CROWN FAMILY CENTER FOR JEWISH AND ISRAEL STUDIES

Dr. Maayan Hilel is an Assistant Professor of Instruction in Jewish & Israel Studies, and Assistant Director of the Crown Family Center for Jewish and Israel Studies at Northwestern University. She is a historian of the modern Middle East specializing in the cultural and social history of Palestine / the Land of Israel. Her book manuscript explores the emergence of modern leisure culture in Palestine's urban centers during the formative years of British rule (1918-1948). Relying on relational history, it examines intercommunal relations and cultural transformations within Jewish-Zionist and Palestinian-Arab societies. Through archival research in Hebrew, Arabic, and English, her research focuses on the ways in which members of marginalized social groups such as women, children, workers, and villagers participated, experienced, and interpreted major historical changes that unfolded at that time. In her current research project, she focuses on the history of children and childhood in late Ottoman and Mandatory Palestine. Before joining the Crown Family Center, she taught in the Department of History at the University of Limerick, Ireland. Alongside her academic pursuits, she also specializes in guiding bi-national groups on issues of conflict resolution, human rights, and gender equality.