Rebecca Steinfeld

Dr Rebecca Steinfeld is a political scientist researching the politics of reproduction and genital alteration. Alongside her Visiting Fellowship at the LSE Middle East Centre, she is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre of the Body at Goldsmiths, University of London. She completed her PhD in Politics at St Antony's College, University of Oxford, in 2012, and is now writing her first book, Wars of the Wombs: Struggles over Reproduction in Israel (Stanford University Press, forthcoming). Rebecca has lectured on the Arab-Israeli conflict in the Department of History at Stanford University, and the Department of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Birmingham. She is a member of several scholarly associations, including the British International Studies Association (BISA), Political Studies Association (PSA), Feminist and Women's Studies Association (FWSA) and National Women's Studies Association (NWSA). As a BBC and Arts and Humanities Research Council 'New Generation Thinker, and Haaretz ‘Jewish Thinker’, Rebecca has shared her work with a wider audience through numerous broadcasts and op-eds. Together with her partner, Rebecca has also led pioneering efforts to open civil partnerships to opposite-sex couples in the UK.

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Contact Details

Email:  rebecca@rebeccasteinfeld.com|
Twitter: @beccasteinfeld|
Blog: www.rebeccasteinfeld.com|

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Research Interests

• Reproductive health policies
• Bio-politics
• Female, male and intersex genital alteration
• Feminism and gender studies
• Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict 
• Zionism and Palestinian nationalism
• Nationalism and colonialism

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Selected Publications

Book 

• Wars of the Wombs: Struggles over Reproduction in Israel (Stanford University Press, forthcoming).

Op-Eds

• ‘Male circumcision is a feminist issue too’, Hysteria (28 January 2015)

• ‘A Jewish couple's battle for civil partnership equality in the UK’, Haaretz (20 January 2015)
  

• ‘We're an opposite-sex couple and we want a civil partnership. Why aren't we allowed one?’ The Independent (10 December 2014) (co-authored with Charles Keidan)

• ‘Civil partnerships should be for everyone, no exceptions’, Guardian's Comment is Free (3 December 2014) (co-authored with Charles Keidan)

• ‘On Israel's 66th Independence Day, an urgent question for liberal Jews’, Haaretz (6 May 2014)

• ‘Abortions in Israel: Time to finally abort pregnancy-termination committees?‘ Haaretz (20 February 2014)

• ‘Abortions in Israel: Is the law as liberal as they claim?’ Haaretz (13 February 2014)

• ‘It cuts both ways: A Jew argues for child rights over religious circumcision’, Haaretz (26 November 2013)

• ‘Like FGM, cut foreskins are a feminist issue’, The Conversation (18 November 2013)

• ‘Liberal Zionism: A Contradiction in Terms?’ Jewish Quarterly (27 March 2012)

• ‘We Should Be Free to Debate’, The Jewish Chronicle (4 July 2011)

• ‘Fruitful’ Tablet Magazine (20 June 2011)

• ‘Time to Ban Male Infant Circumcision?’ Guardian Law (14 June 2011) (co-authored with Neil Howard)

Brodcasts

• ‘Couple Win Court Backing for Straight Civil Partnerships Case‘ ITV London News (27 February 2015)

• ‘Heterosexual Couples and Civil Partnerships’ BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour (23 December 2014)

• ‘Cutting Tradition’ BBC Radio 3(7 November 2013)

• ‘Fertility Policies in Israel’ BBC Radio 3 (19 June 2013)

• ‘Birth Right’ Tablet Magazine (20 June 2011)