberal project been weakened as a result of
the crisis? Has neoliberalism changed following the crisis, and if so where and how? How
can differences among countries in the formation of the neoliberal project be explained? We
invite researchers studying these questions in a variety of fields, such as: economic and
social policies, social movement and social protests, liberal and anti-liberal political parties,
and ideas and ideologies. Thus, the workshop will bring together young researchers of
political science as well as neighboring disciplines such as public policy, international
relations and political sociology.
______________
Leaders
______________
Zeev Rosenhek is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology, Political Science and
Communication at the Open University of Israel. His fields of interest include state–economy relations,
production and reproduction of social hierarchies, institutional change and the political economy of
liberalization. He has published on these issues in journals such as Journal of Ethnic and Racial
Studies, Social Problems, Acta Sociologica, Review of International Political Economy, SocioEconomic Review, and International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society. He is currently
conducting comparative research on the interpretative and communicative practices of sense-making
employed by central banks during the financial crisis.
Ronen Mandelkern is a postdoctoral fellow at the Polonsky Academy in the Van Leer Jerusalem
Institute and adjunct professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Previously he was postdoctoral
fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne. His main fields of interests
are comparative and international political economy, the political aspects of economic liberalization,
and politics and expertise. His work on these topics appeared in World Politics and the Economics
Quarterly (Hebrew). Currently he is studying the macroeconomic policy responses to the Great
Recession and the role played by expert economists in shaping these responses.
Amit Avigur-Eshel is a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at the Hebrew
University in Jerusalem. His fields of interest include the politics of economic reform, Latin American
politics and citizenship studies. He has recently submitted his PhD dissertation which examines the
contribution of the middle class, and specifically the upper-middle class, to the political stabilization
and permanence of neoliberalism in Israel and in Chile. His article on the role of popular ideological
perceptions in the political stability of neoliberalism in Israel was recently published in the Journal of
Political Ideologies. Currently, he is working on a comparative study of the Israeli and Chilean 2011
mass protests.
01th Annual Graduate Conference
04
in Political Science, International Relations & Public Policy in Memory of Yitzhak Rabin
10-12 December, 2014
Workshop 10
Political Parties: Change, Continuities and their Future
___________________________________
Prof. Gideon Rahat (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
___________________________________________________________________________________________
_
An important branch of the literature on political parties has declared that political parties are
in decline. The parties’ decline thesis has serious ramifications since parties are crucial
elements for the functioning of mass democracy. Others argue that political parties – while
not as dominant as they were in the “golden age” of the mass party – adapt to their changing
social, political and technological environments. Are political parties really facing a decline,
or are they simply adapting to changing circumstances? What are the relationships between
party elites, activists, members and voters? Are these trends limited to Western
democracies? What are the relationships between the “three faces” of the party (The party in
government, the party on the ground, party institutions)? This workshop invites empirical and
theoretical contributions engaging with the topic of political parties and their future, either via
case studies, or comparative approaches.
______________
Leader
______________
Gideon Rahat is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His research interests are Israeli politics and
comparative politics, especially political parties, electoral reform and candidate
selection methods. He has co-authored and edited books on candidate selection and
authored or collaborated on articles that appeared in leading political science
journals. He is also the director of research of the Political Reform Project in the
Israel Democracy Institute. His recent book, with Reuven Hazan, Democracy within
Parties: Candidate Selection and their Political Consequences, was published by
Oxford University Press (2010).
01th Annual Graduate Conference
05
in Political Science, International Relations & Public Policy in Memory of Yitzhak Rabin
10-12 December, 2014
Workshop 11
Regulation, Governance and Neoliberalism
___________________________________
Prof. David Levi-Faur (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Dr. Sharon Yadin (Tel Aviv University)
___________________________________________________________________________________________
_
This workshop is devoted to theoretically-challenging and empirically rich analysis of
the governance and regulatory processes and reforms at the national and
transnational level. Our interest is in papers that examine how these relations shape
regulation, governance and their challenges, including issues such as agency media
management, autonomy, accountability, collaboration across agencies and more.
Also welcome are papers that study processes of institutional diffusion and
translation in the context of governance and regulation. The workshop is open to
students and post-docs from wide interdisciplinary background and decisions on
acceptance will be taken on the basis of merit.
______________
Leaders
______________
David Levi-Faur is professor at the Federmann School of Public Policy and the Department
of Political Science, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is also a founding editor of
Regulation & Governance, a Willey-Blackwell's journal, that aims to serve as a leading
platform for the study of regulation and governance in the social sciences. He held research
and teaching positions at the University of Haifa, the University of Oxford, the Australian
National University, the University of Manchester and the Freie Universität Berlin. He held
visiting positions in the London School of Economics, the University of Amsterdam,
University of Utrecht and University of California (Berkeley). He currently works on a book
manuscript Regulating Capitalism" to be published by Princeton University Press. His work
includes special issues of the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social
Sciences (The Global Diffusion of Regulatory Capitalism, co-edited with Jacint Jordana) and
Governance (Varieties of Regulatory Capitalism). More recently he acted as editor of the he
Oxford Handbook of Governance (Oxford University Press, 2012) and The Handbook of the
Politics of Regulation (Edward Elgar, 2011).
