Bio
Guy Ben-Porat (Ph.D., Political Science, Johns Hopkins University 2001) is a professor at the Department of Politics and Government at Ben-Gurion University. His research and publications engage with Israeli and world politics, peace processes, religion and ethnicity. He teaches courses on International Relations, globalization, religion and politics and policing.
Born in Israel (1967) I completed my BA studies at Tel-Aviv University (Political Science and Psychology) and in 1996 began my studies at Johns Hopkins. In between, I worked as a Journalist for several newspapers, national and local, covering different topics.
My doctoral dissertation, later developed into a book, was a comparative study of globalization’s impact on peace processes in Israel/Palestine and Northern Ireland. Specifically, I was interested in how economic changes and incentives influence perceptions of peace and territorial compromises and what role business communities play in peace processes. The book (Global Liberalism, Local Populism; Syracuse University Press 2006) was the winner of the Czempiel Prize of the Frankfurt Institute for Peace.
In 2001 I joined Ben-Gurion University. My new research project engaged with questions of religion and state, and the emergence of secularization in Israel. Here again, I was interested with how economic and demographic changes influence religious/secular identity, practices and values. The research, supported by a grant from the Israel Science Foundation (ISF), produced a new book (Between State and Synagogue, Cambridge University Press 2013). The book won the Association for Israel Studies and Israeli Political Science Association best book award prize.
Another field of research is about policing and minorities, a project that began in Canada and developed in Israel. This project, also supported by an ISF grant, studies perceptions of police among minority groups and the relation to questions of citizenship and belonging. The project also yielded a co-written book (Policing Citizens: Minority Policy in Israel, Cambridge University Press 2016).
My latest research project, together with Professor Boaz Huss, studies new religious movements in Israel. Examining how these movements (Anthroposophy, Scientology, Kabala) established themselves in Israel provides an understanding for wider questions of religion and state.
Beside research, I am a loyal football fan (Hapoel Beer-Sheva, Liverpool), a slow but dedicated long runner and an amateur gardener.