Dr. Nitzan Zarfaty

Areas of interest

• Representation and advocacy in disability NGOs
• Cross-cultural comparative bioethics
• Socio-ethical issues in reproductive medicine
• Time and temporality

Teaching

My research agenda and publications reflect an interdisciplinary commitment to the combination of organizational sociology, sociology of medicine and empirical bioethics.

Being involved in several international cross-cultural comparative research projects I studied and co-published on the issue of identity and representation in third sector and non-profit organizations (NPOs) with a particular focus on patient's and disability organizations.

Another main focus within my research agenda includes socio-ethical issues related to reproductive technologies, with a special interest in the concepts of personhood, parenthood, responsibility and temporality.

My current research project titled: “TIMEGG: Timing Fertility- A Comparative Analysis of Time Constructions and the Social Practice of Egg-Freezing in Germany and Israel”, is a comparative cross-cultural German-Israeli study of temporality constructions in the biomedical context of social egg-freezing.   The research focuses on the connection between time, labor, reproduction and gender. For this project she was granted with the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual-Fellowship (IF), Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, the European Commission [grant agreement No. 749889] (February 2018- September 2019), and the Minerva Stiftung Post-Doctoral Fellowship (August 2016- January 2018).

Feb 2018- Sep 2019 - The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action Individual Fellowship (IF) of the European Union´s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program [agreement No. 749889]

2017-2018- Dorothea Schlözer Mentoring Program for Female Postdoctoral Researchers (Project management, Leadership & Career coaching)- selected mentee

August 2016- Jan 2018 - The Minerva Stiftung Post-Doctoral Fellowship of the Max-Planck Society for outstanding German/Israeli post- doctoral researchers

2007- 2011- The Negev Fellowship for Outstanding Doctoral Students- Ben-Gurion University of the Negev           

2004    Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Department of Behavioral Sciences- Academic excellence award

Outstanding Lecturer Teaching Award, Sapir Academic College, for the years: 2012-2013, 2013-2014, 2014-2015, 2015-2016.

Edited Special Journal Issues

Jongsma, K., Rimon‐Zarfaty, N., Raz, A., & Schicktanz, S. (2018). Special Issue: Collective representation in healthcare policy, Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, 15(3).

Rimon-Zarfaty, N., & Schweda, M. Special Issue: Biomedicine and life sciences as a challenge to human temporality. History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences.

Articles in Refereed Journals

1.       Rimon-Zarfaty, N., Raz, A., & Hashiloni-Dolev, Y. (2011). When does a fetus become a person? An Israeli viewpoint. Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Healthcare, 37(4), 216-224. doi:10.1136/jfprhc-2011-0110.

2.       Rimon-Zarfaty, N., & Jotkowitz, A. (2012). The Israeli abortion committees’ process of decision making: An ethical analysis. Journal of Medical Ethics, 38(1), 26-30. doi:10.1136/jme.2009.032797.

3.       Mordhorst-Mayer, M., Rimon-Zarfaty, N., & Schweda, M. (2013). “Perspectivism” in the Halakhic debate on abortion between Moshe Feinstein and Eliezer Waldenberg: Relations between Jewish medical ethics and socio-cultural contexts. Women in Judaism, 10(2), 1-55. 

4.       Inthorn, J., Schicktanz, S., Rimon-Zarfaty, N. & Raz, A. (2015). “What the patient wants”: Lay attitudes towards end-of-life decisions in Germany and Israel. Medicine, Healthcare and Philosophy, 18(3), 329-340. doi:10.1007/s11019-014-9606-5.

5.       Raz, A., Jongsma, K., Rimon-Zarfaty, N., Spaeth, E., Bar-Nadav, B., Vaintropov, E., & Schicktanz, S. (2018). Representing autism: Challenges of collective representation in German and Israeli associations for and of autistic people. Social Science & Medicine, 200, 65-72. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.01.024.

6.       Schicktanz, S., Rimon-Zarfaty, N., Raz, A., & Jongsma, K. (2018). Patient representation and advocacy for Alzheimer disease in Germany and Israel. Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, 15(3), 369-380. doi: 10.1007/s11673-018-9871-8.

