Bio

Curriculum Vitae

Tal Arbel is a Ph.D. Candidate in History of Science at Harvard University. She graduated from Tel Aviv University in 2007 with an MA in History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas. From 2009-2012 she served on Harvard's Committee on Degrees in Social Studies, teaching European social theory. During AY 2012-13, she was a Visiting Scholar in History at Columbia University. Her doctoral dissertation examines the rise to prominence of interdisciplinary institutes for applied social research in postwar American academia, and the subsequent migration of this scientific culture to the postcolonial areas. A particular emphasis is placed on the troubled localization of questionnaire surveys and other psycho-social measurement techniques in 1950s nation-building projects, as well as on the newly global career of the social scientific expert. Research and teaching interests include the history of the social and behavioral sciences, the sociology and politics of expertise, Zionism and Israeli culture. Before coming to Harvard, she worked as a media critic for The Seventh Eye Journal and was a regular contributor to Ha'aretz Books.