(NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ) -- Integrated dance, an art form that brings together dancers with and without disabilities, powerfully challenges the way disability is presented and perceived in public culture and in the arts. Professor Gili Hammer, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, will explore the Israeli aspects of this art form, which defy national, religious, and social boundaries while expanding public awareness of multiculturalism. Yet, they also reveal a hierarchy between veterans who are disabled as a result of military service in the Israeli Defense Forces and others with disabilities.

“Dance and Disability in Israel” will be presented Sunday, October 10, at 2:00pm on the Zoom platform. Free and open to the public, the event is sponsored by the Allen and Joan Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life at Rutgers University. It is the Henry Schwartzman Endowed Seminar. Advance registration is required at BildnerCenter.Rutgers.edu.

Gili Hammer is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and the Program in Cultural Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is the author of Blindness through the Looking Glass: The Performance of Blindness, Gender, and the Sensory Body (University of Michigan Press, 2019), and her articles have appeared in Gender & Society, Signs, and Disability Studies Quarterly, among other publications.

 The Allen and Joan Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life connects the university with the community through public lectures, symposia, Jewish communal initiatives, cultural events, and teacher training.