7.       Jongsma, K., Rimon-Zarfaty, N., Raz, A., & Schicktanz, S. (2018). One for all, all for one? Collective representation in healthcare policy. Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, 15(3), 337-340. doi: 10.1007/s11673-018-9870-9.

8.       Rimon-Zarfaty, N. & Schweda, M. (2019). Biological clocks, biographical schedules and generational cycles: Temporality in the ethics of assisted reproduction. Bioethica Forum, 11(4), 133-141. N.R.Z and M.S jointly performed the analysis and wrote the manuscript.

9.       Rimon-Zarfaty, N., Raz, A., Bar-Nadav, B., & Vaintropov, E. (2020). Collective Representation and the Founders’ Culture in the Israeli National Association for Autism. Voluntary Sector Review, published online (via ‘Fast Track’). doi: 10.1332/204080520X16050133060491.

10.   Rimon-Zarfaty, N., Kostenzer, J., Sismuth, L.K., & de Bont, A. (2021). Between ’Medical’ and ’Social’ Egg Freezing: A Comparative Analysis of Regulatory Frameworks in Austria, Germany, Israel, and the Netherlands. Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, 18: 683-699. doi: 10.1007/s11673-021-10133-z.

11.   Rimon-Zarfaty, N., & Schicktanz, S. (2022). The emergence of temporality in attitudes towards cryo-fertility: A case study comparing German and Israeli social egg freezing users. History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, 44(2), 19. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40656-022-00495-x.

12. Rimon-Zarfaty, N., Schweda, M. (2023). Editorial introduction: Biomedicine and life sciences as a challenge to human temporality. History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, 45, 3. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40656-023-00557-8.

Articles or Chapters in Scientific Books

1.       Rimon-Zarfaty, N., & Raz, A. (2010). Abortion committees as agents of eugenics: Medical and public views on selective abortion following mild or likely fetal pathology. In D. Birenbaum-Carmeli & Y. Carmeli (Eds.), Kin, gene, community: Reproductive technology among Jewish Israelis (pp. 202-225). Oxford, UK: Berghahn Books.

2.       Raz, A., Rimon-Zarfaty, N., Inthorn, J., & Schicktanz, S. (2014). Making responsible life plans: Attitudes towards the use of genetic testing for late-onset diseases. In G. Werner-Felmayer, S. Schicktanz, & B. Prainsack (Eds.), Genetics as social practice: Transdisciplinary views on science and culture (pp. 181-198). London, UK: Ashgate.

3.       Rimon-Zarfaty, N. (2018). Parochial Altruism – Insights form a religion sensitive analysis of the Israeli surrogacy and egg-donation legislations. In: S. Mitra, T. Patel, & S. Schicktanz (Eds.), Cross-Cultural Comparisons on Surrogacy and Egg Donation: Interdisciplinary perspectives from India, Germany and Israel (pp. 371-393). Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.

Talks- international conferences and workshops

• January  2023: Online Roundtable ‘Advancements in reproductive care and technology: perspectives from equality law’ (participant). Petrie-Flom Center for Health at Harvard Law School (cfp).

• December 2020: Bioethics and Human Temporality: An Outline of Moral- Philosophical and Sociological Research Perspectives (co-presenter: Prof. Dr. Mark Schweda). Workshop: Temporalities of the living: Health, disease and technology beyond the life course. STS Lab, University of Lausanne, Switzerland (Online workshop)

• December 2019: Ideals of Parenthood, Anticipated Families and Social Egg Freezing: A comparative cross cultural German-Israeli analysis. The social tie and the gaze of the other: How biomedical prenatal practices affect interpersonal, social, and transnational relationships. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel (invited talk)

• June 2019: “Freezing for the fourth and fifth child”- The usage of social egg freezing among Israeli Jewish religious women- An intracultural perspective. Experts Symposium: Comparative and transnational perspectives on technologies of fertility preservation and extension, DMU, Leicester, UK (invited talk)

• May 2019: Reproductive temporalities –A comparative analysis of time constructions among social egg freezing users in Germany and Israel. Workshop: Bioethics and Human Temporality, Oldenburg, Germany (a self-organized conference)

