Visiting Scholar
Dissertation | The Rise of the Internet in America: Myths, Metaphors, and Discourses |
Completed | 2008 |
Degrees |
PhD, Science, Technology, and Society
:: Bar Ilan University
(2008) |
Merav grew up in Haifa, Israel, and completed a B.S. degree in biotechnology and food engineering cum laude at The Technion, Israel Institute of Technology in 1993. Leaving the wet lab during the 1990's to pursue a career in the humanities, she worked as an editor in several publishing houses, editing fiction books, popular science books and an academic series on education at the internet age. Merav then completed an M.A. in comparative literature summa cum laude and an additional degree in editorial studies from Tel Aviv University in 1999.
Eventually she decided to weave together her interests in science, technology, and the humanities. As a visiting student at the Institute for History and Philosophy of Science and Technology at the University of Toronto from 2000-2001, Merav embarked on studying at the first STS program in Israel. She initiated and developed a research project on culture in the Internet Age that was funded for 3 years by the European Committee and involved researchers from several European and Israeli universities.
Merav was also the recipient of the President of the University’s Excellency Doctoral Grant, and completed her PhD degree in 2007. Her dissertation entitled "The Rise of the Internet in America: Myths, Metaphors and Discourses" analyzed the American popular discourse on the internet during the 1990s in the context of several discursive traditions about technology, especially American technological utopianism. While writing her dissertation, she also coordinated popular science lecture series and taught classes on academic writing and technology and culture.
Merav came to OHST as a visiting scholar in 2007. Currently, she is busy raising her two little boys, revising her dissertation for publication and working on small research projects in the field of science communication and STS. These include a project on the history of the Israeli TV popular science programs in the context of Israel's nation building project, and a project on the digitization process of the Israeli Broadcasting Authority.
last updated: June 29th, 2020