Dr. Miriam Szamet

Faculty Member

​Dr. Miriam Szamet is a historian of education and Israeli society. Her research focuses on issues related to the formation of Hebrew language instruction and Israeli education during the 19th and 20th centuries; the development of pedagogy as part of modernity; how trends in global pedagogical discourse found expression in the local context; the relations between academia and practice in Israeli education; and education as a case study of major developments and challenges in Israeli society. Her forthcoming book, to be published by the Magnes Press, analyzes educational discourse in the pre-state Yishuv, the influences on this discourse, and the transfer of educational and pedagogical knowledge to the Yishuv during those years. Miriam completed her master’s degree and doctorate at the Institute of Contemporary Judaism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is a graduate of the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School for Advanced Studies in the Humanities. Since the completion of her studies, she served as a visiting researcher at the Leibniz Institute for Jewish History and Culture – Simon Dubnow (2017); as a research fellow at the Free University of Berlin (2018); and as a researcher in a joint research project of the Braunschweig University and the Hebrew University, funded by the German Research Foundation (2018–2021). Previously, Miriam served as the deputy director of the Josef Meyerhoff Youth Center for Advanced Studies at the Hebrew University, and was a senior coordinator at the International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem.