Yael Assor

Yael Assor

(c) Ofek Birenbaum, HaMita Studio
Dr.
Yael
Assor
Anthropological research of healthcare policymaking and health economy

Medical, psychological
Economic anthropology
Intersections of anthropology and philosophy
Feminist epistemologies

 

Email: yaelassor@gmail.com
Personal website: Yael Assor

Current Projects

My current research examines the ethical assumptions underlying the notion of "medical effectiveness" in cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA), a central policy-making tool for determining healthcare funding allocation worldwide. While CEA aims to provide a standardized, value-free measurement of different health technologies, its calculation requires making various assumptions about what is "good health" and who should determine it. 

Curriculum Vitae 

Fellowships and Grants

  • 2022-2024            Israel Science Foundation Postdoctoral Research Grant (grant number 95/22)

  • 2021-2022            Tel Aviv University Rector's Postdoctoral Fellowship

  • 2020                       Phi Beta Kappa Alumni Association International Scholarship

  • 2019-2020            Dissertation Year Fellowship, UCLA Graduate Division

  • 2018                       Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies Graduate Student Research Fellowship

  • 2017                       UCLA International Center Fieldwork Fellowship

  • 2012                       Shaine Fellowship, Sociology and Anthropology Department, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Prizes

  • 2022       Honorary mention, Max Gluckman Prize for best dissertation, Israeli Anthropological Association

  • 2018       UCLA Department of Anthropology Summer Research Awar

  • 2016       Graduate Summer Research Mentorship Award, Graduate Division, UCLA

  • 2015       Lemelson/Society for Psychological Anthropology Pre-Dissertation Award, American Anthropological Association

  • 2014       Ursula Mandel Award, UCLA

  • 2013       Guggenheim award, Mandel Institute for Jewish Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Education

  • Ph.D.     Anthropology, UCLA, 2014- December 18, 2020.
    Dissertation Title: "Objectivity as a Bureaucratic Virtue: The Lived Experience of Objectivity in an Israeli Medical Bureaucracy”
    Dissertation Committee: Dr. C. Jason Throop (chair, UCLA), Dr. Sherry B. Ortner (UCLA), Dr. Akhil Gupta (UCLA), Dr. Jarrett Zigon (UVA Anthropology)

  • M.A.      Sociology and Anthropology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Summa Cum Laude, 2013

  • B.A.        Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Cum Laude, 2009
    Major: Sociology- Anthropology, Psychology.

Publications 

Assor, Yael. " Bureaucratizing like a girl: Objectivity and the reinforcement of patriarchy at an Israeli government committee." Feminist Anthropology. Forthcoming.

Peer-reviewed articles

Presentations 

INVITED TALKS     

  • 2024 How Culture Shapes Healthcare Policymaking: Lessons from the Israeli Sal Committee and American Health Economists. Ramabam Childrens Hospital Plenary Talk.

  • 2023 Experiencing Truth: On the role of suspicion in creating "good data."  Boston University Department of Anthropology.

  • 2023 Objectivity on Trial: On the Epistemic Stature of the State in Administrative Courts. Co-presentation with Yael Cohen-Rimer. Edmond Safra and Lily Center for Ethics, Harvard University

  • 2022 Sal Committee's Public Legitimacy: Assessment and Recommendations.  Keynote speech at ISPOR (The Professional Society for Health Economics and Outcomes Research)-Israel Chaper annual conference.

  • 2021 Bureaucratizing Like a Girl: How an Ethics of "Objectivity" Affects Patriarchal Organizations. Tel Aviv University Department of Sociology and Anthropology.

  • 2021 Objectivity in medical policy-making: An Israeli case study of how ethical ideals shape healthcare. Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, Bar Ilan University, Israel

  • 2021 How to Make "Objective" Knowledge? Program in Science and Technology Studies, Bar-Ilan University, Israel.

  • 2020 Objectivity in the Making: On Objectivity as an Ideal and as a Practice at the Israeli Sal Committee. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel

  • 2020 Bureaucratic Virtue: “Objectivity” at the Israeli Sal Committee. Department of Anthropology, Haifa University, Israel.

  • 2019 “We have No Room for Emotions”: On the Meaning of Objectivity at the Israeli Sal Committee. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Bar-Ilan University, Israel.

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS 

  • 2022       Dilemmas in Feminist Fieldwork: A Roundtable Conversation, Israeli Anthropological Association Annual Conference

  • 2021       Mooded Data. "Engagements with Anthropology of Morality" conference

  • Department of Anthropology, University of Haifa. Zoom conference.

  • 2021       Bureaucratizing Like a Girl. Society for Psychological Anthropology. Zoom conference

  • 2019       Transgressing Hegemony: A Meditation on Pharmaceutical Corruption. American Anthropological Association Annual Conference, Vancouver, BC, Canada.

  • 2019       Organizer, Round Table on Medical Anthropology’s Ethical Common-Sens. International Workshop in Medical Anthropology, Van Leer Institute and Ben-Gurion University, Israel

  • 2019       Objectivity as Following Procedures: Conflicting Bureaucratic Legacies in a Bioethical Present. Bioethics and the Legacies of the Holocaust international symposium. Berlin, Germany.

  • 2018       “Statistical Patient” vs. “Identifiable Patient”: The Object of Care in an Israeli Medical Bureaucracy as a site of Adaptation and Resistance. American Anthropological Association Annual Conference, San Jose, CA.

  • 2018       Between Responsibility and Accountability: Problematizing Israeli Healthcare Policymaking. Association for Israel Studies Annual Conference

  • 2017       Ethical visions, Moral subjects, and the everyday enactment of a medical bureaucracy. Society for Psychological Anthropology , New Orleans, LA.  

  • 2016       Challenging Power through Moral Expectations: Patients Resisting Medical Policy-Making in Israel. American Anthropological Association Annual Conference , Minneapolis,, MN.

  • 2016       Navigating Moral Dilemmas: How Social Workers Handle Moral Discourses of Care. Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Conference, Vancouver, Canada.