Tag: Tel Aviv University

New focus on history reaffirms importance of field, supports early and midcareer researchers and practitioners.

The Dan David Prize was awarded to a diverse cohort of historians and researchers from around the world on May 11, at a multimedia ceremony during Tel Aviv University’s Board of Governors meeting. 

The Prize, which for the first time in its 20 year history focuses exclusively on the historical disciplines, is awarded to early and midcareer researchers and practitioners who explore and study the human past in bold and creative ways. Totaling $3 million, it is the world’s largest history prize. Each winner receives $300,000 to further their research and work. Ten percent of the Prize purse is dedicated to scholarships for outstanding postdoctoral researchers in fields that study the past. 

The 2022 winners are: 

• Mirjam Brusius, a cultural historian who studies visual and material culture in global and colonial contexts.  
• Bartow Elmore, an environmental historian who uses everyday products—from sodas to seeds—to demonstrate how large multinational firms have reshaped global ecosystems.  
• Tyrone Freeman, a historian of philanthropy who researches African-American charitable giving and activism. 
• Verena Krebs, a cultural historian who draws on material culture and art, alongside written sources, to uncover the complex relationship between Ethiopia and Western Christendom. 
• Efthymia Nikita, an osteoarchaeologist who uses a wide range of innovative methods to unlock what human skeletal remains reveal about the health, diets and mobility of ancient peoples.  
• Nana Oforiatta Ayim, a curator, writer, filmmaker and public historian whose work recenters African narratives, institutions and cultural expressions in telling the past.  
• Kristina Richardson, a social and cultural historian of the medieval Islamic world.  
• Natalia Romik, a public historian, architect and curator whose work focuses on Jewish memory and commemoration of the Holocaust in Eastern Europe, especially Poland and Ukraine.  
• Kimberly Welch, a historian who uses endangered local legal archives from the antebellum American South to explore lawsuits brought by free and enslaved Black people.  

During the ceremony, Ariel David, Dan David Foundation Board Member and son of the Prize founder, spoke of the decision to refocus the prize on history. We wanted to “inject a new purpose into the Prize in an area which is increasingly underfunded and under attack,” he said. “It is clear that our history is a fundamental part of our identity and we cannot comprehend….the present without the past.” 

He added, “I believe the winners perfectly reflect the values of the new Prize.” 

TAU President Prof. Ariel Porat echoed the sentiments, addressing the audience: “In the face of dwindling investment and enrollment in the humanities worldwide, the Dan David Foundation and TAU are reaffirming the humanities’ value together with its centrality to the entire spectrum of research.”  

“The study of history…teaches about the complexity of human nature,” said Kimberly Welch, speaking on behalf of all the winners. She thanked the Dan David Foundation for the prize, which “recognizes the wider scholarly communities we are part of” and the importance of the field. 

Tamar Ish Shalom, a leading Israeli journalist and TAU alumna, moderated the ceremony, which included dynamic musical performances. 

The Prize, headquartered at Tel Aviv University and endowed by the Dan David Foundation, was established in 2001 by the late entrepreneur and philanthropist Dan David to celebrate and encourage achievement in the sciences and humanities. 

Featured image: Dan David Prize Winners 2022, from left: Kimberly Welch, Tyronne Freeman, Nana Oforiatta Ayim, Verena Krebs, Efthymia Nikita, Mirjam Brusius, Natalia Romik, Verena Krebs and Bartow Elmore. Credit: Guy Yehieli

Participants met with professors and students, learned about academic programs and participated in guided tours on campus.

After two consecutive years on Zoom, it was such a joy to finally be able to open our campus for visitors to TAU Open Day today. Over 6000 prospective students arrived throughout the day to learn about the various study programs, admission requirements and application processes.

This year, we added tailor made, guided tours to the program, enabling the participants to chat with our students, academic and administrative staff, visiting faculty buildings and labs.

