The lab

Liat Ayalon

Liat Ayalon, PhD, is a Professor in the School of Social Work, at Bar Ilan University, Israel. Prof. Ayalon is currently funded by the Israel Science Foundation to study intergenerational relations in the context of climate change. She is also funded by the Volkswagen Foundation in collaboration with colleagues in Germany (Dr. von Kutzleben and Prof. Schweda) to study moral dilemmas in migrant home care arrangements  She was the coordinator of an international EU funded Ph.D. program on the topic of ageism (EuroAgeism.eu; 2017-2022). Between 2014 and 2018, Prof. Ayalon has led an international research network on the topic of ageism, funded through COST (Cooperation in Science and Technology; COST IS1402, notoageism.com). She consults both national and international organizations concerning the development and evaluation of programs and services for older adults. In recognition of her work, Prof. Ayalon was selected by the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing as one of 50 world leaders working to transform the world to be a better place in which to grow older.

Sigal Bridger

Senjouti Roy, Ph.D.

Senjooti has been interested in aging studies for over a decade. She worked in an old age home as a student social worker in India and undertook research on self-perceptions of older adults in urban India for her master’s degree. Subsequently, she pursued a doctoral degree in social gerontology at Miami University, United States. For her dissertation she conducted an ethnographic study of health beliefs and behaviors of older adults in the Indian Himalayas. As part of her postdoctoral work with Prof. Ayalon, she has undertaken research on ageism, long-distance caregiving, and the intersection of culture and technology in the portrayal of age and gender stereotypes in media. She is currently exploring ageism in the context of climate change.

Natalie Ulitsa, Ph.D.

Natalie Ulitsa is a postdoctoral research fellow in the School of Social Work, Faculty of Social Sciences at Bar-Ilan University. She received her Ph.D. from the Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and completed postdoctoral studies in the Department of Community Mental Health,  University of Haifa. She is interested in the psycho-social and cultural aspects of dementia and dementia care, and a context-informed view of old age. She also teaches courses at the Department of Social Work, Hadassa Academic College in Jerusalem.

Natalia Gutkowski, Ph.D.

Natalia Gutkowski is a cultural anthropologist whose research focuses on social-environmental inequalities. She is particularly interested in the socio-political possibilities that emerge from environmental crises, and in how shifting environmental conditions generate new socio-political dynamics at both micro and macro levels. At the Ayalon Lab, her work examines how climate change affects the social lives of older adults in urban public spaces.
Gutkowski’s recent projects include a study of changing labor policies under heat stress and their impact on exposed workers, as well as a digital ethnography into the community and environmental implications of digital goods-sharing platforms used by middle class mothers. Previously, Gutkowski explored the development of environmental-agrarian policies within Israeli state institutions and their consequences for Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel, as well as the transformation of border dynamics in the Middle East in response to environmental threats.
She has held postdoctoral research positions at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies, the Martin Buber Society of Fellows at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the Mimshak Science and Policy Program. She also served as a Research Associate at the Teschner Lab for Planning and Environmental Innovation at Ben-Gurion University.
Some of Gutkowski’s previous publications appeared in Geoforum, Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, and the International Journal of Middle East Studies. Her first book, Struggling for Time: Environmental Governance and Agrarian Resistance in Israel/Palestine, was published in 2024 by Stanford University Press.

Rabab Awad, Ph.D.

A postdoctoral fellow at Prof. Liat Ayalon,’s research lab at Bar-Ilan University, Israel. Rabab is a pharmacist in several geriatric institutions. She completed her master’s degree (2014) and PhD studies (2021) in the Department of Gerontology, University of Haifa. Her doctoral dissertation examined the typology of loneliness among older people via a weekly based diary study, and examined the role of oxytocin in regulating loneliness in old age. She is interested in neuro-hormonal and neuro-cognitive processes of aging, psychology of aging, and aging alongside disabilities. Her postdoctoral work with Prof. Ayalon, is focused on the impacts of climate change on psychological and neuro-hormonal aspects of aging.

She can be reached by email: rabab.abu-elheja@biu.ac.il

Sayani Das, Ph.D.