Sharon Yadin holds a Ph.D. in Law from Tel Aviv University (2013). She teaches law and
regulation at Tel Aviv University and at the Hebrew University, where she was a postdoctoral fellow on the prestigious Lady Davis scholarship. Sharon's doctoral dissertation,
titled Regulatory Contracts, was written on a four year honors scholarship from the Zvi
Meitar Center for Advanced Legal Studies. She also holds an LL.B. (cum laude, 2005) and
LL.M. in commercial law (2006), both from Tel Aviv University. She is a member of the Israeli
Bar Association since 2006. Sharon published several law journal articles in the field of
regulation and received distinguished awards including the 2012 Gorney Award for a young
scholar in public law and the Lakers Award for outstanding article. Her academic interests
include law & regulation, administrative law, public-private partnerships, communication law
& regulation and financial markets regulation.
01th Annual Graduate Conference
06
in Political Science, International Relations & Public Policy in Memory of Yitzhak Rabin
10-12 December, 2014
Workshop 12
Political Psychology
___________________________________
Prof. Daphna Canetti (University of Haifa)
Dr. Pazit Ben-Nun Bloom ( Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
___________________________________________________________________________________________
_
Political Psychology is an approach utilizing psychological processes and findings about the
human psych to understand political behavior. While the official society of Political
Psychology had only been formed in 1978, scholars have been discussing the relationship
between psychology and political processes as early as in ancient Greece. When one hears
the term political psychology, one might envision the study of elections and campaigns.
While not inaccurate, this perception excludes a broad range of topics that fall within the
purview of political psychology ,including political attitude formation, intergroup relations, the
role of personality and traits in politics and political decision making . The primary purpose of
this workshop will be to bring together young scholars engaged in different aspects of the
study of Political Psychology. We welcome mainly empirical quantitative political research of
all shapes and forms (e.g., lab in the field, field experiments, surveys, experiment-surveys).
Themes may reflect the broad array of interests shared by political psychologists (e.g. the
dynamics of public opinion, the organization of political beliefs, political
information processing, political socialization and conflict resolution). While contributions will
vary theoretically and empirically, they should all overtly discuss the psychological
mechanisms of a political phenomenon.
______________
Leaders
______________
Pazit Ben-Nun Bloom (PhD, Stony Brook University, 2010) is an assistant professor in the
department of political science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She studies political
psychology (religiousness, morality, values), comparative political behavior (comparative
religion, democratic values, corruption) and quantitative methods (experiments methods,
covariance structure models). She is a recipient of several grants and fellowships including
the Marie Curie Grant from the European Union and grants from the Israel Science
Foundation (ISF) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Her work appeared in venues
such as British Journal of Political Science, Journal of Public Administration Research and
Theory, Political Studies, Political Psychology and Political Behavior.
Daphna Canetti (PhD, University of Haifa, 2003) is an associate professor in the school of
political science at the University of Haifa. Her main research interests are in the political
psychology of intergroup relations, with an emphasis on the micro-foundations of political
conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere. Methodologically, she uses controlled
randomized experiments, spatial analysis, survey experiments, and bio-political research.
She has received over $3 million in research grants to study people in conflict zones (e.g.,
NIMH, ISF, BSF) and published in journals such as American Journal of Political
Science, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Political Behavior, Political Psychology, Psychiatry Interpersonal and Biological Processes, Journal of Consulting and Clinical
Psychology, Journal of Peace Research and British Journal of Political Science.
01th Annual Graduate Conference
07
in Political Science, International Relations & Public Policy in Memory of Yitzhak Rabin
10-12 December, 2014
Workshop 13
Urban and Local Governance: Policy and Regulation
___________________________________
Prof. Eran Razin (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Dr. Itai Beeri (University of Haifa)
___________________________________________________________________________________________
_
Urban and local governance face challenges associated with transformations from traditional
hierarchical government structures to complex governance networks that include inter- and
intra-sectoral partnerships. Urban governance is apparently influenced also by the
emergence of the 'regulatory state', related to the decline of the welfare state, the rise of
neoliberal notions and NPM practices. These create contradicting pressures of
decentralization and recentralization of political power and possibly lead to the emergence of
a 'regulatory city' and/or to the rise of a 'local welfare state'. Bridging challenges of economic
growth, where city-regions that do not have clear-cut boundaries compete in the global
economy, with those of sustainable development and social justice adds to the complexity
faced by local leaders. This session aims to bring together young scholars engaged in the
diverse aspects of urban and local governance, urban policy and local regulation in different
contexts, who critically assess aspects of the above transformations or argue for different
directions.
______________
Leaders
______________
Dr. Itai Beeri is a lecturer (tenure track) in the Division of Public Administration and Policy,
School of Political Sciences, University of Haifa, and head of the specialization in Local
Government Administration within the division's Master in Public Administration (MPA)
program. Dr. Beeri serves as an academic consultant to Israel's Finance and Interior
Ministries. His research interests and publications concern local government, public
management, poor-performing public organizations and turnaround, public policy towards
poor performers, organizational citizenship behavior, and research methods and statistics.
Eran Razin is associate professor at the Department of Geography, the Hebrew University
of Jerusalem, holds the Leon Safdie Chair in Urban Studies, serves as the director of the
Institute of Urban and Regional Studies (the graduate Urban Planning program) and heads
Floersheimer Studies at the Hebrew University. He specializes in the study of local
government, urban planning and development, including metropolitan dynamics. He has
published six books and numerous journal articles. He has served for nearly three decades
as chair of municipal boundary and revenue redistribution commissions, and participated in
municipal amalgamation and municipal reform committees, and in planning and evaluation
teams. He has been both a member of the governing board of IPSA Research Committee 05
– Comparative Studies on Local Government and Politics – and a member of the steering
committee of the IGU Commission on Geography and Governance.
