Smadar Lavie facts for kids
Smadar Lavie is a retired professor of anthropology (the study of human societies and cultures) at the University of California, Davis. She is a Mizrahi anthropologist, author, and activist. She focuses on studying people and cultures in Egypt, Israel, and Palestine. Her work often looks at how race, gender, and religion affect people's lives. She earned her highest degree, a doctorate in anthropology, from the University of California at Berkeley in 1989.
Her Studies and Teaching
Smadar Lavie began her university journey at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where she studied social anthropology in 1980. She then went on to earn her Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1989. Her Ph.D. paper, which later became a book, was about the identity of Bedouin people living under Israeli and Egyptian rule. This work won a special award from the Middle East Studies Association.
In 1990, Professor Lavie started teaching anthropology at the University of California, Davis. She also taught as a visiting professor at many other universities, including Stanford University and the University of Minnesota. She received special fellowships, which are like grants, from places like the Rockefeller Foundation and the Stanford Humanities Center to support her research. In 2022, she was chosen as a senior Fulbright scholar in Lithuania.
Awards and Books
Professor Lavie has written important books and articles. Her first book, The Poetics of Military Occupation (1990), explored Bedouin identity and received an honorable mention for a writing award.
Her second book, Wrapped in the Flag of Israel: Mizrahi Single Mothers and Bureaucratic Torture (2014), also received an honorable mention for a book award. This book looks at the challenges faced by Mizrahi single mothers in Israel when dealing with government systems. It was also a finalist for another major anthropology book award.
In 2009, she won the Gloria Anzaldúa Prize for her article "Staying Put: Crossing the Palestine-Israel Border with Gloria Anzaldúa." This article was about crossing borders and identity. In 2013, she received an honor plaque for her long-term service to Mizrahi communities in Israel-Palestine. Her article "Gaza 2014 and Mizrahi Feminism" was recognized as a top downloaded paper for several years.
Her Activism
Smadar Lavie is very active in groups that work for social justice, women's rights, and against racism. In 2013, she received an award called the "Heart at East" Honor Plaque. This award recognized her dedication and service to the Mizrahi communities in Israel.
She helped start and was a member of CAFIOT, a group that worked for academic freedom in Israeli-occupied territories from 1982 to 1989. She also signed the 1993 Bellagio Declaration, which aims to protect the cultural heritage of indigenous and exiled communities.
Professor Lavie has played several roles at Ahoti (Sister) for Women in Israel, which is a feminist movement for women of color in Israel. She served on its board of directors and helped connect the group with other organizations like the New Israel Fund.
She also co-founded the Coalition of Women for Mothers and Children, a group of many non-profit organizations, and served as its co-director from 2003 to 2006.
Since 2002, she has been a member of the Mizrahi Democratic Rainbow Coalition (MDR), working on committees related to culture and education. She also represented the MDR in a coalition of groups fighting against racism.
Smadar Lavie has been an advisory board member of Israel's Women's Parliament since 2002. She also helped create the Mizrahi-Palestinian Coalition Against Apartheid in Israeli Anthropology. She is a member of Jewish Voice for Peace, a group that works for peace and justice.
Selected Books
- The Poetics of Military Occupation: Mzeina Allegories of Bedouin Identity Under Israeli and Egyptian Rule. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1991. This book was recognized with an honorable mention for the Victor Turner Award for Ethnographic Writing. ISBN: 0-520-07552-8
- Wrapped in the Flag of Israel: Mizrahi Single Mothers and Bureaucratic Torture. New York: Berghahn Books, 2014. A revised paperback edition was published in 2018 by the University of Nebraska Press. This book received an honorable mention for the Association of Middle East Women's Studies Book Award. It was also a finalist for the 2015 Clifford Geertz Book Award. ISBN: 978-1-78238-222-5
