Faculty


Prof. Hanna Adoni
Dr. Yair Amichai-Hamburger
Dr. Yariv Ben Eliezer
Dr. Keren Eyal
Dr. Doron Friedman
Prof. Michael Gurevitch (RIP)
Prof. Eva Illouz
Dr. Yael Kaynan (Katelyn Y.A. McKenna)
Dr. Yuval Karniel
Dr. Amit Lavie-Dinur
Dr. Noam Lemelshtrich Latar
Dr. Oren Zuckerman

		Prof. Hanna Adoni Ph.D., Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1977 Prof. Adoni is Professor Emeritus of the Communication and Journalism Department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She served as a co-editor of Devarim Achadim: The Israel Journal of Communication, Culture and Society. Her research interests are in the area of mass communication and cultural behavior with special emphasis on literacy and reading, psycho-social uses of new technologies, and media and minorities.


		Dr. Yair Amichai-Hamburger Ph.D., Oxford University, 1993 Dr. Amichai-Hamburger directs IDC Herzliya’s Research Center for Internet Psychology (CIP), which represents Israel in the international digital-divide project. He has taught at Israel’s top universities, served as a senior advisor to the Israeli Ministry of Education, and is an award-winning author. He cooperates with leading international scholars to conduct research on personality, internet use and well-being; virtual teams; and conflict management in organizations.


		Dr. Yariv Ben Eliezer Ph.D., New York University, 1977 Dr. Ben Eliezer is the director of media studies at the Lauder School of Government and of the political and marketing communications program at the Sammy Ofer School of Communications. He has served as the dean of the Media School at the College of Management in Tel Aviv. He has held senior positions in political campaigns, including the Tzomet Party’s 1992 Knesset campaign, Haim Ramon’s campaign for the Histadrut leadership, Labor Party Chairman Shimon Peres’ 1996 campaign for the premiership, and Herzliya Mayor Yael German’s 1998 and 2003 election campaigns. He has written six books and many articles in the field of mass communication.


		Dr. Keren Eyal Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara, 2004 Dr. Eyal is the Academic Director of the communications program at the Raphael Recanati International School. She earned a B.A. in communication and English language and literature from the University of Haifa, an M.A. in communication from Kent State University and a Ph.D. in communication from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She was an assistant professor at the University of Arizona and has taught courses on media effects, mass communication and children, and persuasion.


		Dr. Doron Friedman Ph.D., Tel Aviv University, 2004 Dr. Friedman specialized in interactive media, and specifically in various aspects of virtual reality, and heads the Advanced Virtuality Lab. He recently completed a post-doctoral research fellowship in the Virtual Environments and Computer Graphics Lab at University College London, where he is now an Honorary Lecturer, and has served as a visiting consultant at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Dr. Friedman was the co-founder of Earthnoise, Inc., and his inventions and patents are the basis of several other start-up companies. In addition, he has also collaborated with a number of artists on digital media works that have been shown at leading galleries in London.


		Prof. Michael Gurevitch (RIP) Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1961 Prof. Gurevitch has taught and conducted research at a number of American, European and Israeli universities. He has served on the editorial boards of international academic journals, such as Political Communication and Journalism Studies. He has authored and edited numerous books and academic articles, as well as produced teaching materials on issues related to mass communications and society, political communication and the globalization of the media.

		Prof. Eva Illouz Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, 1991 Prof. Eva Illouz is the author of five books: Consuming the Romantic Utopia: Love and the Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism published in 1997 with the University of California Press (which won an award from the American Ssociological Association in 2000); in 2002 The Culture of Capitalism (in Hebrew); in 2003 Oprah Winfrey and the Glamour of Misery: An Essay on Popular Culture (Best Book Award, American Sociological Association, 2005); Cold Intimacies (Polity Press, 2007); and Saving the Modern Soul: Therapy, Emotions, and the Culture of Self-Help (University of California Press, in press). In 2004 she delivered the Adorno Lectures in Germany. Her work has been translated in nine languages. Eva Illouz has been a visiting professor at the EHESS in Paris and at Princeton University. In 2008-9, she will be a member of the Wissenshaftkolleg in Berlin.



		Dr. Yael Kaynan (Katelyn Y.A. McKenna) Ph.D., Ohio University, 1998 Dr. Kaynan is considered one of the founders in the field of Internet Psychology. A Senior Lecturer at the Sammy Ofer School of Communications, IDC, Herzliya and at Ben- Gurion University, she has taught courses on the psychology of the Internet, Internet relationships, online group dynamics, stereotyping, and social cognition. Her research interests include relationship cognition, the self, social identity, and intergroup conflict and negotiation, particularly as regards the role of social influence. A prolific author, she has published over 30 journal articles, book chapters, and conference proceedings in the field. Her first book, Consequences of the Internet for Self and Society: Is Social Life Being Transformed? (with John Bargh), was published in 2002 and she is the editor of the recently published book The Oxford Handbook of Internet Psychology (with Adam Joinson, Tom Postmes, and Ulf-Dietrich Rieps). With a grant from the Burda Center for Innovative Communications, Katelyn is currently conducting a longitudinal natural experiment with the Good Neighbors Blog, examining the effectiveness of the contact hypothesis for stereotype and conflict reduction within a Middle East setting.


		Dr. Yuval Karniel LL.D., Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1997 Dr. Karniel has extensive experience teaching law and communications courses on topics such as media policy, law and ethics in the media, and commercial advertising. He co-directed the joint program in law and communications at the College of Management in Tel Aviv. Dr. Karniel also is on the Israel Broadcasting Authority’s board, was the general counsel of Israel’s commercial television and radio authority, and has served on many public committees. He earned a LL.M. in international law from the American University in Washington D.C. and a LL.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.


		Dr. Amit Lavie-Dinur Ph.D., Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1999 Dr. Lavie-Dinur is the director of the television studies program at the Sammy Ofer School of Communications. She has taught communications courses at leading Israeli universities and colleges and served as the dean of student affairs at the Media School of the College of Management in Tel Aviv. Dr. Lavie-Dinur also has served as a selector for the New Israeli Foundation for Cinema and TV.


		Dr. Noam Lemelshtrich Latar Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 1974 Dr. Lemelshtrich Latar is the founding dean of Sammy Ofer School of Communications at IDC Herzliya. A pioneer of new media research and education, among the first to study and publish on interactive communication and the integration of feedback technology into small group discussions. He was one of the founders of the Community Dialog Project at MIT in the Human Machine Systems Laboratory. His current research focuses on data mining and AI influence on the media. Dr. Lemelshtrich Latar taught and conducted research at the Hebrew University,Tel aviv University where he was among founders of the school of journalism, and Ben Gurion University of the Negev.


		Dr. Oren Zuckerman Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 2007 Dr. Zuckerman conducted research on innovative forms of human-computer interaction for creative thinking and playful learning. Prior to his academic activities, he co-founded and managed uTOK Inc. Dr. Zuckerman received the prestigious Technology Pioneer award from the World Economic Forum at its 2001 annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.