01th Annual Graduate Conference
08
in Political Science, International Relations & Public Policy in Memory of Yitzhak Rabin
10-12 December, 2014
Workshop 14
European Integration –
Between Convergence and Differentiation, Consolidation and Diffusion
___________________________________
Dr. Sara Kahn-Nisser (Open University of Israel)
Dr. Maya Sion-Tzidkiyahu (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
___________________________________________________________________________________________
_
The turn of the century is characterized by conflicting trends in the European
integration process: deepened versus differentiated integration; technocratic rulesetting versus institutional democratization; deepening versus widening, etc. These
conflicting trends present (alleged) puzzles. Further deepening and advancement of
the integration process between the Member States have been accompanied by
increased trends of differentiated integration inside the EU, leaving some Member
States in the outlier integration circles. Internal coordination and consolidation on the
one hand and external export of rules and norms, on the other, at times point to
opposing directions. It seems that both externally and internally the vision of "an ever
closer union" is losing ground. While the EU struggles to tackle challenges such as
increasing internal diversity, the UK searching for a way either for an ever looser
union, or out of the EU, it is also faced with conflicting interests in its neighborhood.
With Russia violently blocking a Western-integrated Ukraine, Turkey's accession
going off-track, and the EU's failure in presenting itself as a relevant actor in the
middle-East, the prospects for a Normative Power Europe seem very grim indeed.
The workshop will address the conflicting empirical and normative trends and
puzzles to which the EU gives rise, as well as their institutional and political logic. It
will give special attention to the ways in which the EU's internal and external policies
shape, and are shaped by, the political, economic, social, and institutional conditions
of contemporary Europe. The workshop welcomes theoretically informed empirical
and comparative papers dealing with such puzzles of conflicting trends in the
European integration process, their causes and implications.
______________
Leaders
______________
Sara Kahn-Nisser is Lecturer at the department of sociology political science and
communication, the Open University of Israel. Her research interests include norms and
values in EU policies, EU enlargement, international labour standards, and IR research
methods. She has published in leading IR and EU studies journals such as JCMS and ISR.
Her current research focuses on regional convergence of labour standards in Europe and
beyond.
Maya Sion-Tzidkiyahu is a Teaching Fellow at the European Studies Program of the
European Forum, the Political Science and the International Relations Departments, the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She received her PhD in Political Science from the Hebrew
University. Her research deals with differentiated integration in the European Union. She
won the European Commission Jean Monnet Module competitive grant, and was a Junior
Research Fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences, Vienna.
01th Annual Graduate Conference
09
in Political Science, International Relations & Public Policy in Memory of Yitzhak Rabin
10-12 December, 2014
Workshop 15
Challenges to Democracy
___________________________________
Dr. Gayil Talshir (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Dr. Ayelet Banai (Open University of Israel)
___________________________________________________________________________________________
_
Democracy is seen, since the break-down of the USSR, as the only
game in town; yet the literature on the crisis of democracy – both in
theory and in practice – is more prolific than ever. The crisis of
democracy has been connected to the crisis of the party system, the
decline of popular trust, the breakdown of the nation state, the decline of
the modern state, the triumph of capitalism and the rise of deliberative
democracy. This workshop invites contributions to the challenges of the
model of representative democracy from the perspective of democratic
theory, comparative politics, history of ideas, normative arguments and
empirical studies with particular interest in the crisis of advanced
democracies – the Western model, European Union and Israel. We seek
to develop a comprehensive approach and see the inter-linkages among
the theoretical and empirical challenges to democracy.
______________
Leaders
______________
Gayil Talshir is a senior lecturer at the department of political science and the head
of the center for Advanced Civil Service Training at the School of Public Policy at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She led the workshop on civil service in the 2013
Caesera Conference. Her research interests are: the crisis of democracy, party
system/civil society, the crisis of party democracy, democratic theory, new paradigm
for civil service and political ideologies. She wrote The Political Ideologies of Green
Parties (London: Palgrave 2002) and edited (with Humphrey and Freeden) Taking
Ideology Seriously (London: Taylor & Francis, 2006).
Ayelet Banai is a Lecturer (assistant professor, tenure-track) at the School of
Political Sciences, and the Center for German and European Studies, The University
of Haifa since Oct. 2013 – present after being a Research Fellow (junior faculty) at
the Institute for Political Science, as part of the Research Group: Justitia Amplificata,
at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main. 2009-2013. Her research interests are:
International political theory, democracy and democratization, identity politics,
minority rights, theories of freedom, the right of self-determination. She edited
(together with Ronzoni, Miriam and Schemmel, Christian), Social Justice, Global
Dynamics (London: Routledge, 2011).
01th Annual Graduate Conference
21
in Political Science, International Relations & Public Policy in Memory of Yitzhak Rabin
10-12 December, 2014
Workshop 16
____________________________________________
Experimental Methods
_____________________________________________
Dr. Raanan Sulitzeanu-Kenan
(Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
How can experimental methods improve our study of political questions? This workshop
offers an introduction to experimental methods, and present various types of experiments
available for political and social researchers. We will begin by understanding the general
defining characteristics of an experimental design. Next, we will discuss the different types of
experimental designs available; these include laboratory, survey-embedded, field, and
natural experiments. The discussion will address the general characteristics, strengths and
weakness, and substantive social science examples of each type of these experimental
designs.
