NOA LAVI
Curriculum Vitae
EDUCATION
2022 Level 3 Certificate in Leading Forest School and Outdoor Learning, Cambridge Forest School, United-Kingdom
2013-2019 Ph.D. in Social Anthropology
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Haifa, Israel
Dissertation Advisor: Prof. Nurit Bird-David
Title: ‘Developing’ Relations: Rethinking the Experience of Aid and Development Interventions, a Case Study from the Nayaka of South India
2009-2012 M.A. in Social Anthropology (Summa cum laude)
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Haifa, Israel
2006-2009 B.A. in Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures (Summa cum laude)
Department of Archaeology and Near Eastern Cultures, Tel-Aviv University, Israel
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
2024-present Teaching Fellow, Department of Counselling and Human Development, University of Haifa, Israel
2022-present Visiting Research Fellow, Cluster for Education Research on Identities and Inequalities (CERII), Faculty of Health, Education, Medicine & Social Care, Anglia-Ruskin University, Cambridge, United Kingdom
2020-2022 Member, Extreme Citizen Science (ExCiteS) group, Department of Geography, University College London, United Kingdom
2020-2022 Honorary Fellow, Department of Anthropology, University College London, United Kingdom
2018-2019 Assistant Researcher, Department of Anthropology, University of Haifa, Israel
2016-present Co-Director, The Forager Children Interdisciplinary Studies Group
2015-2016 Visiting Student, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge, United-Kingdom
2012-2013 Teaching Assistant, Department of Asian Studies, University of Haifa, Israel
2009-2012 Teaching Assistant, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Haifa, Israel
2007-2009 Research Assistant, Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures, Tel-Aviv University, Israel
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2021-2022 Outdoor Teaching Assistance, Cambridge Steiner School, United Kingdom
2020-2022 Forest School Teaching Assistance, Bewick Bridge Community Primary School, United Kingdom
2005 Coordinator, Training Program for Young Environmental Education Guides (age 16-18), The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI), Israel
2001-2003 Instructor, Educational Hiking and Walking Tours, The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI), Mitzpe Ramon Field School, Israel
1998-2001 Young Environmental Education Guide, The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI), Israel
PUBLICATIONS
Refereed Journal Articles
2024 Hays, J., Ninkova, V., Lavi, N., Lew-Levy, S., da Silva Macedo, S. L., Davis, H., Ali, A., Autonomous hunter-gatherer children in hierarchical schools: a review of the literature from the global South. Hunter Gatherer Research 10, 1-8.
2024 Ninkova, V., Hays, J., Lavi, N., Ali, A., Lopes da Silva Macedo, S., Davis, H. E., Lew-Levy, S., Hunter-gatherer children at school: A view from the Global South. Review of Educational Research. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543241255614
2024 Lavi, N., Rudge, A., Warren, G., Rewilding our inner hunter-gatherer: how an idea about our ancestral condition is recruited into popular debate in Britain and Ireland. Current Anthropology 65, 72-99.
2024 Friesem, D.E., Lavi, N., Lew-Levy, S., Boyette, A., Mobility, site maintenance and archaeological formation processes: An ethnoarchaeological perspective. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 74, 101588.
2023 Riede, F., Lew-Levy, S., Johannsen, N.N., Lavi, N., Andersen, M.M., Toys as teachers: A cross-cultural analysis of object play and enskillment in hunter-gatherer societies. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 30, 32-63.
2022 Lavi, N., The freedom to stop being free: Rethinking school education and personal autonomy among Nayaka children in South India. Hunter Gatherer Research 5.1-2, 39-66.
2022 Lavi, N., ‘We only teach them how to be together’: Parenting, child development and engagement with formal education among the Nayaka in South India. Anthropology and Education Quarterly 53, 84-102.
2022 Lew-Levy, S., Andersen, M.M., Lavi, N., Riede, F., Hunter-gatherer children’s object play and tool use: An ethnohistorical analysis. Frontiers in Psychology 13, 824983.
