Curriculum Vitae | Dr. Ayelet Oreg

Ayelet Oreg, PhD

Senior Lecturer, The Louis and Gabi Weisfeld School of Social Work, Bar-Ilan University

Email: ayelet.oreg@biu.ac.il
ORCID: 0000-0003-4859-7961
Google Scholar profile

Education

2019 – PhD, Community and Public Affairs, Binghamton University (SUNY).
Dissertation: Philanthropic Giving in Times of Personal Loss: Bereaved Mothers' Donation of Their Human Milk to Nonprofit Milk Banks.
Advisors: Prof. Susan Appe and Prof. David Campbell.
2015 – MA, Social Work, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Thesis: Motivations to Participate in Charity Sports Events: Layers of Ambivalence in Israeli Philanthropy.
Advisor: Prof. Itay Greenspan.
2001 – MSW, Social Work, Syracuse University.
1998 – BA, Social Work, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

Postdoctoral Training

2020–2021 – Postdoctoral Fellow, Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences, University of Haifa (host: Prof. Maya Negev).
2019–2020 – Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Social Work, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (host: Prof. Itay Greenspan).

Research Interests

Memory and commemoration
Collective trauma and public mourning
Death studies and bereavement
Solidarity and community engagement
Human milk donation and organ donation
Posthumous reproduction and reproductive ethics
Material culture and bodily practices
Community archaeology and heritage
Qualitative, digital, visual, arts-based, and performance-based research methods

Grants

2026–2030 – Israel Science Foundation (ISF) Personal Research Grant, Principal Investigator (Sole PI).
Informal Human Milk Sharing as Expressions of Community Boundaries and Connections.

Awards and Honors

2024 – Winner, "Creativity in Teaching" call for proposals, Bar-Ilan University.
2023 – Bar-Ilan University "Impact of the Year" Award, for organizing a large-scale university-wide donation event.

Research Collaborations

2022–Present – Co-founder and co-director of the Fragment Restoration Lab within the Tell Qana Archaeological Project, Bar-Ilan University, with Dr. Amit Dagan, Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology.
2025–Present – Collaboration with the Israel Antiquities Authority and Beit Halochem: developing intervention programs for people with limb loss and post-traumatic stress through archaeological excavation and restoration.
2022–Present – Member, International Research Group on Solidarity and Health, Van Leer Jerusalem Institute.
2019–Present – Member, Philanthropy and Law Research Group, Faculty of Law, Tel Aviv University.
2022 – Invited workshop on digital ethnography, 13th Qualitative Research Summer School, Dublin City University, Ireland.

Academic Positions

2025–2026 – Guest Editor, Death Studies special issue: "The Body of Loss: Embodiment, Mortality, and Grief."
2019–2021 – Adjunct Lecturer, Tel Aviv University.
2017–2019 – Adjunct Lecturer and Field Training Coordinator, Tel Aviv University.

Professional Experience Outside Academia

2011–2014 – Rehabilitation Social Worker, National Insurance Institute of Israel.
2003–2011 – Founder and Director, Beit Rotem Parent-Child Center, Haifa Municipality and Ministry of Welfare.
2004–2009 – Field Instructor for Social Work Students, University of Haifa.
1997–1999 – Clinical Social Worker, Beit Ma'avar, Beer Sheva.

Teaching

Intervention Methods with Individuals [Undergraduate Level]
Individual Intervention for Army Casualty Officers [MA Level]
Performance of the Self in Everyday Life and in the Therapy Room
Therapeutic Rituals and Art
Altruism and Hope
Pro-Social Behaviour and Civil Society in Israel
Advanced Annual Doctoral Seminar in Qualitative Research Methods
Advanced Qualitative Research Methodology for MA students
Thinking outside the box: A Workshop for Developing Creativity, Resilience, and Interdisciplinary Skills during the Doctoral Stage

University Service

2025–Present – Member, Hoshen Team, led by the Dean, Prof. Galit Nahari.
2022–2023 – Organizer of a university-wide donation event including blood donation, hair donation, bone marrow sampling, human milk donation, and ADI donor-card registration.

Community Engagement

Archaeological excavation week and matriculation completion in archaeology for youth from Gaza-border kibbutzim (two consecutive years).
Therapeutic excavation for soldiers coping with trauma, in collaboration with the university's Shalom project.
Resilience day for archaeologists involved in locating and recovering human remains in the Gaza-border area.
Volunteer resilience workshop for IDF officers accompanying families of hostages and missing persons.
Trauma-informed workshop for midwives working with stillbirths, integrating archaeological restoration practices.
Remnants and Survivors: annual volunteer program with Holocaust survivors at AMCHA, Petah Tikva branch.