The workshop intended for graduate and recent PhDs interested in political and social
science, broadly defined. The number of places is limited. Participants are encouraged to
present their work in order to receive feedback and advice concerning publication in a major
journal. The syllabus and further details relating to the workshop will be posted on the
conference website.
______________
Leader
______________
Raanan Sulitzeanu-Kenan is a senior lecturer of Political Science and Public Policy at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He completed his PhD at Oxford University in 2006. His
research focuses on cognitive aspects of political decisions and behavior of both citizens
and elites (elected officials and judges). His current research projects address the role of
reputation in institutional cooperation, the role of (perceived) power in shaping policy
preferences; the nature of effectiveness judgments, and legal proportionality in public policy.
He has published in the British Journal of Political Science, Governance, Journal of Public
Administration Research and Theory, Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, Public
Administration, and Administration & Society.
01th Annual Graduate Conference
20
in Political Science, International Relations & Public Policy in Memory of Yitzhak Rabin
10-12 December, 2014
Workshop 17
____________________________________________
Developing Questionnaires for Quantitative Research
_____________________________________________
Andrey Elster (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Surveys have been widely used in various fields of social science, such as psychology,
sociology, political science, organizational studies, and many others. Their validity and
reliability, however, are frequently threatened by various biases. The current workshop
provides basic guidelines for designing a valid survey questionnaire. We will focus on the
major issues regarding questionnaire development, including constructing questions,
choosing response formats, and appropriate scaling. The workshop participants will be
exposed to various examples of questionnaires and will discuss their psychometric quality.
Workshop language: Hebrew
______________
Leader
______________
Andrey Elster is a PhD student at the School of Business Administration, the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem. He received his MBA (Summa cum Laude) from the School of
Business Administration at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In his research he examines
how individual differences in personal values affect human behavior and the way people
perceive and interpret the world around them. Andrey is a lecturer of several methodological
courses at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a tutor of seminar works at the Open
University of Israel.
01th Annual Graduate Conference
22
in Political Science, International Relations & Public Policy in Memory of Yitzhak Rabin
10-12 December, 2014
Workshop 18
____________________________________________
Social Networks Analysis
_____________________________________________
Prof. Amalya Oliver (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Network theory aims at explaining social phenomena in a wide variety of disciplines from
sociology, anthropology, psychology, political science, international relations, geography,
and economics. This continuous development has significantly enriched social sciences in
areas of inquiries as diverse as: intra and inter-organizational networks; social support,
health, and well-being; community social capital and civic engagement; the structural
analysis of markets; policy networks; and textual analyses.
This workshop provides an overview of the use of social network analysis, and coming up
with an analytical summary of the basic assumptions, concepts, goals, and explanatory
mechanisms prevalent in the field. Modes of data gathering and sampling will be discussed
as well. The workshop will also demonstrate methodological problems of whole network
analysis and ego network analysis, and the ways in which the field is moving from static,
cross-sectional design into dynamic design.
______________
Leader
______________
Amalya Oliver Ph.D., UCLA, is a George S. Wise Chair and professor in Sociology and the
Chair of The Hoffman Leadership and Responsibility Program at the The Hebrew University,
Jerusalem. Her current research is on inter-organizational networks for learning, innovation
and creativity, professions, trust, community cognitive network construction, universityindustry technology transfer and collaborations and research misconduct.
01th Annual Graduate Conference
23
in Political Science, International Relations & Public Policy in Memory of Yitzhak Rabin
10-12 December, 2014
Workshop 19
____________________________________________
Text & Data Mining:
Utilizing Computers' Abilities to Find and Analyze Data
_____________________________________________
Zvi Ben-Ami (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
The focus of this workshop is on methods and tools for obtaining, processing and
analyzing digital data. The first part of the workshop will be devoted to introducing
general terms, approaches and challenges associated with the fields of Text and
Data Mining. The second part of the workshop will be devoted to demonstrating
some specific applications and tools for crawling websites, analyzing structured and
unstructured data and visualizing the results.
______________
Leader
______________
Zvi Ben-Ami is a doctoral candidate at the School of Business Administration of the Hebrew
University specializing in the field of Text Mining and, particularly, in the subfield of
Sentiment Analysis. His current research focuses on the mining of investors’ sentiment from
social media. He received his Masters (Cum Laude) from the Faculty of Economic and
Building Sciences at the University of Port Elizabeth and wrote a dissertation entitled “An
Investigation into South African International Higher Education as a Service Industry”. Zvi
has given several methodological workshops and lectures on various aspects related to
internet research, text analysis and data mining. He currently works at the School of
Business Administration of the Hebrew University and also lectures Drupal and PHP at Ariel
University.
01th Annual Graduate Conference
24
in Political Science, International Relations & Public Policy in Memory of Yitzhak Rabin
10-12 December, 2014
Workshop 20
____________________________________________
Facet Theory:
Partial Order Scaling in Political Analysis
_____________________________________________
Volker Schneider (University of Konstanz)
Partial order scaling is a specific scaling method for the ordering, mapping, and ranking of
qualitative and quantitative data. Based on facet theory it has been widely used in
psychology. Recently this method also has diffused to other scientific disciplines. In political
analysis it can be useful for the mapping and scaling of institutional, ideational and relational
structures. Particularly for creation of composite indicators it can be used as an advanced
data reduction strategy.
