Biography
Yael Teff-Seker is a researcher and lecturer at the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology and at the Arava Institute of Environmental Studies. She received her Ph.D. in Conflict Studies from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem (2013) and studies the social and political aspects of environmental conflict and cooperation. Her previous research includes environmental planning, public participation and environmental education. Her current projects include cultural ecosystem services assessment, environmental conflict and cooperation and social-psychological aspects of agro-ecological practices. She teaches environmental planning, environmental mediation, environmental education, and environmental conflict and cooperation.
Research area
Project title: “Farmer and community perspectives on agro-ecological strategies”.
Project description:
Intensive agricultural practices can be detrimental to biodiversity. In recent years, there has been a debate regarding whether and how we can meet growing food demands with minimal damage to biodiversity conservation. In the past, nature protection was focused on specific areas allotted for conservation, i.e. government approved nature parks and reserves. Other solutions focus on creating ecological corridors and bridges. The proposed solution, on which the current study focuses, involves changing agricultural practices that are environmentally unsustainable, in order to allow ecosystem protection and rehabilitation, thus making fields an integral part of nature. EU schemes and others around the world already involve governmental restitution for lower earnings for adopting more environmental-friendly practices. In particular, the UK model focuses on five such aspects: reducing pesticide use, cultivating field margins, encouraging structural complexity, community outreach and preventing soil erosion. The current study, performed in Harod valley, Israel, involved surveys, interviews and focus groups, in which farmers and their communities were asked to share their positions and perceptions regarding these (and other) agro-ecological strategies, including farmer feedback on the possibility of implementing a similar scheme to that of the UK model.
Posters and Presentations
Teff-Seker, Y. and Orenstein, D.E. (2018) Walk on the Wild Side: Using Walking Interviews and Focusing to Assess Cultural Ecosystem Services. Conference Paper: 5th European Congress of Conservation Biology, Jyveskyla, Finland, June 12-15. DOI: 10.17011/conference/eccb2018/107081.
Publications
Teff-Seker, Y. (2020). “Peace and Conflict in Israeli State-Approved Textbooks: 2000-2018”. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 1-18. Published online. doi 10.1080/00220272.2020.1716392
Kosel, S., Teff-Seker, Y., Orenstein, D. & Gruner, E. “Group Identity and Political Barriers: Jordanian and Israeli Narratives of Env. Scientific Cooperation” Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology (Accepted Oct. 2019).
Mackelworth, P., Teff-Seker, Y., Vega Fernandez…& Warr, S. “Geopolitics and Marine Conservation: Synergies and Conflicts”. Frontiers in Marine Science (Accepted, Oct. 2019)
Teff-Seker, Y. & Orenstein, D. E. (2019). The “Desert Experience: Evaluating the Cultural Ecosystem Services of Drylands through Walking and Focusing”. People and Nature, vol 1:2, June 2019, pp. 234-248.
Teff-Seker, Y. & Portman, M. E., Kaplan-Mintz, K. (2019). “Problem and Project Based Learning as a Tool for Environmental Education: A study of graduate planning students”, Case Studies in the Environment. April, 2019.
Teff-Seker, Y., Rubin, A., & Eiran, E. (2019). Israel’s ‘turn to the sea’ and its effect on Israeli regional policy. Israel Affairs, 25(2), 234-255.
Teff-Seker, Y., Eiran, E., & Rubin, A. (2018). Israel Turns to the Sea. Middle East Journal, 72(4), 610-630.
Teff-Seker, Y. (2017) “A Review of Environmental Planning for Oceans and Coasts: Methods, Tools, and Technologies”, Journal of Environmental Planning and Research. 38 issue: 2, page(s): 249-250.
Portman, M. E., & Teff-Seker, Y. (2017). Factors of success and failure for transboundary environmental cooperation: projects in the Gulf of Aqaba. Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, 19(6), 810-826.
Portman, M. & Teff-Seker, Y. (2016). Community-level environmental projects as learning tools for planners: a case study of graduate planning students. Environmental Education Research, 23(3), 415-435.
Teff-Seker, Y. & Portman, M. (2016). Stakeholder Feedback in Israel’s Marine Spatial Planning. Ecology and Environment, April 2016, 7:1. 24-32. Peer reviewed journal, In Hebrew.
Teff-Seker, Y. “Hope and Nostalgia: Representations of Arab-Jewish Relationships in Israeli Children’s Literature After 1967”, 2019. Between the Lines (In Hebrew), Vol 3 pp. 45-65. Peer reviewed journal, In Hebrew.
Dissertation
Teff-Seker, Y. (2012). The representation of the Arab-Israeli conflict in Israeli children’s literature. Ph. D. dissertation, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Book Chapters
Teff-Seker, Y. (2017) “Attitudes towards the “Other” and Jewish Israeli Identity in Israeli Schoolbooks” in: Podeh, E. and Alayan, S. Multiple Alterities: Views of Others in School Textbooks of the Middle East. (Book Chapter).
Portman, M. & Teff-Seker, Y. (2016). Remembering the Red Sea Marine Peace Park. Marine Transboundary Conservation and Protected Areas, 89-110. (Book Chapter).
Teff-Seker, Y. “Fear and Grief in Israeli Children’s Literature Before and After the Yom Kippur War: A Comparative Analysis” In: Darr, Y., Kogman T & Steiman, Y., (eds.) Children at the Head of the Camp?: Children and Youth During National Revolution and Change, Tel Aviv: Mofet Institute Press, 2010. (Book Chapter).
