PhD Student Sociocultural Anthropology
He/Him/His
Matriculated September 2024
Research Interests
Care, Aging, Health & Wellbeing, Family, Emotions, Morality, Medical and Psychological Anthropology, Political Anthropology, Neoliberalism, Therapeutic discourse.
About
Ofir is intrigued by the ways that socio-cultural & political conditions shape people’s emotional and moral orientations regarding taken-for-granted aspects of their own life. He’s especially interested in cases in which individuals reflect on their everyday lives and ask themselves difficult questions or adopt ambivalent positions, and he’s curious about peoples’ understandings of wellbeing, family relationships, intimacy, and the life course.
His Master’s thesis, based on a year and a half of ethnographic fieldwork at a luxury assisted living residence, is titled: “Finding a Shelter: ‘Aging Successfully’ in an Israeli assisted living residence during crises.” In this study, Ofir explored the lives of upper-middle-class Jewish elders during socio-political crises and their complex relationship with the state. His dissertation focused on how these socioeconomically privileged elders aim to maintain wellbeing in a country struggling to provide them with the conditions for a peaceful life, and how political conditions redefine elders as care agents rather than objects of care. For his next project, Ofir plans to explore caregivers. While cultural ideals and state policies are inseparable from questions of who gets cared for, by whom, and why, caring for family is one of the most integral parts of the normative life course. In his doctoral studies, Ofir hopes to examine the socio-cultural and political settings of familial care and its links to caregivers’ emotional and moral navigation of their taken-for-granted roles.
Prior to joining Boston University, Ofir completed his B.A. (2021) and M.A. (2024) in sociology and anthropology at Tel Aviv University, where he also worked as a TA and taught several undergraduate courses.
Awards & Grants
-
Boston University Dean’s Fellowship (Fall 2024, Spring 2025).
- Tel Aviv University School of Social and Policy Studies scholarship (2023).
- Tel Aviv University Rector award for excellence in teaching (2021, 2022, 2023).
Publications
- forthcoming