2022 Lew-Levy, S., Reckin, R., Kissler, S.M., Pretelli, I., Boyette, A.H., Crittenden, A.N., Hagen, R., Haas, R., Kramer, K.L., Koster, J., O’Brien, M., Surovell, T.A., Tucker, B., Lavi, N., Ellis-Davies, K., Davis, H.E., Socioecology shapes child and adolescent time allocation in twelve hunter-gatherer and mixed-subsistence forager societies. Scientific Reports 12, 8054.
2021 Milks, A., Lew-Levy, S., Lavi, N., Friesem, D.E., Reckin, R., Hunter-gatherer children in the past: an archaeological review. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 64, 101369.
2020 Lew-Levy, S., Milks, A., Lavi, N., Pope, S. M., Friesem, D.E., Where innovations flourish: An ethnographic and archaeological overview of hunter–gatherer learning contexts. Evolutionary Human Sciences 2, E31. doi:10.1017/ehs.2020.35
2019 Gur-Arieh, S., Madella, M., Lavi, N., Friesem, D.E., Potentials and limitations for the identification of outdoor dung plasters in humid tropical environment: A geo-ethnoarchaeological case study from South India. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 11, 2683–2698.
2019 Lavi, N., Friesem, D.E., Hunter-gatherer sharing: New perspectives from the past and present. Hunter Gatherer Research 3, 361-366.
2018 Lew-Levy, S., Lavi, N., Reckin, R., Cristobal-Azkarate, J., Ellis-Davies, K. How do hunter-gatherer children learn social and gender norms? A meta-ethnographic review. Cross Cultural Research 52, 213-255.
2017 Friesem, D.E., Lavi, N., Madella, M., Boaretto, E., Ajithprasad, P., French, C., The formation of fire residues associated with hunter-gatherers in humid tropical environments: A geo-ethnoarchaeological perspective. Quaternary Science Reviews 171, 85-99.
2017 Friesem, D.E., Lavi, N., Foragers, tropical forests and the formation of archaeological evidences: an ethnoarchaeological view from South India. Quaternary International 448, 117-128.
2017 Lew-Levy, S., Reckin, R., Lavi, N., Cristobal-Azkarate, J., Ellis-Davies, K. How do hunter-gatherer children learn subsistence skills? A meta-ethnographic review. Human Nature 28, 367-394.
2016 Friesem, D.E., Lavi, N., Madella, M., Ajithprasad, P., French, C., Site Formation Processes and Hunter-Gatherers Use of Space in a Tropical Environment: A Geo-Ethnoarchaeological Approach from South India. PLoS ONE 11(10): e0164185.
2016 Lavi, N. Hunter-gatherer situations: Response by Noa Lavi to Thomas Widlok’s keynote speech (CHAGS XI). Hunter Gatherer Research 2, 159-162.
2014 Lavi, N., Bird-David, N., At Home Under Development: A Housing Project for Hunter-gatherers Nayaka of the Nilgiris. Eastern Anthropologist 66, 407-432.
Edited Books (peer-reviewed)
2019 Lavi, N., Friesem, D.E. (editors), Towards a Broader View of Hunter Gatherer Sharing. McDonald Institute Monographs Series, Cambridge.
Book Chapters (peer-reviewed)
2020 Reckin, R., Lew-Levy, S., Lavi, N., Ellis-Davies, K. Mobility, autonomy and learning: Could the transition from egalitarian to non-egalitarian social structures start with children?. In: Moreau, L. (Ed.), Social inequality before farming? Multidisciplinary approaches to the study of social organisation in prehistoric and extant hunter-gatherer societies. McDonald Institute Monographs Series, Cambridge.
2019 Friesem, D.E., Lavi, N., Sharing, living-together, co-presence and archaeological formation processes: an ethnoarchaeological view on hunter-gatherer use of (social) space. In: Lavi, N. and Friesem, D.E. (Eds.), Towards a Broader View of Hunter Gatherer Sharing. McDonald Institute Monographs Series, Cambridge. Ch. 6, Pp. 83-94.
