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Amir Perez

Mr. Amir Perez

Recent alumni
Academic Level PhD candidate
Academic Year 2024
Research Field Literature
Home Institution Tel-Aviv University
Host Institution in France Sorbonne Nouvelle

Biography

Amir Perez is a doctoral candidate in the Comparative Literature program at Tel Aviv University. 

His research focuses on the concept of "World Literature"; (Weltliteratur, littérature mondiale)—how a literary work or tradition transcends boundaries of language and culture, place and time, to achieve "worldly" status—from a critical postcolonial perspective: what is the place of literary works and traditions from the Global South and East within the realm of
world literature?

The research explores these questions through the case study of the "topos"—or literary image—of the city of Oran in northern Algeria. By comparing writings about the city by Arab and Amazigh, French and Jewish authors, the research argues that the literary field formed around Oran serves as a measure for world literature in the postcolonial era—a time when cultural and political hierarchies are shifting amidst the dynamic interplay of place, language, culture, and community that continues to unfold between France, North Africa, and the Middle East.

Thanks to the Chateaubriand Fellowship, Amir was hosted at La Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris,
where he met and collaborated with leading researchers of Algerian literature; with their
assistance, he was able to deepen his research and forge both professional and personal
connections.

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Neta Perez

Recent alumni
Academic Level PhD researcher
Academic Year 2024
Research Field Art History
Host Institution in France Centre Roland Mousnier

Biography

Neta Peretz is an art historian and researcher who holds a PhD in Art History from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research focuses on representations of Jewish women in nineteenth-century French visual culture, particularly the ways in which gender, religion, ethnicity, and social identity intersected in portraiture, caricature, and popular imagery. Her work examines subjects including the belle juive stereotype, Orientalism, and gendered antisemitism. Thanks to the Chateaubriand Fellowship, Neta conducted research at the Centre Roland Mousnier (CNRS) in Paris, where she benefited from access to French archives, libraries, museum collections, and academic expertise. This research contributed directly to her current monograph, Beyond the Belle Juive: Jewish Female Representation in Nineteenth-Century French Visual Culture. Her time in France enabled her to expand the project’s visual and archival sources and deepen its engagement with French cultural and social history. By bringing together art history, Jewish studies, and gender history, her work seeks to provide a more nuanced understanding of the representation and lived experiences of Jewish women in nineteenth-century France.

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Sergey Hazanov

Mr. Sergey Hazanov

Recent alumni
Academic Level PhD candidate
Academic Year 2024
Research Field Physics
Host Institution in France Laboratoire de Physique, ENS Lyon

Biography

Sergey Hazanov is a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Physics at the Weizmann Institute of Science, where his research focuses on superconducting qubits for quantum computing. His work aims to make these qubits more robust, a key step toward building reliable quantum computers. Supported by the Chateaubriand Fellowship, Sergey spent eight months in the Quantum Circuits Group at ENS Lyon, under the supervision of Prof. Benjamin Huard, in collaboration with Alice & Bob, a French quantum-computing startup. There he helped develop a new generation of a promising qubit design that is inherently more resilient to noise, contributing to its circuit design, simulations, and first measurements. This experience greatly advanced his doctoral research and strengthened the scientific ties between his lab at the Weizmann Institute and the French quantum-computing community.

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Omri Amiraz

Mr. Omri Amiraz

Recent alumni
Academic Level PhD
Academic Year 2024
Research Field Linguistics
Status in October Post-doctorant
Host Institution in France Institut Jean Nicod

Biography

Omri Amiraz received his PhD in Linguistics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Ghent University, specializing in formal semantics, linguistic typology, and historical linguistics. As a Chateaubriand Fellow, he spent three months at the Institut Jean Nicod in Paris, working with Prof. Benjamin Spector on the semantics of quantification and part–whole structure. Their collaboration resulted in a journal publication and also opened new research directions on semantic universals, which remain a central focus of his research. The fellowship provided an invaluable opportunity to exchange ideas with researchers at the Institut Jean Nicod and to establish long-term international collaborations.