The focus of this workshop is on research strategies and tools for using this method in
political analysis. The first part of the workshop will be devoted to introducing general terms,
basic assumptions, concepts, goals, and various applications in the field. The second part of
the workshop concentrates on specific software tools for analysis and visualization in partial
order scaling.
______________
Leader
______________
Volker Schneider is the Chair of Empirical Theory of the State at the University of
Konstanz. He received his Ph.D. in political and social sciences: European University
Institute, Florence, Italy. He served as a research fellow at the Max-Planck-Institute for the
Study of Societies, Cologne, and as a visiting fellow at the Center for European Studies of
Harvard University and the Annenberg School of Communications of the University of
Southern California, Los Angeles. Dr. Schneider has published several books and dozens of
articles in leading political science journals. He also served as the Dean of the Faculty of
Administrative Sciences of the University of Konstanz and as the Head of the Department of
Political and Administrative Sciences, University of Konstanz. His research interest is
focused on theory of the state, organizational studies, evolution of political institutions and
network analysis.
01th Annual Graduate Conference
25
in Political Science, International Relations & Public Policy in Memory of Yitzhak Rabin
10-12 December, 2014
Workshop 21
____________________________________________
Discourse Network Analysis
_____________________________________________
Volker Schneider (University of Konstanz)
Although political processes are strongly influenced by discourses at various levels (political,
public, scientific, etc.) policy analysis has not yet covered this research area with sufficient
detail and precision. Discourse Network Analysis aims to fill this gap. It is an approach which
combines social network analysis with content analysis, and allows the systematic
identification of discourse structures in a variety of textual documents. The importance of
specific topics, positions, and arguments in a debate can be identified as well as central
actors within a discourse. Furthermore the Discourse Network Analysis allows discovering
discourse coalitions, based on the similarity of statements, arguments, and policy positions.
The first part of the workshop will be devoted to the question of how discourses can matter
within political processes and gives an overview over current discourse network research.
In the second part of the workshop participants will get a practical introduction into the
software Discourse Network Analyzer (DNA) as well as basic introductions into the software
programs UCINET and Visone. By the end of the workshop the participants will be able to
analyze and visualize their own basic discourse networks.
______________
Leader
______________
Volker Schneider is the Chair of Empirical Theory of the State at the University of Konstanz. He
received his Ph.D. in political and social sciences: European University Institute, Florence, Italy. He
served as a research fellow at the Max-Planck-Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne, and as a
visiting fellow at the Center for European Studies of Harvard University and the Annenberg School of
Communications of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Dr. Schneider has published
several books and dozens of articles in leading political science journals. He also served as the Dean
of the Faculty of Administrative Sciences of the University of Konstanz and as the Head of the
Department of Political and Administrative Sciences, University of Konstanz. His research interest is
focused on theory of the state, organizational studies, evolution of political institutions and network
analysis.
01th Annual Graduate Conference
26
in Political Science, International Relations & Public Policy in Memory of Yitzhak Rabin
10-12 December, 2014
Workshop 22
____________________________________________
Introduction to Structural Equation Modeling
_____________________________________________
Marina Goroshit (Tel Hai Academic College)
This workshop introduces students to structural equation modeling (SEM). SEM is a
regression-based technique that incorporates elements of path analysis and confirmatory
factor analysis. A key feature of SEM is that observed variables are understood to represent
a small number of "latent constructs" that cannot be directly measured, only inferred from the
observed measured variables. The main goals of this workshop are: 1) to provide a thorough
background in the conceptual aspects and application of this method using research
examples, 2) to show how structural equation models fit into a larger framework of statistical
methods; 3) to clarify the importance of 'latent variables' in social and political analysis. The
technical aspects will be exemplified in order to demonstrate the utility of the approach and
its range of applications.
______________
Leader
______________
Marina Goroshit is a lecturer of quantitative research methods and statistics at Tel Hai
Academic College and an associate research fellow at Laboratory for Comparative Social
Research (St. Petersburg, Russia). She completed her PhD in Sociology at Haifa University
in 2012. Her primary interests are in Multivariate statistics, measuring issues in Social
sciences and cross-cultural research. Her current research project deals with a topic of
studying and measuring patterns of citizens' engagement (social, civic and political) across
Europe.
01th Annual Graduate Conference
27
in Political Science, International Relations & Public Policy in Memory of Yitzhak Rabin
10-12 December, 2014
Workshop 23
____________________________________________
Social Media Analysis for Social Scientists
_____________________________________________
Dr. Anat Ben-David (Open University of Israel)
This workshop explores methods for analyzing social media data to study broad social and
political phenomena. It introduces NetVizz, a software tool developed by Dr. Bernhard
Rieder from the University of Amsterdam, which enables social scientists without prior
knowledge of programming to extract raw data from Facebook, and subsequently analyze it
using the network visualization software Gephi. Through the mapping of ties between users,
likes, posts and media types, this method brings together principles from network analysis
(such as centrality. ranking and density) with the unique types of interactions enabled (or
prohibited) by the platform (such as measures of popularity of pages, users or posts by the
number of their “likes”, or “shares”). The utility of the method for social and political research
will be demonstrated using examples from studies on mapping political extremism and hate
speech in Europe.
