In 2017/18 the School further developed its links with the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Bar Ilan University, Israel with an ERASMUS+ staff exchange agreement, which was the outcome of a visit to BIU by Larry Ray in 2015.
Writes Larry Ray, Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent
In October 2017, Professor Orly Benjamin (Chair of the Poverty Research Unit, Bar-Ilan University) presented to the SSPSSR Research Seminar Series, her research on ‘Between Hochschild’s and Barbalet’s understanding of emotion and social change: Privatized entitlement?’ This research explores emotional labour and forms of resistance among employees operating care services and develops the concept of ‘mute resentment’ as heralding a new form of neo-liberal citizenship.
In April 2018 Professor Orna Sasson-Levy (Head of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and Chair of the Gender Studies Programme at Bar-Ilan) visited the School. In addition to informal meetings she made two presentations.
- The first was to the Gender, Sexuality and Culture research cluster, on ‘Dis/acknowledging Military Violence: Women Breaking the Silence’. This is part of Prof Sasson-Levy’s long-standing activism and research with the NGO Breaking the Silence (https://www.breakingthesilence.org.il/) which collects testimonies from former member of the Israeli Defence Forces.
- Her second presentation was to the SSPSSR Research Seminar, on ‘Women Soldiers and Citizenship in Israel: Gendered Encounters with the State’. This presented material from her recent book of this title, with Edna Lomsky-Feder (https://www.routledge.com/Women-Soldiers-and-Citizenship-in-Israel-Gendered-Encounters-with-the/Lomsky-Feder-Sasson-Levy/p/book/9780415788946) exploring the meaning of military service and gendered citizenship.
Later in April 2018 Professor Larry Ray visited the Dept of Sociology and Anthropology at Bar Ilan. Again, in addition to informal discussions with staff and graduate students, he led several activities:
- Gender Studies Phd students’ workshop. Students presented their research on, enforced isolation of women in relationships as a form of domestic abuse; sex and gender in the night-time economy; and feminism and Jewish Law (haslakhah). Dr. Ronit Irshai, who chaired workshop, is a leading thinker on the ‘dynamite combination’ of halakha and feminist thought.
- Phd students’ workshop in the Sociology and Anthropology Dept. Students presented research projects on veganism and Jewish law; status and gender relations in the IDF; and the Speaking Out movement.
- Colloquium lecture in the Criminology Department on ‘Shame and the City – the affective politics of rioting”. The data was based on Larry’s research on the English August 2011 riots and the 2005 ‘banlieue riots’ in Paris. The discussion ranged over many contemporary instances of collective violence.
- Course lecture to the ‘Sexuality, money and power in social psychology’ graduate programme (led by Prof. Orly Benjamin) on ‘Shame Eats the Soul – exploring the Shame-Violence Nexus’, discussing Larry’s research on affect, shame and cycles of violence.
- In addition to the programme at Bar Ilan, Larry Ray visited the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute (a leading intellectual centre for the interdisciplinary study of issues related to philosophy, society, culture and education). Meeting Prof. Ilana Silber whose research on sociology of gift-giving and philanthropy links with the Centre for Philanthropy in SSPSSR https://www.kent.ac.uk/sspssr/philanthropy/