Tamar Novick

     Tamar is interested in the history and anthropology of health and the body, environmental history, and their intersections with nationalism and colonialism. She is also interested in the bidirectional relations between humans and animals in the production of medical knowledge.
     Past projects include the polio epidemic in Israel in the 1950s, where she studied the ways this threat was perceived and managed during the state's formative years. She also explored changing cultural meanings created around the human placenta, and traced this bodily organ from the bedside, via trash dumps, to the kitchen table and the laboratory. As part of this project, she focused on a 1980s attempt to promote the human placenta as the new experimental animal.
     Her current research focuses on cows, bees, and “the land of milk and honey.” In this project, she examines the histories of the honey and dairy industries in Palestine/Israel from 1880 to the present, the efforts put into recreating the biblical Holy Land, as well as the consequences of such efforts.