Employed at the VLJI until 2021

Shani joined the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute as the academic coordinator and program director of the Globalization and Sovereignty cluster after completing her PhD in international relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2020. Her dissertation research, which she conducted in conjunction with Freie Universität Berlin, was on the gap between the restrictive policy regarding asylum seekers in countries that self-define as Western and their supposed commitment to the international norms in that regard. Shani has an MA in international relations and a BA cum laude in international relations and Middle Eastern studies, both from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is active in civil society organizations that promote the rights of asylum seekers in Israel and she teaches an undergraduate course on this topic at the Hebrew University.