Malki Poryes

Malki Poryes is a Ph.D. candidate at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and a graduate of the Mandel Leadership Institute. Her dissertation, “The Formation of the Israeli Haredi Generation Z,” is a longitudinal study integrating online ethnography and sustained fieldwork. It investigates how Haredi youth engage with digital media despite communal prohibitions, and how these interactions shape emerging patterns of identity and belonging. She is currently completing her dissertation and, as a Mandel Doctoral Fellow at Brandeis University, is developing a postdoctoral project on New York–based Haredi participants in Israel’s gap-year programs.

Poryes has received several competitive awards and scholarships, including the 2025 NRJE Wechsler Award for Emerging Scholars, the Ariane de Rothschild Foundation Scholarship, and support from Israel’s Council for Higher Education (VATAT). Her methodological work focuses on positionality and reflexivity in qualitative research. She teaches research seminars at Ono Academic College, mentors gifted youth through the University of Haifa’s IDEA Excellence Program, and contributes to policy development at the Israel Democracy Institute. She also founded the “Youth & Religion” Special Interest Group within the ISSR. During her visit to Stanford, Malki will collaborate with Profs. Ari Kelman and Ariel Mayse and will share some of her research as one of our Visiting Jewish Studies Fellows.