Non-Refereed Publications

Oreg, A., Greenspan, I., Schmid, H., & Bar Almog, M. (2021). Mergers in civil society organizations in Israel (Issue 26). The Israeli Institute for the Study of Civil Society and Philanthropy, Jerusalem. [in Hebrew]

Selected Conference Presentations

2026 – "Intergroup Boundaries of Care: Informal Human Milk Sharing among Jewish Communities in Israel." European Association of Social Psychology (EASP) General Meeting, Strasbourg, France.
2026 – "Neurodiversity and inclusion in archaeological research." 9th European Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, Athens, Greece.
2026 – "Ethnography of grief in sports fandom." 10th World Conference on Qualitative Research, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain.
2025 – "Milky bonds: Exploring solidarity in human milk banking." International Symposium: Solidarity in Health & Healthcare, University of Vienna, Austria.
2025 – "Agenda setting theory, commemoration, and stickers: The Israeli case study." 27th Annual Conference of the Israeli Communication Association, University of Haifa, Israel.
2025 – "Public memory and commemoration in wartime Israel: The case of Nova massacre memorial stickers." 14th ESPAnet Israel Conference, Tel Aviv–Yaffo Academic College, Israel.
2025 – "Postmortem sperm retrieval during wartime: A terror management theory perspective." 14th ESPAnet Israel Conference, Tel Aviv–Yaffo Academic College, Israel.
2025 – "When archaeology meets social work: An innovative intervention for secondary trauma." European Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, University of Edinburgh, UK.
2025 – "Restoring the past and the self: Archaeology and secondary trauma recovery." 10th World Congress of Women's Mental Health, NIMHANS, Bengaluru, India.
2024 – "Orthodox lesbian women in Israel: Family structures as a bridge between religious identity and sexual identity." First Conference on Religion and LGBT, Bar-Ilan University, Israel.
2023 – "Collaboration and autoethnography." International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, Urbana, IL, United States.
2023 – "Whose milk was it, really? 'It was a gift, a savior, a healer, and a connector': A collaborative autoethnography of human milk donation after stillbirth." International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, Urbana, IL, United States.
2023 – "Message in a (milk) bottle: The transition to motherhood experience of human milk donors to North American milk banks." 9th Qualitative Research Conference, Ben-Gurion University, Israel.
2023 – "Presence and absence in personal stories and relationships in the process of milk donation after stillbirth: Complexities in collaborative autoethnographic research." 9th Qualitative Research Conference, Ben-Gurion University, Israel.
2022 – "On altruism, solidarity, and mutual responsibility among mothers donating and receiving breast milk in Israel." 53rd Conference of the Israeli Sociological Association, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.
2022 – "For donation: 150 ml breast milk in Gush Dan area. Health risks in the absence of legislation and supervision of breast milk donations." Annual ASPNET Conference on Social Policy, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.
2022 – "Solidarity among milk donor mothers." International Research Group on Solidarity and Health, Van Leer Institute, Jerusalem, Israel.
2022 – "Manifestations of solidarity in organ donations between Palestinians and Jews during Operation Guardian of the Walls." Van Leer Institute Symposium, Jerusalem, Israel.
2021 – "From tear drops to milk drops: International and interdisciplinary considerations of bereavement and donation." Webinar "Qualitative Research that Matters," Dublin, Ireland.
2021 – "Exploring experiences of human milk donors through digital ethnography and visual data analysis." Webinar "Qualitative Research that Matters," Dublin, Ireland.
2019 – "Philanthropic entrepreneurs in development aid: Is effective altruism driving grassroots overseas?" ARNOVA Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA, United States.
2019 – "Human milk donation versus other bodily tissues and fluids donations: Similarities and differences." ARNOVA Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA, United States.
2019 – "Milk donation in times of loss as a grief ritual." Thinking with Plasticity Workshop, Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel.
2018 – "Founders' stories of grassroots international nonprofit organizations and diaspora connections." ARNOVA Annual Meeting, Austin, TX, United States.
2018 – "Whose milk is this? The complexities of human milk donation." ARNOVA Annual Meeting, Austin, TX, United States.
2018 – "Lost and found in Sudan: Exploring the journey from being 'Lost Boys' to founders of NGOs." ISTR 13th International Conference, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
2018 – "Tears of milk: Bereaved mothers' motivations to donate human milk to nonprofit milk banks." ISTR 13th International Conference, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
2017 – "Uncovering the concept of ambivalent philanthropy: Motivations and barriers for participating in charity sports' events." 78th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Public Administration, Atlanta, GA, United States.
2016 – "When the gift is half hearted: Uncovering the concept of ambivalent philanthropy." ARNOVA Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, United States.
2016 – "Ambivalent philanthropy among charity bike ride participants." ARNOVA Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, United States.
2016 – "Motivations and barriers to giving among Israeli charity sports event participants." Religion and Philanthropy Workshop, University of Colorado, Boulder, United States.
2015 – "Motivations to participate in a new philanthropic practice: Ambivalence in Israeli philanthropy." ARNOVA Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, United States.

For a full list of publications, see Research Outputs.