Message from the Head of the Program
At the twilight of the last century, I worked as a middle school teacher in central Israel. I was searching for my path while completing a bachelor’s degree in education and Jewish studies. I wanted to continue studying, but I couldn’t decide—history, philosophy, psychoanalysis, Talmud, archaeology, literature, gender studies, sociology, even economics—everything fascinated me. One day, a fellow teacher casually mentioned that he was pursuing a master’s degree in a strange program at Bar-Ilan University called Hermeneutics and Cultural Studies. I didn’t quite understand what it was, but when he told me they discussed all these fields and more, I knew I had to give it a try.
I began my master’s degree and discovered a new and captivating world. I gained critical tools that helped me understand the epistemological foundations upon which many fields in the humanities stand. I learned new intellectual languages. I met peers for whom no field of knowledge was foreign, and even the most casual conversation in the cafeteria left me deep in thought. I found a vibrant academic community—engaged, critical, and continuously learning, not only from books and articles but from everything around them.
Suddenly, I saw my surroundings—both near and far—through entirely different eyes, and I felt that I understood them more profoundly. Reading a newspaper, looking at a family photograph, or visiting a traffic court became exhilarating intellectual experiences. I was captivated. I continued to a Ph.D., and after a long (perhaps too long) journey through academia in Israel and abroad, I joined the faculty of this program in 2013. The rest, as they say, is history (and philosophy, and anthropology, and psychoanalysis, and literature, and language—and much more).