Participants are kindly asked to bring their laptops and a USB stick. It is advised to download
and install the open source software Gephi prior to the workshop, as well as to create an
alias Facebook account for research purposes. To facilitate instructions, all participants will
work with a pre-prepared dataset.
______________
Leader
______________
Anat Ben-David is Assistant Professor at the department of Sociology, Political Science and
Communication, the Open University of Israel. She holds a PhD in Science, Technology and Society
from Bar Ilan University (2012). Her research focuses on Internet politics, Web historiography and
Digital Methods for Web research. Anat is affiliated with the Digital Methods Initiative, University of
Amsterdam, which develops methods and tools for social research with the Web.
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Workshop 24
____________________________________________
Introduction to Python for Social Scientists
_____________________________________________
Yair Fogel-Dror (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Python is a friendly, intuitive and all-purpose programming language that allows researchers
and scholars to collect, analyze and visualize data for various research goals. Python is
popular in the commercial and academic community, and it is now gaining popularity in the
social- and political-science disciplines.
The aim of this workshop is to introduce Python to social scientist. The first section of the
workshop will introduce students to the language - we will cover the basics of programming
in Python using a short demonstration of collecting and analyzing social network data. The
second part will be more practice-oriented, and should help students make their first steps in
the implementation of a Python-assisted research. A short section of "where to go from here"
will close the workshop. No background in programming is needed.
______________
Leader
______________
Yair Fogel-Dror is a PhD candidate for political science in the Advanced Research Studies
Program in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. After working as an information and
communication technologies researcher in the Intelligence community and the Hi-Tech
industry, he is now implementing computational methods in the field of political science. His
current research utilizes machine learning methods in order to monitor political discourse in
real time. His research interests are political communication and political psychology, in
particular the distribution and decentralization of power.
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Workshop 25
___________________________________________
What R can do for U (I): Fast and Efficient Data Preparation
_____________________________________________
Amit Gal (Tel Aviv University)
R is an advanced environment for statistical analysis that is quickly becomes the dominant tool for
analysis in many domains. There are many good reasons for that: It provides a wider range of
statistical tools than any other software, faster computation, powerful data management and
manipulation and superior, easy to create graphics and reporting tools. Moreover, R is open source.
It's free. It's extensible, and there are hundreds of user communities that provide help and share ideas
as well as developer communities that are focused on making R better every day. R has one
disadvantage, though. The learning curve is a bit steep, especially for social scientists who have got
used to using other tools.
While it is impossible to teach R in a short workshop, it is possible to showcase its advantages. The
purpose of this session is to provide a (very) brief intro to R, moving fast to issues of data
manipulation, management and preparation for analysis. We'll cover some techniques for
coding/recoding, data aggregation, and a few other manipulation techniques that can be done superfast. I certainly aim to get some “Wow, I wish I knew that 2 years ago”, and if you catch up fast, you
could probably go home and do some things by yourself. But even if you don't, I hope that this
session will give you enough motivation and determination (and references to free resources) to learn
R further. Don't miss the second session about graphics in R.
______________
Leader
______________
Amit Gal is a multidisciplinary scholar, currently completing his PhD in Organizational
Behavior at TAU, studying group processes in organizations. With formal background in
mathematics, musicology and social sciences, his research interests span across many
domains and include social network analysis, formal and computational models of
organizational processes, learning processes, and anything else that attempts to provide
links between micro-level actions and relations to macro-level phenomena. Outside
academia, Amit is an accomplished data scientist and algorithm developer in the high-tech
industry and a home-schooler of 2 adorable kids.
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Workshop 26
____________________________________________
What R can do for U (II): Creating superior graphics.
Logically
_____________________________________________
Amit Gal (Tel Aviv University)
R is an advanced environment for statistical analysis (see the previous workshop, for further
details). One of R's important strengths is its ability to create great looking graphics and
tables with relative ease – at least once you know the basics. What's even more impressive
is R's concept of “grammar for graphics”, which gives the user the power to define the
required graphics in logical terms as a mapping between data and visual elements. Once the
logical structure of the graph is defined, then it would easily work for any data you have
without the need to tweak and adjust it further. In this session we will cover the basic of this
“grammar for graphics” concepts, and you'll learn how to create graphs that are commonly
seen in social science analyses.
Time permitting, we'll touch upon the issue of interactive graphics. While most publications
contain only a bunch of static graphs, interactive graphs give more power in conveying or
demonstrating complex analytical points. It can be used in classroom activities for learning
purposes or as an exploratory data analysis tool.
As with the previous session, you might be able to take the material presented and apply it
to your research, but my aim is basically to motivate you and provide you with some
resources to learn R further. You can take this session without participating in the previous
session. The sessions are independent of each other
(but complementary, if you can
participate in both.)
______________
Leader
______________
Amit Gal is a multidisciplinary scholar, currently completing his PhD in Organizational
Behavior at TAU, studying group processes in organizations. With formal background in
mathematics, musicology and social sciences, his research interests span across many
domains and include social network analysis, formal and computational models of
organizational processes, learning processes, and anything else that attempts to provide
links between micro-level actions and relations to macro-level phenomena. Outside
academia, Amit is an accomplished data scientist and algorithm developer in the high-tech
industry and a home-schooler of 2 adorable kids.
