Bar Ilan Center for Cultural Sociology
About Us
The Center for Cultural Sociology at Bar Ilan University is dedicated to the study of cultural processes and structures of meaning in social life. Cultural sociology is an influential academic school of thought committed to meaning-centered analysis in the social sciences with an emphasis on the constitutive role of cultural representations and symbolic process in all domains of social life. Considering that cultural phenomena cannot be divorced from the structure and patterning of social organization, studies in cultural sociology also emphasize how collective experience is mediated by meso level institutional practices.
The Bar Ilan Center is a leading hub for research in cultural sociology within the Israeli academic landscape. It is administered jointly by the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and The Interdisciplinary Program for Hermeneutics and Cultural Studies and capitalizes on the accumulated expertise of both departments in the qualitative study of culture. Our primary aim is to integrate cultural theory with grounded empirical research and to develop concepts and frameworks that illuminate how the micro, meso and macro levels of social practice interact and come together. The center also aims to establish a focal meeting point for research in the humanities and social sciences that employs interpretive methods rooted in hermeneutic and phenomenological perspectives.
Our researchers study a range of topics with a focus on: social and cultural theory, civil society, media and consumption studies, digital culture, sociology of taste, judgment and evaluation. political culture, national solidarity and politics of friendship, gift and philanthropy, sociology of emotions and the therapeutic discourse, public rituals and performance studies, anthropology of theater, ethnic, class and religious identities, organizational culture and market cultures.
The Center for Cultural Sociology at Bar Ilan University strives to be a national and international forum for networking and for exchange of knowledge and experiences between scholars in the field of cultural sociology. Our researchers work in close cooperation with Yale University Center of Cultural Sociology. This includes collaboration on publications, sabbatical exchange of faculty and postdoctoral researchers, participation in workshops and conferences and guest lectures by visiting scholars.
Additional academic centers with similar interests include:
- Yale University Center of Cultural Sociology
- Thesis Eleven Centre for Cultural Sociology, Latrobe University, Australia
- The Center for Cultural Sociology, Linnaeus University, Sweden
- The Centre for the Study of Global Media and Democracy, Goldsmiths, University of London
- Research Program on Identity Cultures, Konstanz University, Germany
- Center for Cultural Sociology and Anthropology of Education,Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia
- Center for Cultural Sociology, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
Our Next Event:
Join us for a panel discussion on the recent themed section in Nations and Nationalism on ‘mechanisms of national solidarity’ with Danny Kaplan, Siniša Malešević, Lea David, Daniel Lainer-Vos, Jon Fox, and Hizky Shoham on 6th February live on Facebook and YouTube
For more details see here
Center Co-Directors:
Prof. Danny Kaplan
Prof. Danny Kaplan, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, director of Men Studies track at the Gender Studies Program and a Faculty Fellow at the Yale Center for Cultural Sociology.
Research interests: civic and national solidarity, politics of friendship, media and popular culture, military culture, masculinity ideologies, cultural models of fathering.
Prof. Ilana F. Silber
Ilana F. Silber, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Bar-Ilan University, Faculty Fellow at the Yale Center for Cultural Sociology.
Research interests: sociological theory and the sociology of giving and philanthropy, with a cross cutting engagement with comparative historical and interpretative cultural analysis.
Prof. Ori Schwarz
Ori Schwarz, senior lecturer, Department of Sociology and Anthropology.
Cultural judgment and evaluation; the ethics of everyday aesthetic judgment; political group styles; authenticity; the cultural dimensions of choice; symbolic boundaries; sonic styles; digital culture.
Research interests: sociological theory and the sociology of giving and philanthropy, with a cross cutting engagement with comparative historical and interpretative cultural analysis.
Prof. Hizky Shoham
Hizky Shoham, The head The Program for Hermeneutics and Cultural Studies
Research interests: Anthropological history; theory of religion; rituals; temporality; popular culture; civic culture; nationalism from below; childhood studies; consumption and consumer culture.
