Lecturer, Anthropologist and Researcher for the Dead Sea & Arava Science Center
Dr. Avigail Morris has been associated with the Arava Institute as a researcher and lecturer since 1997. She is currently also the Institute’s Internship Coordinator.
In 1988, with the support of the Jerusalem Center for Anthropological Studies, Dr. Morris developed a program for teaching anthropology to children and young adults. For the past 33 years she has taught cultural anthropology at all levels of education. Over the years she has also taught several seminars and workshops on qualitative research methodology with an emphasis on ethnographic fieldwork.
In 1994 Dr. Morris conducted research in the Kingdom of Tonga in Polynesia for her doctoral thesis on Playing to a New Rhythm: An Ethnography of Female Games and Sport in the Kingdom of Tonga. Her fieldwork involved an in-depth study on traditional and changing gender roles, and status among both urban and rural women in Tonga. In 2011-12 she returned to Tonga once again to update her thesis, and to study informal incomes amongst Tongan women.
From 2004-2008 Dr. Morris was a committee member of the Israeli Anthropological Association, and served as the representative for applied anthropologists in Israel.
Publications:
Borkan, Jeffrey (PI), Shwartzman, Pesach (c), Reis, Shmuel (c) and Morris, Avigail G. (c)) 1993. Stories from the Sealed Rooms: Patient Interviews During the Gulf War. Family Practice, 10:2::188-92 (3 citations; IF 1.84; QI 0956; H- index 66)).
Morris, Avigail (PI). 1995. Changing Patterns of Female Games in Tonga. La Femme: Entre Tradition et Modernite dans le Pacifique Sud, L’Harmattan Universite Francaise Du Pacifique (The Female: Between Tradition and Modernity in the South Pacific).
Morris, Avigail. 2006. Experiencing Culture: Teaching Anthropology to Young Children. Practicing Anthropology, 28:3:19-22. Summer edition
Morris, Avigail (PI). 2009. Nine a Side Basketball in the Kingdom of Tonga: A Case Study in Negotiating Gender Roles. Transactions at Play: Play and Culture Studies, 9:22-44 (3 citations).
הילה שגיא , דניאל בורנשטיין, אלי גרונר, אביגיל מוריס, מרג’ורי סטרום ויודן רופא..2012 .תפיסת הסביבה בתרבויות שונות – הערכת שירותי המערכת האקולוגית בערבה הדרומית בקרב תושבי שני צדי הגבול. אקולוגיה וסביבה, פברואר: 22-32 .
Hila Sagie (PI), Avigail Morris, Yodan Rofe, Daniel Orenstein and Elli Groner. 2013. Cross-Cultural Perceptions of Ecosystem Services: A Social Inquiry on Both Sides of the Israeli-Jordanian Border of the Southern Arava Valley Desert. Journal of Arid Environments. October. 97: 38-48.(IF 1.82)
Sarab Abu-Rabia-Queder, Avigail Morris, Heather Ryan,. The Economy of Survival: Bedouin Women in Unrecognized Villages. Journal of Arid Environments. (Nov. 2017) 1-9.
Francois, Laurent, Avigail Morris and Elli Groner. 2017 (Sept.) – “A Desert Where Culture Blossoms: The Use of Cultural Ecosystem Services in Kibbutzim of the Southern Arava”, in. Negev, Dead Sea and Arava Studies.
Sarab Abu-Rabia Queder and Avigail Morris (November 2017) – Co Guest Editors for a special issue on “Women in Drylands: Barriers and Benefits for Sustainable Livelihoods”, in Journal of Arid Environments.
Rani Polak, MD, MBA; Davied Pober, PhD; Avigail Morris, PhD; Rakefet Areili, RD, MSc; Margaret Moore, MBA; Elliot Berry, MD; Mati Ziv, MD (July/September 2018): “Improving Adherence to Mediterranean-Style Diet With a Community Culinary Coaching Program Methodology Development and Process Evaluation” in J Ambulatory Care Manage Vol. 41, No. 3, pp. 181–193.
Thomas DiPersio,Nicoli Liedtke,Aaron Rosenthal,Alexandra Wallace,Avigail Morris, Isa Bar-On,Suleiman Halasah &Tareq Abu Hamed, “Photovoltaic technology in Southern Arava of Israel: an analysis of public acceptance’, International Journal of Sustainable Energy, Volume 40, 2021 – Issue 1