2019 Lavi, N., Friesem, D.E., Introduction. In: Lavi, N. and Friesem, D.E. (Eds.), Towards a Broader View of Hunter Gatherer Sharing. McDonald Institute Monographs Series, Cambridge. Pp. 1-11.
GRANTS & AWARDS
2021 UCL-IITD Collaboration Grant, University College London
Making local knowledge matter for landslides and flooding preparedness - with Muki Haklay (UCL), Manabendra Saharia (IITD): £10,000 (GBP)
2021 Interacting Minds Centre Seed Fund, Aarhus University
Skill and cognition in children’s play objects - a museum-based study - with Felix Riede (Aarhus University), Shiena Lew-Levy (MPI-EVA), Marc Malmdorf Andersen (Aarhus University), Ulrik HøjJohnsen (Moesgård Museum): kr55,000 (DKK)
2021 Material Culture and Heritage Seed Fund, Aarhus University
Skill and cognition in children’s play objects–a museum-based study - with Felix Riede (Aarhus University), Shiena Lew-Levy (MPI-EVA), Marc Malmdorf Andersen (Aarhus University), Ulrik HøjJohnsen (Moesgård Museum): kr10,000 (DKK)
2020 PLAYTrack Seed Fund, Aarhus University
Non-industrialized children’s use of tools in play and subsistence activities - with Felix Riede (Aarhus University), Shiena Lew-Levy (MPI-EVA), Marc Malmdorf Andersen (Aarhus University), Kristoffer Laigaard Nielbo (Aarhus University): kr77,354 (DKK)
2016 D.M. McDonald Grants & Awards, University of Cambridge
International conference on SHARING the Archaeology and Anthropology of Hunter-Gatherers – with David Friesem (University of Cambridge): £5,000 (GBP)
2012 Advanced Studies Excellence Scholarship, University of Haifa: ₪132,000 (NIS)
2009 Rector's Excellence Scholarship, Tel Aviv University: ₪3,000 (NIS)
2009 Wolf Foundation Excellence Scholarship, Tel Aviv University: ₪3,000 (NIS)
2007 Tanenbaum Excellence Scholarship, Tel Aviv University: ₪5,000 (NIS)
INVITED TALKS
2023 ‘Childhood and Education in the Forest’. Faculty of Education, University of Haifa. June 5.
2022 ‘Parenting, Learning and Engagement with Formal Education in the Forests of South India’. Cluster for Education Research on Identities and Inequalities (CERII), Anglia Ruskin University, United-Kingdom. December 1.
2022 ‘Studying Children and Childhood in the Rainforests of South India’. Online Conference on Interdisciplinary Methods and Theory for Studying Childhood Learning Across Cultures. October 5-7.
2022 ‘Parents and Children in the Indian Rainforests’. The Forum for Science-Based Parenting, Israel. September 19.
2022 ‘Rewild your inner hunter-gatherer? Living Well Together with popular ideas about an imagined ancestral condition’. Keynote Lecture at the Conference on Hunting and Gathering Societies (CHAGS), University College Dublin, Ireland. June 27 – July 1.
2020 ‘Parents and Children in the rainforests of India’. Alumot Centre for Hebrew Culture, Cambridge, United-Kingdom
2019 ‘Developing relations: Rethinking development, intervention and dependency among Nayaka forest dwellers in south India’. Department of Anthropology and Sociology, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia. September 27.
2019 ‘Developing relations: Rethinking development, intervention and dependency among Nayaka forest dwellers in South India’. Department of Anthropology, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia. September 4.
2014 ‘Private property, wages and cows? What can archaeologists still learn from today's hunter-gatherers?’. Department of Archaeology, University of Tübingen, Germany. December 11.