• December 2018: Parochial Altruism – A Religion-Sensitive Analysis of the Israeli Surrogacy and Egg-Donation Legislation. The 14th World Congress of Bioethics, Bangalore, India (cfp)

•    July 2018: The Medicalization of reproduction, reproductive timing and the labor market- The Israeli experts’ Debate on social egg-freezing. The 19th ISA world congress, Toronto, Canada (cfp-DP)

•    July 2018: Parochialism and fertility related legislation – Insights form a religion sensitive analysis of the Israeli surrogacy and egg-donation laws. The 19th ISA world congress, Toronto, Canada (cfp)

•    June 2018: Collective representation and the founders’ culture in the Israeli national association for autism. The ESHMS 17th Biennial Conference, Lisbon, Portugal (cfp)

•    June 2018: Reproductive temporalities, late motherhood and the social practice of egg freezing in Germany and Israel. The ESHMS 17th Biennial Conference, Lisbon, Portugal (cfp)

•    October 2017: Reproductive Timing: A comparative analysis of temporality constructions and the social practice of egg freezing in Germany and Israel. Conference: Frozen: Social and Bioethical Aspects of Cryo-Fertility, Tel-Aviv, Israel (cfp)

•    April 2017:  Representation in a Trap: Parents organization for persons with autism as an illustrative case study of the founders’ culture and the founder’s trap. Workshop: Political Representation of People with Autism. Department of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine of the University Medical Centre Göttingen, Germany (Invited talk)

•    March 2017: Timing fertility- A gender sensitive analysis of time constructions and the social practice of egg-freezing in Israel.  Conference: Politics of Reproduction, Hannover, Germany (cfp)

•    November 2016: A round-table co-host.  Table Topic: "Optimizing the Body: From Health Protection to Genetic Embryo Modification". WeberWorldCaf’e- “Diversity- Limits and Opportunities”. Max Weber Stiftung, Göttingen, Germany (Invited host)

•    October 2016: Organized patient/ people with disabilities participation in health care – Collective advocacy, representation and autonomy in socio-ethical perspective (co-presenter: Prof. Aviad Raz). Workshop: One for All, All for One? Self-representation and representation by others in health policy, Department of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine, University Medical Centre Göttingen and the department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Göttingen, Germany (Invited talk)

•    December 2012: PGD and selective abortions following PND: A comparative analysis of views and experiences of prospective Israeli parents.  Conference: Selective Reproductive Technologies: Routes of Routinisation and Globalisation, Copenhagen, Denmark (cfp)

•    July 2010: When does human life begin? the 17th ISA World Congress, Gothenburg, Sweden (cfp)

•    December 2009: German-Israeli Workshop for Young Scholars: “Culture and Ethics of Biomedicine”, Department of Ethics and History of Medicine, University Medical Center, Göttingen, Germany (cfp)

 Talks- national conferences and colloquia

•  October 2022: The Ectopolitics of Reproduction: Social, Ethical and Gender aspects of ectogenesis. Conference: Sapir 2022, Sapir Academic College (cfp). 

•  July 2022: The Ectopolitics of Fertility: Gender, social and ethical  aspects of artificial womb. Conference: Feminism, Gender and Medicine. The Van-Leer Institute. Jerusalem (cfp)  

•  May 2022: A Sociological Perspective. Surplus Pre-Embryos in IVF Units- Experts Round Table. The Van-Leer Institute. Jerusalem (Invited talk)  

•  February 2022: Cryo, Time and Reproduction: A comparative analysis of social egg freezing users in Israel and Germany. The 53rd annual conference of the Israeli Sociological Society (ISS), The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (cfp).  

