11th ESPAnet Israel Conference held at AAC

On 5/2/2020 , Ashkelon Academic College will host the annual ESPAnet Israel Conference. Hosting the conference is an initiative of the Faculty of Social Work and its chair Prof. Menachem Monikandam.

ESPAnet Israel is the forum that represents Israel on the ESPAnet (European Social Policy Analysis Network) network. ESPAnet Israel deals with the advancement of social policy research in Israel and serves as a unique arena for the community of researchers, policy makers, and civil society activists that deal with designing and implementing of social policy.

The Eleventh Annual Conference deals with the topic of intersectionality and the welfare state. Intersectionality is a theoretical framework that focuses on the intersection of forms of oppression and control derived from different categories and identities. The conference will critically examine the connection and relationships that exist between cultural and social categories that include gender, ethnicity, status, age, sexual identity, marital status, physical ability and more, and the welfare state.

As part of the conference, we will seek to increase diversity and ensure representation of people from disadvantaged groups and categories whose voice tends to be muted in the public sphere. Later on, the conference will be held according to the “nothing about us without us” principle in which groups affected by a particular policy should be partners in defining it. This is mainly relevant to policies that concern muted groups that are absent from political opportunities, such as disabled people, women, people living in poverty, minorities and more.

The conference is held in collaboration with prominent social policy organizations in Israel, including the Social Security, the Haruv Institute and the Social Workers Union.

The chairs of the conference are Ms. Heli Bozhish Sasson and Dr. Nadav Peretz Weisidovsky of the Faculty of Social Work at Ashkelon Academic College.

The Scientific Committee includes leading researchers from various disciplines from the Ashkelon Academic College, in addition to universities and colleges – Dr. Rana Assid, Dr. Reut Reina Bandram, Prof. Orly Binyamin, Dr. Daniel Gottlieb, Dr. Moti Gigi, Prof. Johnny Gal, Prof. Tamar Hagar, Prof. Sarit Hellman, Dr. Nissim Cohen, Dr. Hanna Katz, Dr. Gal Levy, Dr. Mia Lavie Ajay, Prof. Menachem Monikandam, Prof. Pnina Motzafi Heller, Dr. Merav Moshe Grodofsky, Dr. Sigal Nagar-Ron, Prof. Varda Susculani, Dr. Guy Feldman, Prof. Efrat Shoham and Prof. Rachel Sharabi.