Name: Liora Tamir
Email: lct9560@nyu.edu
Program: International Education
Research Interests: Language education in conflict-affected contexts, language acquisition and social belonging, adult education, non-formal education, women’s education
Principal Advisor(s): Dana Burde
Research Description/Bio:
Liora’s research concentrates on language education in conflict-affected contexts, centering on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Focusing on Palestinian adult learners of Hebrew in Israel, particularly women, in non-formal and vocational language education frameworks, Liora is interested in exploring how language education policies and practices shape the sense of social belonging among learners. She explores the challenges presented by the acquisition of the dominant language, or the “language of the enemy” as it is considered by some, and the opportunities it affords learners in terms of empowerment, negotiation of power relations, and their relationship with and attitude towards the dominant culture. More broadly, her research contemplates the role of non-formal adult language education frameworks as spaces of intercultural exchange and intergroup interaction and its possible implications for conflict amelioration.
Liora joined the International Education program after a decade-long experience as a Hebrew-language teacher in formal and non-formal frameworks in and outside Israel, as an instructor in language teacher-training programs and as a pedagogical consultant in grassroots organizations in Jerusalem in the field of Hebrew language education for Palestinian women, building Hebrew language programs and writing curricula focused on the exercise of social and labor rights.
Liora holds an MA in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies and a BA in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies and Linguistics, both from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.