Prof. Nahshon Perez

Nahshon Perez, PhD, serves as a professor in the Department of Political Studies at Bar Ilan University. His academic interests encompass contemporary political theory, toleration and pluralism, contested sacred sites, the methodology of political theory, past injustices and reparations, and the intersection of religion and politics.

After earning his PhD in Political Science from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2007, he pursued post-doctoral fellowships and visiting assistant professorships at the University of Montreal (CREUM), Catholic University of Louvain-la-Neuve (Hoover fellowship), University of California, Los Angeles, and Boston University.

In 2012, Perez joined the Political Studies Department at Bar Ilan University. During the same year, he was awarded the prestigious European Union Marie Curie Re-Integration research grant (2012-2016). His scholarly contributions include numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals such as Political Studies Review, the British Journal of Politics and International Relations, the Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion, CRISPP and many others.

Perez's first book, "Freedom from Past Injustices," published by Edinburgh University Press in 2012, critically examines justifications for inter-generational reparations following historical wrongs. His second book, "Women of the Wall: Navigating Religion in Sacred Sites," co-authored with Yuval Jobani and published by Oxford University Press in 2017, delves into the dispute over prayer arrangements at the Western Wall, offering a comprehensive analysis encompassing social, legal, and Halachic aspects.

This seminal work received the Best Book Award from the Israel Political Science Association (2018) and an honorable mention as a finalist for the Shapiro Award from the Association for Israel Studies (2018). The research project on the 'Women of the Wall' was supported by a grant from the Israel Science Foundation (2015-18, with Yuval Jobani).

In 2020, Perez and Jobani published a second co-authored book, ‘Governing the Sacred: Political Toleration in Five Contested Sacred Sites’, (Oxford University Press) which presents governance models for contested sacred sites, supported by empirical cases. This groundbreaking research received funding from the Israel Science Foundation (2018-2021, with Yuval Jobani).

Perez's fourth book, "Worldly Politics and Divine Institutions: Contemporary Entanglements of Faith and Government," was published by Oxford University Press in 2023. This monograph explores the intricate relationships between government and religion, addressing issues such as discrimination by government-funded religious associations and the governmental endorsement of religious symbols in public spaces.

Currently, Perez is immersed in a research project on the methodology of political theory. This endeavor has yielded several publications in peer-reviewed journals and is supported by a research grant from the Israel Science Foundation (2023-2027), focusing on "data-sensitive political theory" and analyzing the methodological evolution in political theory.