Sayani Das is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Department of Social Work, Bar-Ilan University, Israel. Her current research examines the intersection of ageism and ableism among older adults in Israel and India. She holds a PhD in Anthropology from the Indian Statistical Institute, University of Calcutta, and an MPhil in Anthropology from the University of Delhi, India. Sayani’s work integrates anthropology, public health, and gerontology, with an emphasis on a holistic approach to frailty in diverse community-dwelling populations. Prior to her postdoctoral role, she contributed significantly to policy and practice at the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India, the nodal ministry for older adults’ welfare. For contact, she can be reached via email at das.sayani6@gmail.com.

Nahum Gabinet, Ph.D.

Nahum Gabinet is an environmental researcher specializing in public health and environmental stressors. His work integrates GIS modeling, advanced statistics, and sensor data, leveraging commercially available wearables and smartphones to enable large-scale citizen science. He is committed to studying climate impacts and regards climate–aging interactions as pivotal for health-protective, well-being-enhancing policy, and he looks forward to joining the Ayalon Lab as a postdoctoral fellow. In a direct-track program, he investigated urban light and noise pollution, combining GIS-based ecological analysis with a nationwide volunteer study that produced an integrated light–noise–sleep gradient. Nahum is a research associate at the University of Haifa’s Environmental Economics Lab, where he studies visitor behavior using GIS and econometric models, and a teaching associate for GIS implementation in the Environmental Intelligence program and the Disaster & Emergency Management program. He recently served as a Mimshak Fellow and scientific advisor to Israel’s Ministry of Economy and Industry, where he led the national Climate Mitigation and Adaptation Action Plan and designed a GIS-driven data strategy. In parallel, as a postdoctoral fellow, he developed GIS-based machine-learning methods to predict failures in water distribution system.

Shvat Eilat, Ph.D.

Shvat Eilat is a Ph.D. candidate at Tel Aviv University. She completed her MA thesis titled “A Grave of Her Own: Trespassing, Citizenship and Care in Stillborn Mass Burial in Israel.” Her PhD is an ethnography of pre-diagnosed dementia in Israel. Shvat Eilat is a social worker who has worked with people with severe Alzheimer’s disease, in long-term institutional care for the elderly, and in end-of-life care. Shvat is a recipient of the Azrieli PhD fellowship in social sciences for 2020-2024. She has received the Mitacs Globalink scholarship for a research stay at the Universite de Montreal in Canada and a scholarship from Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, for a research stay.

Shirley Altman

Shirley Altman is a doctoral student with a Master’s degree in social work. She works at Maccabi HMO and studies predictors of suicide among older persons, using a large dataset of the entire HMO.

Ruth Frankenburg

Ruth Frankenburg is a social worker who studies role perceptions of activists in sexual abuse prevention teams. She is also responsible for the ongoing operation of such teams.

Smadar Freiber

Smadar Freiber is a proud social worker who loves older people and believes that old age is a period of beauty and power in addition to losses and challenges. Her dissertation is focused on the experiences of childless older people.

Sara Halperin

Sara is a Ph.D. student at the School of Social Work, Bar-Ilan University, under the guidance of Prof. Liat Ayalon. She is a recipient of the Presidential scholarship for outstanding students. Her research focuses on the phenomenon of pursuing a new career in the arts following retirement. Sara is a social work expert in gerontology and a psychotherapist. She studied for Master’s degrees in both Comparative Literature and Social Work at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her book, A Flower Grows on a Heap of Stones, explores the portrayal of old age in literature.

Noa Levi

Noa Levy is a spoken word poetry artist and a PhD student in the Department of Gender Studies, at Bar Ilan University. She is focused on the experiences of middle-aged women who write and perform spoken word poetry, in relation to ageism and self-ageism

Hadar Rubinstein

Hadar Rubinstein is a social worker engaged in both individual and community practice, with a special interest in working with older adults. She currently works in a nursing department, where she supports residents, their families, and care staff through the complex realities of long-term care. Her research focuses on improving well-being in these settings by deepening the relationships between staff, residents, and families.