Limor Samimian-Darash is an Associate Professor at the Federmann School of Public Policy and Government at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Education
B.A. (2001) Anthropology, Sociology, and Psychology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (magna cum laude)
M.A. (2003) Anthropology, Sociology (Organizational Sociology), The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (magna cum laude)
Ph.D. (2009) Anthropology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Visiting Student Researcher (2006-2008), Department of Anthropology, and the Center for Science, Technology & Society, University of California at Berkeley
Postdoctoral Fellow (Jan.-Apr. 2010), Department of Anthropology and International Forum for U.S. Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Postdoctoral Researcher (2010-2012), Department of Anthropology, Stanford University
Research Interests
Her research interests include security and preparedness, anthropology of the state and policy, biosecurity, emergency, theory of risk and uncertainty, and governing technologies of the future (scenarios).
She has studied for more than 10 years the topics of preparedness for future risks and uncertainties in fields of health and security. In the past few years she has specifically focused on scenarios as a dominant way to address future uncertainties through imagination and narration. In her ISF-funded research (2015-2018) Turning Points exercises in Israel, she explored through extensive fieldwork, nation-wide emergency preparedness exercises. In her current research project on Global Scenarios, funded by the ISF (2019-2022) she examines forms, practices, and conceptualizations of future plausibilities through scenarios in global organizations in the fields of health and energy. Her BSF-funded research on future imagination technologies (2019-2022), comparatively examines modalities of future imagination, design, and planning in the high-tech sector in Israel and the US.
Samimian-Darash was chosen as one of five promising early-career social scientists in Israel, for the Alon Fellowship (2013–2016). Her recent publications include: 'Uncertainty by Design: Preparing for the Future with Scenario Technology' (Cornell University Press); 'Modes of Uncertainty: Anthropological Cases' (University of Chicago Press); 'Encapsulation: Governing Actual Uncertainty in the Coronavirus Pandemic' (Sociology of Health & Illness); ‘From Crisis to Emergency: The Shifting Logic of Preparedness’ (Ethnos); ‘Practicing Uncertainty: Scenario-Based Preparedness Exercises in Israel’ (Cultural Anthropology); ‘Governing Future Potential Biothreats: Toward an Anthropology of Uncertainty’ (Current Anthropology).
For more details on Limor Samimian-Darash's work, see interview in Cultural Anthropology
Uncertainty by Design: Preparing for the Future with Scenario Technology, by Cornell University Press (2022).
Modes of Uncertainty: Anthropological Cases, by University of Chicago Press (2015).