Research Group

Research Groups:Health and the Environment: A Unifying Framework from Individual Stress to Ecosystem Functioning

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[RG # 147]   Health and the Environment: A Unifying Framework from Individual Stress to Ecosystem Functioning

June 1 - August 31, 2016

Organizer:
Dror Hawlena (The Hebrew University)

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Our Research Group aims to develop a general theory that provides novel, mechanistic understandings of the ways in which environmental changes regulate ecosystem processes via alteration of an animal's trophic functions.

We suggest using stress physiology as a common mechanism to scale plasticity in energy and elemental budgets at the individual level to processes occurring at the population, community and ecosystem levels. Trait expressions are shaped by evolution and are constrained by conservative biological processes. Thus, this evolutionary-based framework has much potential to reveal how ecological interactions emerge across levels of biological organization, and may assist in unifying existing, currently separated theories. Such an understanding is also crucial to better predict how human-induced rapid environmental changes will affect life-supporting ecosystem services. 

 

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Ilana Pardes

FELLOW
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Ilana is a professor in the Department of Comparative Literature at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research interests are the Bible in literature and culture, Biblical exegesis, and travel narratives.
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Dan Martin

FELLOW
The Institute of Tibetan Classics

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Mats Rooth

FELLOW
University of Stuttgart
Mats is a professor in the Institute for Natural Language Processing at University of Stuttgart. His research interests are: semantics of natural language; lexicon (statistical models, computational learning, linguistic theory); syntax of natural language; intonational phonology.
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David Lehmann

FELLOW
University of Cambridge
David is a professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Cambridge. His research interests are: religion in Latin America and Israel; and multiculturalism in Latin America.

Constitutional Transplantations

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[RG # 161] Constitutional Transplantations

November 1, 2019 – January 31, 2020

Organizer:

Anat Scolnicov (University of Winchester, UK)

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This project will examine transplantation of constitutions and constitutional ideas from one country to another. Such transplantations have occurred both voluntarily (such as in Eastern Europe post-communism) and by imposition (such as in Japan after World War Two). This phenomenon raises both theoretical and practical questions. These include the role played by the existing culture and history of the country in receipt of constitutional provisions and ideas, and the extent to which external as opposed to internal constitution-making can lead to successful constitutional reform, particularly in the areas of democratisation  and human rights protection.

A basic question looms: Is the endeavour of constitutional transplantation a worthy, or even a worthwhile, one?  The replication of the constitutional text does not and cannot result in a replication of the constitution itself. The resulting constitution is a product of history, culture and religion as much as it is a product of the text.

Further questions emerge: When do constitutional transplantations succeed in producing the anticipated outcomes, and what are the conditions for that? Is it to the role of judges to affect constitutional transplantations? How can judges in their decisions justify borrowing from other constitutional systems? Do some constitutional systems provide a better template for transplantation than others? Can constitutional transplantation lead to democratisation and better protection of human rights?

Discussion of certain conceptual questions relating to this transplantation is currently missing in the literature. Such discussion has not just theoretical importance, but has important lessons for countries currently undergoing constitutional transition and reform (such as Nepal and Myanmar).

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Yishay Mansour

FELLOW
Tel Aviv University
Yishay is a professor in the School of Computer Science at Tel Aviv University. His research interests are: computational learning theory and related issues from machine learning, reinforcement learning and game theory; theoretical aspects of computer science.
Ariel Knafo-Noam

Ariel Knafo

FELLOW
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Ariel Knafo is associate professor of Social-Development Psychology in the Department of Psychology at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.