"Palestinian Voices: Feminist Thought As A Tool For Resistance"

First International Conference, June 28-29, 2007

Dr. Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian

Dr. Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Law- Institute of Criminology and School of Social Work and Public Welfare, Hebrew University- Israel. Her main fields of research are:

1. Critical Race Perspectives on Women and Law
2. Women and Social Control: Between Victimization and Agency
3. Mental Health of Vulnerable Groups and Therapeutic Contextually Sensitive Interventions
4. Women, Militarization and Violence
5. Women and Children and the Human Right Discourse

Shalhoub-Kevorkian main theoretical and research interest has focused on the study of women in conflict zones mainly in Palestine, Jordan and Israel. She have worked on examining the limits and the power of the law in conflict zones from a critical race theory perspective, while looking at the obstacles facing local social policies, international law and international humanitarian law when addressing violence against women and children. In doing so, she also studied the juxtaposition between ethnic, class and gender issues and their interaction with the formal and informal legal system during a nation-building period. She worked extensively on women victimization and agency, women, law and social control, female child sexual abuse etc. (International Review of Victimology, 1999; 2003 Arab Studies Quarterly, 1997; Social Science and Medicine, 2005). Her research on the so-called “honor crimes” made many women organization and activist change their approach and accept her naming of the crime as one of femicide, rather than “honor crimes” (UNIFEM, 2000; SIGNS, 2002; Law and Society Review, 2003). Her research on the criminalization of sexual abuses in Israel, Palestine and Jordan resulted in the publication of articles in international journals such as Child Abuse and Neglect and Violence Against Women, 2005, in addition to one book chapter in Hebrew. Her recent studies on women victims of war crimes and the effect of militarization on violence against women resulted in not only theorizing women victimization/agency in conflict zones (Women Studies International Forum, 2003; SIGNS, 2003; Feminist Family Therapy, 2005; Social Identities, 2004; American Social Science Behavior, 2006; Lyuni Mishpat- Hebrew, 2006 etc ), but also develop particular therapeutic models for social workers ( Social Service Review, 2000, 2001,2005). Shalhoub-Kevorkian is currently working on a book manuscript entitled : “Militarization and Violence Against Women in Conflict Zones in the Middle East: The Palestinian Case-Study” to be published by the Cambridge University Press.

Shalhoub-Kevorkian has received substantial funds over the past years from various international funding agencies: UN organizations such as the UNIFEM; internationally recognized organizations such as the WHO; European organizations such as WUS ( England) and; Kvinna till Kvinna (Sweden); Konrad Edenhour (Germany); and from US situated agencies such as the Ford Foundation, World Vision, in addition to many other local and regional organizations.