Dana Hercbergs
Proposed Dissertation Title
"Playscapes:
Children’s Folklore as Expression of Local-National Identity in
Jerusalem/al-Quds"
Committee: Dan Ben-Amos (Chair), Mary Hufford, Heather
Sharkey, Anna Beresin
This
research
explores the everyday lives of Palestinian and Israeli children and
teens
throughout the last 60 years in Jerusalem.
It
engages residents' memories and lived experiences to tell a story of
children’s
culture as constructed and lived by several generations of
Jerusalemites. The
term “playscapes” refers to those contexts where children’s routines
and
traditions create their communal spaces.
In
particular, I focus on sites of leisure and play, youth
groups and hangouts, patterns of mobility and routes, and places
of
tension and conflict. I aim to contribute a fresh perspective of
Jerusalem ’s social history after 1948
and more broadly, of
children’s cultural production of space in the Middle
East.
Research Interests
Folklore and Geography, Arab-Jewish relations and
identities, Vernacular Architecture, Tribes in the Arab World,
Children's Folklore, Children's Geographies, Palestinian Women's
Folklore
Membership/Professional Affiliations
The American Folklore Society, The Association of
American Geographers, Middle East Studies Association of North America
(MESA)
Publications
“A
Reassessment of
Children’s Folklore Classification.” Children’s Folklore Review
Vol. 30
(October 2008), forthcoming.
“Playscapes: Children’s Spaces and Mobility in
Jerusalem Neighborhoods.” Children’s Folklore Review Vol. 29
(2006/2007): 21-31.
Presentations/Conferences
“Teenage
Culture and
Identities of Place, Nationality, and Religion in Jerusalem/al-Quds,” Middle
East Studies Association Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C. Panel:
Contemporary Ethnography from the Middle East, to be presented
November 23,
2008.
“Life
is a Test so give it
Your Best”: Palestinian Women’s Adolescence as Reflected in Autograph
Books, American
Folklore Society Annual Meeting, Lexington, KY, Panel: It’s Not
all “Hybrid”:
Intertextuality and Folkloristics, October 24, 2008.
“The
Sukka as a Ludic Site in Jewish Tradition,” Association of American
Geographers Annual
Meeting, Boston, MA, Panel:
Geographies of Play II: Interrogating Spaces of Play, April 16, 2008.
"A
Reassessment of Children's
Folklore Generic Classification," American Folklore Society Annual
Meeting, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, Panel: Play as Intangible
Cultural
Heritage, October 20, 2007.
"Between
East and West Jerusalem: Children’s
Spaces and Activities in a Folkloric Perspective" (Hebrew), Jewish
Folklore
Between East and West, 26th Annual Inter-university
Conference
for Folklore Research, Tel-Aviv, Israel, May 9,
2007.
"Playscapes: Children’s spaces and mobility in
Jerusalem neighborhoods," American Folklore Society Annual Meeting,
Milwaukee, WI, Panel: Children’s Folklore, October 19, 2006.
"Playscapes: Traditional games as markers of local
identity and communal interaction in Jerusalem," New Directions in
Children's Geographies international conference, Northampton, England.
Paper session: Exploring identities: place, space, landscape and
belonging, September 8, 2006.
"Landscapes of play in Israel/Palestine: What games
can tell us about regional identity", Association of American
Geographers Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, Session: Folk Geographies II:
Land, life, lore, March 10, 2006.
"'Occupation' or 'Conflict'? Discursive strategies in
campus politics centering on the Palestinian problem," American
Folklore Society Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM, Panel: Reweaving the
Fabric of the Public Sphere: Folklore, politics, and the ecological
imagination, October 2003.
Links
BIMKOM:
Planners for Planning Rights in Israel
Riwaq
Centre for Architectural Conservation, Palestinian Heritage Sites
The
Center for Bedouin Studies and Development in Ben Gurion University
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