For instance, in The Buchmann Faculty of Law, participants met with law students who answered their burning questions, such as how to combine studies and work, whether or not law studies could be combined with a second discipline, about the social life at the faculty, and more. In The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, the prospective students visited research labs and chatted with the researchers. In The Iby and Aladar Flaischman Faculty of Engineering, they watched experiments in mechanical and materials engineering, whilst in the lobby of the Coller School of Management participants were treated to short TED-styled talks by faculty members on the studies of accounting and management. 

English speaking visitors met with representatives from TAU International, who offered information on English-language Bachelor’s degrees. Student exchange representatives were also available to present the extensive selection of study abroad options that TAU students can enjoy during their studies.

“Although we have all gotten quite used to Zoom and other online meetings, there’s really no substitute for in-person gatherings of this kind,” says Sharon Ariel, Marketing Director at Tel Aviv University. “It was important for us to allow prospective students to get max benefit from their campus experience today. Organized tours and meetings across campus gave them the opportunity to learn about the study programs from current students, see labs up-close and observe as leading researchers in their fields conduct experiments, listen to lectures by faculty and administrative staff about different study options and tracks, as well as entering lecture halls for the first time and walk around our beautiful green campus. On our Open Day we gave those who consider studying at TAU the opportunity to feel like a student for one day.”

Didn’t make it to Open Day?

All information on admission requirements for the various programs can be found on our registration website (in Hebrew) or on the TAU International website (in English). 

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We welcome PhD researcher Maryana Sytar, who left her war-torn country.

Tel Aviv University welcomed the first Ukrainian researcher who will spend the coming semester at the University after she was forced to leave her home country due to war. On Thursday night, Maryana Sytar arrived safe and sound in Israel from the escalating war in Ukraine. She was the first graduate research student to arrive as part of TAU’s emergency scholarship program that was launched in response to the ongoing humanitarian crisis.

Maryana was working hard toward her PhD at the Koretsky Institute of State and Law of Ukraine before the war broke out. Over the next six months, she will continue her research at TAU’s Buchmann Faculty of Law. She is expected to be joined at TAU by additional Ukrainian scholars this week.

WATCH: Interview with Maryana Sytar on Ynet, March 20, 2022:

Tuition and Living Expenses Covered

The University established the Emergency Fellowship Fund for Ukrainian Graduate Students alongside a fundraising drive to support dozens of Ukrainian students and researchers with immediate refuge and assistance that will enable them to continue their academic studies and research, which have been halted due to the unfolding crisis. 

The Fund will enable Ukrainian students at the graduate and post-doctoral levels to spend a full semester at TAU. Eligible applicants must hold Ukrainian citizenship. Application is open to students currently enrolled at a Ukrainian university, in any discipline. Successful applicants will be awarded full tuition alongside a living stipend and will be welcome to remain on campus for up to six months. TAU will invite them to campus shortly after notification of acceptance, and match the students with a TAU faculty member who will serve as a mentor while at TAU. 

Furthermore, TAU is already in contact with the Ukrainian Embassy in Israel and the Israeli Embassy in Ukraine, as well as with their academic counterparts, to facilitate the process and ensure successful applicants are able to reach Israel as soon as possible. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis effective immediately and until further notice.  

TAU views the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a red flag requiring all of us to make an all-out effort to help the Ukrainian people, many of whom have lost their homes and become refugees overnight. “The steps we are taking are admittedly modest. However, we hope that other academic institutions, both in Israel and worldwide, will follow our example, and lend a helping hand to the Ukrainian people in this dire situation,” said TAU President Prof. Ariel Porat. 

Application for Scholarship

To apply, please send the following materials to: [email protected]

• 1-page (up to 500 words) statement describing research 
• Letter of recommendation from advisor 
• Document showing active status at home university in Ukraine 
   

For more information: https://international.tau.ac.il/scholarship_programs

Featured image: Maryana Sytar photographed with Prof. Ronen Avraham from Tel Aviv University’s Buchmann Faculty of Law