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Workshop 27
____________________________________________
Casing and Case Selection in Comparative Analysis
_____________________________________________
David Levi-Faur (Hebrew University)
This workshop will discuss the logic of case selection and
casual inference in various comparative designs starting with
the most simple designs of paired comparisons and moving
thereafter to more complex designs of medium number of
cases, step-wise research designs and multi-methods
research. Inferences on the basis of Mills' five methods of
induction, Wilson's consilience doctrine and Przeworski and
Teune most-similar and most-different designs will be clarified
with examples.
______________
Leader
______________
David Levi-Faur is professor at the Federmann School of Public Policy and the Department
of Political Science, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is also a founding editor of
Regulation & Governance, a Willey-Blackwell's journal, that aims to serve as a leading
platform for the study of regulation and governance in the social sciences. He held research
and teaching positions at the University of Haifa, the University of Oxford, the Australian
National University, the University of Manchester and the Freie Universität Berlin. He held
visiting positions in the London School of Economics, the University of Amsterdam,
University of Utrecht and University of California (Berkeley). He currently works on a book
manuscript Regulating Capitalism" to be published by Princeton University Press. His work
includes special issues of the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social
Sciences (The Global Diffusion of Regulatory Capitalism, co-edited with Jacint Jordana) and
Governance (Varieties of Regulatory Capitalism). More recently he acted as editor of the he
Oxford Handbook of Governance (Oxford University Press, 2012) and The Handbook of the
Politics of Regulation (Edward Elgar, 2011).
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ROUNDTABLE 28
PROFESSIONALIZATION
____________________________________________
Women in Political Science
_____________________________________________
Prof. Gallya Lahav, (SUNY, Stony Brook)
Prof. Erika Weinthal (Duke University)
Prof. Orit Kedar (Hebrew University)
The roundtable will bring together successful women in academia, with the goal to reflect upon
various challenges, opportunities and career development trajectories that may be unique for women
in the field. Participants will offer insights based upon their personal professional experience, and their
experience training graduate students. We wish to generate a dialogue with the audience, and answer
any questions or address any thoughts you may have on related matters -from balancing career and
family; choosing a career path; being on the job market; presenting at conferences; navigating the
tenure and promotion process; and balancing teaching, research and service commitments. Both
female and male political scientists are welcome to join in.
______________
Leaders
______________
Gallya Lahav is Associate Professor of Political Science at the State University of New York at Stony
Brook, where she has received the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching She has been the
recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, and has served as a consultant and expert witness to the US
Special Operations Forces, the Israel Population and Immigration Authority (PIBA), and the European
Parliament on international migration. In addition to her many peer-reviewed articles and book
chapters on migration, security, and European integration, she is also author of Immigration and
Politics in the New Europe (Cambridge University Press, 2004), and co-editor of The Migration
Reader (Lynne Rienner, 2006), and ISA The Compendium on Ethnicity, Nationalism and Migration
(Blackwell, 2010).
Erika Weinthal is the Lee Hill Snowdon Professor of Environmental Policy and the Associate Dean
for International Programs at the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University. She
specializes in global environmental politics with an emphasis on water and energy. Her book -- State
Making and Environmental Cooperation: Linking Domestic Politics and International Politics in Central
Asia (MIT Press 2002) -- was the recipient of the 2003 Chadwick Alger Prize and the 2003 Lynton
Keith Caldwell Prize. She has co-authored -- Oil is not a Curse: Ownership Structure and Institutions
in Soviet Successor States (Cambridge University Press 2010), which was shortlisted for the 2012
Central Eurasian Studies Society (CESS) book award 2012. She serves on the Executive Committee
of the Faculty Advisory Committee for the Duke Human Rights Center at the Franklin Humanities
Institute. She is a member of the UNEP Expert Group on Conflict and Peacebuilding. Since 2011, she
is an Associate Editor at Global Environmental Politics.
Orit Kedar is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the Hebrew University
of Jerusalem. Her principal research interest lies in comparative politics. In particular, she is
interested in electoral politics and questions of representation. Her current research, funded by the
ERC, analyzes how electoral districts affect representation and party systems. Her work appeared in
venues such as the American Journal of Political Science, American Political Science Review, British
Journal of Political Science, Electoral Studies, Political Analysis, and Public Opinion Quarterly. Her
book, Voting for Policy, Not Parties: How Voters Compensate for Power Sharing (2009, Cambridge
University Press), is the winner of APSA's Riker Award for best book in political economy.
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SEMINAR 29
PROFESIONALIZATION
____________________________________________
Group decision making: Groupthink, Polythink, and ConDiv
_____________________________________________
Alex Mintz (Interdisciplinary Center, Hertzelia)
This workshop will focus on group dynamic and decision making at the elite level. It will deal
with such dynamics and processes as Groupthink, Polythink and Con-Div and their
application to US and Israeli decisions on war and peace in the international system. It will
show how to measure and test these dynamics using a special software. The workshop is
based on Mintz, Alex and Carly Wayne, The Polythink Syndrome: US Foreign Policy
Decisions on 9-11, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Iran, and ISIS, IDC Herzliya, 2015.