•  April 2021: On “Fetuses” and “Parenthood”: A comparative analysis of views and experiences of Israeli prospective parents who either used pre-implantation genetic diagnosis or abortion following prenatal diagnosis. Interdisciplinary Research Group: „The Moral Standing of Fertilized Eggs“. Bar-Illan University, Israel

•    January 2020: A Sociological Perspective. Surplus Pre-Embryos in IVF Units- Where do we go from here? -Round Table. The Van-Leer Institute, Jerusalem, Israel (Invited talk)

•    October 2018: Collective representation and the founders’ culture in the Israeli national association for autism. Colloquia: Department of Human Resource Management, Sapir Academic College, Israel (Invited talk)

•    October 2018: TIMING FERTILITY- A comparative analysis of time constructions and the social practice of egg-freezing in Germany and Israel. Stakeholders‘ conference: Social Egg Freezing. Starkeholders‘ prespectives on the practice and its implications, Tel Aviv, Israel (a self-organized conference)

•    September 2018: Reproductive temporalities, gender and clinical labor–Experts’ debates on social egg-freezing in Germany and Israel. The 39th Congress of the German Sociological Association, the Georg-August-University of Göttingen, Germany (cfp)

•    June 2018: Reproductive temporalities – Experts’ debates on social egg-freezing in Germany and Israel. Colloquia: Institute of History, Theory and Ethics of Medicine, University Medical Center Mainz, Germany (Invited talk)

•    February 2018: Social egg freezing and reproductive temporalities – A comparative study of experts’ debates in Germany and Israel. Colloquia: The Institute of Medical History and Science Research, Lübeck University, Germany (Invited talk)

•    January 2018: Grounded Theory: Empirical analysis and application in bioethics. Workshop: Empirical analysis methodologies. Department of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine, University Medical Centre Göttingen, Germany (Invited talk)

•    April 2017: The construction of time, timing and planning: A comparative case study of the social practice of egg freezing in Germany and Israel. The annual meeting of the Minerva Stiftung Fellowship Program, the Max Planck institution, Munich, Germany (Invited talk)

•    January 2017: The construction of time, timing and planning- a comparative case study of the social practice of egg freezing in Germany and Israel. Colloquia: The Department of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine, University Medical Center Göttingen, Germany (Invited talk)

•    January 2017: Medical technologies at the beginning of life, the construction of the fetus and the experience of parenthood: Applying relational approach to lay moralities of prospective Israeli parents. Colloquia: The “GenderLabor”, Göttingen Center for Gender Research, Göttingen, Germany (cfp)

•    May 2016: Medical and genetic technologies at the beginning of life: Perceptions of the embryo/fetus and prenatal parenthood - lay moralities of prospective Israeli parents. Conference: Genetics, Ethics, Bio-Politics and everything in between, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel (cfp)

•    January 2016: "Everyone around me raised an eyebrow": Attitudes and experiences of parents who oppose or challenge the use of pre-natal diagnosis (PND) in Israel. The 47th annual conference of the Israeli Sociological Society (ISS), the Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yaffo, Tel-Aviv, Israel (cfp)

•    March 2015: Moral pioneering in the context of PND: Parent's experiences and positions. Colloquia: The Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethic, Tel Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel (Invited talk)

•    March 2011: Selective abortions: views and experiences of Israeli parents. Colloquia: ThePsychiatry Division, Soroka University Medical Center, Beer-Sheva, Israel (Invited talk)

•    March 2010: Prenatal diagnosis, the perception of the fetus and the experience of parenthood among Israeli parents. Colloquia: The department of Behavioral Sciences, Achva Academic College, Israel (Invited talk)

•    December 2009: Prenatal diagnosis, the perception of the fetus and the experience of parenthood among Israeli parents. Conference: Between the Personal and the Familial: Social and emotional aspects of medical genetic information, International Center for Health Law and Ethics, Haifa University, Haifa, Israel (Invited talk)

•    November 2009: When does human life begin? The moral standing of the Israeli fetus. Conference: The department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel (cfp)

Organization of Scientific Meetings and Conferences:

• February 2021: The 52nd annual conference of the Israeli Sociological Society (ISS): Sociology of Crisis; Sapir Academic College, Israel (Member of the organizing and the scientific committees)

• May 2019:  Bioethics and Human Temporality: Perspectives from the Beginning, Middle and End of Life- An international, interdisciplinary workshop; Oldenburg, Germany (Co-organizer: Prof. Dr. Mark Schweda)

• October 2018: Stakeholders’ Conference: Social Egg Freezing. Stakeholders’ perspectives on the practice and its implications; Tel Aviv, Israel