HBI Seminar Series
During the hideous terrorist attack of October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists abducted 253 people, including women civilians of various ages. Cases of captive women civilians, especially older women and young mothers, are rare in modern history. Accordingly, understanding of their experiences in captivity is minimal, yet crucial for developing interventions to assist them in adapting to routine life after release. Spector-Mersel will present findings from her analysis with military health expert Dr. Leah Shelef of Hebrew University that can inform the rehabilitation process of released captives, especially civilian women.
Gabriela Spector-Mersel, MSW, PhD, is an Associate Professor and the chairperson of the aging branch in the Sadot Resilience and Growth Center at the School of Social Work at Sapir College, Israel. She also serves as the chairperson of the interest groups in Qualitative Research and advisor of the Narrative Research interest group at Mofet Institute. Her research interests include aging and trauma, with a focus on aging under terror threats, gender in later life, and narrative theory, methodology and pedagogy. She has published papers, chapters and books in these fields.