______________
Leader
______________
Alex Mitz is Director of the Institute for Policy and Strategy, IPS, at IDC Herzliya. Professor Mintz
is editor-in-chief of the journal, Political Psychology, and editorial board member of the journals
American Political Science Review, International Studies Quarterly, Foreign Policy Analysis,
International Studies Perspective, Open Political Science Journal, Advances in Political
Psychology and Research and Politics. He served as Associate Editor of the Yale-based Journal
of Conflict Resolution, 2004-2009. Prof. Mintz is the 2005 recipient of the Distinguished Scholar
Award of the Foreign Policy Analysis section of the International Studies Association (ISA) for
distinguished contributions to the field, and the 1993 recipient of the Karl Deutsch Award of the
ISA for the most important contribution of any scholar in the world under age of forty to the
scientific study of International Relations. Mintz is the author of the widely read book,
Understanding Foreign Policy Decision Making (with Karl DeRouen), Cambridge University
Press, 2010, The Polythink Syndrome: US Foreign Policy Decisions in 9-11, Afghanistan, Iraq,
Syria and Iran (Stanford University Press, Forthcoming), as well as 9 other books and edited
volumes. He has published in such top journals as the American Political Science Review (1988,
1989, 1990, 1997), American Journal of Political Science (1988 and 1991), International Studies
Quarterly (2011), American Journal of Sociology (1986), Political Psychology (2009) and the
Journal of Conflict Resolution (1985, 1987, 1993a, 1993b, 1997, 2004a, 2004b, 2006). Mintz
served as President of the Foreign Policy Analysis section of the ISA and together with five
Nobel Laureates, is on the board of the Center for Conflict Management and Prevention in
Sydney, Australia.
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SEMINAR 30
____________________________________________
Introduction to the Philosophy of the Social Sciences
_____________________________________________
Dr. Gadi Prudovsky (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
The seminar will start with mapping the main issues in the
philosophy of the social sciences: naturalism vs. hermeneutics;
individualism vs. holism and value-free vs. critical social
research. We shall then focus on the third issue, starting with
Max Weber’s defense of value-free inquiry in his celebrated
"Science as a Vocation" lecture; and continuing with
contemporary criticism of his argument. My own position is that
Weber's arguments are dismissed too easily; and that they are
very powerful even today. I would like to conduct an open
discussion on these issues, aiming at a clearer understanding
of the very concept "value" and its role in social scientific
research.
______________
Leaders
______________
Gadi Prudovsky teaches philosophy of the social sciences in the philosophy politics
and economics program at the Hebrew University. He also teaches philosophy in
The Israeli High-school for Arts and Sciences in Jerusalem. His main philosophical
interests are: understanding social practice, the fact value distinction, the naturalistichermeneutic divide, anachronism in the history of ideas.
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in Political Science, International Relations & Public Policy in Memory of Yitzhak Rabin
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Workshop 31
____________________________________________
Academic Research using Amazon's Mechanical Turk
_____________________________________________
Itay Sisso (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Asher Strauss (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Crowdsourcing, i.e. sending tasks and assignments for the
general public to carry out, mostly over the Internet, has of late
been gaining momentum among academic researchers, mainly
via the platform of Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT)
The aim of this workshop is to introduce the AMT platform for
social scientists, to discuss its pros and cons, and to encourage
proper use of it. Using data from extensive worldwide research
on this platform, and some personal experience, we will learn
about jargon of AMT, the demographics of AMT workers, and
then touch questions such as: ensuring data quality; what are
the intrinsic differences between experiments run on AMT vs. a
university lab, how to deal with experimentation issues that
come up on AMT, and perhaps some ethical questions.
______________
Leaders
______________
Itay Sisso is a PhD candidate for cognitive science in the Federmann Center for the Study of
Rationality in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. After completing his bachelors and masters
degrees in Aerospace Engineering at the Technion, he served for several years as an officer in the
Operations Research branch in the Israeli Air Force. He now studies human decision making
processes, with a main interest in the border of emotion and decision making. His current research
utilizes non-linear models in choice set size effects (Choice Overload). Itay is an avid supporter of the
increasing use of crowdsourcing platforms for academic research. Using this platform for over a year
and a half, by now he ran dozens of experiments and over 7,000 participants for academic research
conducted by himself and other labs from various departments at the Hebrew University (Education,
Psychology, Cognitive Science, Law, and Public Policy). Along with Asher Strauss from the
department of Psychology, he now coordinates a multidisciplinary discussion group for PhD students,
on the same subject, as part of the 'Hevruta' project.
Asher Strauss is a PhD candidate at the psychology department in the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem and a Member of Prof. Jonathan Huppert’s Lab for the study and treatment of anxiety
disorders. He has completed his bachelors in psychology and philosophy and his masters studies
requirements in clinical psychology, both in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His current studies
focus on cognitive and behavioral models for understanding and treating obsessive compulsive
disorder (OCD). His research focuses on information processing and decision making styles in
obsessive compulsive individuals and the contribution of these to the maintenance of both obsessions
and compulsions. He has a broad interest in developing and utilizing internet platforms both for
research and dissemination of psychological interventions. As part of his fellowship at the Hoffman
Leadership and Responsibility Fellowship Program he is currently engaged in forming a research
group for the study of dissemination of self-help psychological interventions via the internet.
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We would like to thank the following departments and institutes
at the Hebrew University for their generous support:
A special thank you goes to our workshop leaders and guests from Israel and
overseas. We would also like to thank the dozens of faculty members from the
Hebrew University and universities all over the country who have volunteered
to serve as chairs, discussants, and advisers in this conference over the
years.
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in Political Science, International Relations & Public Policy in Memory of Yitzhak Rabin
10-12 December, 2014