The Olamot Center for Scholarly and Cultural Exchange with Israel and the Borns Jewish Studies Program hosted the Ronald J. Zabinsky Memorial Lecture delivered by Dr. Sigal Gooldin.
This lecture discussed the politics of assisted reproductive technologies and LGBTQ life in Israel. In recent decades, attitudes towards LGBTQ people in Israel have changed profoundly, with growing ‘acceptance’ of (some) communities, in both formal and informal settings. While these transformations coincide with international trends, Israel presents a unique case study of LGBTQ ‘social acceptance’ through the realm of family and kinship. Drawing on a multi-sited ethnography of the uses of assisted reproductive technologies amid LGBTQ people in Israel, this lecture shows how particular fusions of neo-liberal and conservative moral justifications pave the way for legitimization, ‘normalization,’ and a sense of belonging.
About the Lecturer
Dr. Sigal Gooldin is a sociologist and anthropologist, head of the Israeli Institute for Gender and LGBTQ Studies, and a lecturer at the Gender Studies Program at Tel-Aviv University. Her research interests include: the intersection of gender and health, socio-cultural aspects of moral justifications, the cultural politics of assisted reproductive technologies in Israel, and globalization/localization of LGBTQ identities. In recent years, her work has focused on co-creation of applied social research on LGBTQ lives as a collaborative project of academic and civil agencies.
Selected Publications
Cohn-Schwartz, Ella, Gooldin Sigal and Bachner Yaacov (2023) The Unique Characteristics of ‘families of choice’ and biological families of LGBT Adults. Innovation in Aging 7(1):1142
Gooldin, Sigal and Daas Nage (2022) LGBT and other Sexual Minorities Amid Arab Israelis: A Community Action-Research. Tel-Aviv: The Israeli Institute for Gender and LGBTQ Studies. [HEBREW]
Zuckerman, S., Gooldin, S., Zeevi, D.A. et al. (2020) The decision-making process, experience, and perceptions of preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) users. J Assist Reprod Genet 37, 1903–1912. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-020-01840-4
Zuckerman, S., Zeevi, D., Gooldin, S. et al (2017). Acceptable applications of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) among Israeli PGD users. Eur J Hum Genet 25, 1113–1117. https://doi.org/10.1038/ejhg.2017.113
Gooldin, Sigal (2013) Emotional Rights, Moral Reasoning and Jewish-Arab Alliances in the Regulation of IVF in Israel: Theorizing the Unexpected Consequences of Assisted Reproductive Technologies. Social Science and Medicine 83:90-98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.01.002