Event

After briefly framing the setting of the social reality depicted in her ethnography, the author will offer selected readings from her book Concrete Boxes in order to illustrate the manner in which she had reworked the narratives of two versions of this book—the original Hebrew version published by Magness Press in 2012 and the English updated version published by Wayne State University Press in 2018. Drawing on this case of “speaking to two audiences” Motzafi-Haller will reflect on several key theoretical and epistemic questions regarding the process of knowledge production from a committed feminist stand. 

Pnina Motzafi-Haller is currently an Israel Institute Visiting Professor of Anthropology and Gender Studies at the University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign. She teaches anthropology at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. She had worked and published widely based on her work in Botswana, Israel and India. Her most recent book (Wayne State University Press 2018) Concrete Boxes: Mizrahi Women on Israel's Periphery is a feminist ethnography among non-European Jewish women in Southern Israel.

Sponsored by Penn's Jewish Studies Program's Kutchin Seminar Series, and co-sponsored with Department of Anthropology, Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations department, Middle East Center, Program for Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies, and Penn Hillel.