2012 ‘Why is it so hard to conserve Indigenous/Forest Knowledge? A case study from the Nayaka forest dweller hunter-gatherers in South India’. Keystone Foundation, Kotagiri, Tamil-Nadu, India. February 24.
CONFERENCE ACTIVITY
Conferences Organized
2023 Organizing Committee. Workshop on Contemporary Hunter-Gatherers and Education in a Changing World: Towards Sustainable Futures, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway. March 28-30.
2018 Organizing Committee. Conference on Hunting and Gathering Societies (CHAGS), Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia. July 23-27.
2016 SHARING the Archaeology and Anthropology of Hunter-Gatherers. Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, United-Kingdom. September 20-21.
Panels Organized
2022 21st Century Hunter-Gatherer Studies: Ethical, scientific and socio-political implications. Conference on Hunting and Gathering Societies (CHAGS), University College Dublin, Ireland. June 27 – July 1.
2022 Living with natural hazards: influence on social practices, material, and storied worlds?. Conference on Hunting and Gathering Societies (CHAGS), University College Dublin, Ireland. June 27 – July 1.
2017 All play and no work: (Re)defining play and work among forager children. American Association of Anthropologists (AAA), Washington DC, United-States. November 29-December 3.
Papers Presented (as speaker)
2023 ‘An alternative perspective on cultural changes from the eyes of the Nayaka people in South India’. The Forum for Asian Studies in Israel, Tel-Aviv University. June 4
2022 ‘School education programs for mobile hunter-gatherer children: A view from the Global South’. Workshop on Re-Imagining Development for Mobile and Marginalised Peoples. University of Oxford, Oxford, United-Kingdom. January 10.
2019 ‘“Look what he did”: How Nayaka parents use communal conversation to shape children's behaviour’. Workshop on Current Directions in Hunter-Gatherer Research. UCL, London, United-Kingdom. November 7-8.
2019 ‘Local senses of children’s learning among Nayaka foragers’. Workshop on Current Hunter-Gatherer Research, UCL, London, United-Kingdom. March 21.
2018 ‘Rethinking school experience among Nayaka children in South India’. Conference on Hunting and Gathering Societies (CHAGS), Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia. July 23-27.
2018 ‘Changing relations, changing terms: Learning dynamic sociality and kinship among South Indian Nayaka foragers’. Children’s Acquisition of Kinship Knowledge: Theory and Method Workshop, Bristol, United-Kingdom. January 25-26.
2017 ‘Beyond work and play: Local senses of children’s learning and actions among Nayaka foragers’. Annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association (AAA), Washington DC, United-States. November 29 – December 3.
2016 ‘How do hunter-gatherer children learn to share? A meta-ethnographic review’ (Poster). SHARING The Archaeology and Anthropology of Hunter-Gatherers, Cambridge, United-Kingdom. September 20-21.
2015 ‘The freedom to stop being free: Negotiating personal autonomy and family relations in a contemporary Nayaka community’. Conference on Hunting and Gathering Societies (CHaGS), Vienna, Austria. September 7-11.
2015 ‘”Of course we should talk to them. How else would they learn?": Communicating (domesticated) animals into forest social life’. Conference on Hunting and Gathering Societies (CHaGS), Vienna, Austria. September 7-11.
2015 ‘Tales from the field’. Conference on Hunting and Gathering Societies (CHaGS), Vienna, Austria. September 7-11.
2015 ‘Continuity and Change? Negotiating ideas of “traditionality” among the “Nayaka” in the Nilgiri Hills’. Indian Tribal Cultures, University of Groningen, The Netherlands. June 28 – July 3.
2013 ‘"Indigenous Knowledge" vs. "New Knowledge" among the Nayaka forest dwellers in South India’. Young Researchers’ Conference, University of Haifa, Israel. June.
2013 ‘At Home in a Changing World: Contemporary Life of the Kattu Nayaka in South India’. Conference on Hunting and Gathering Societies (CHaGS), Liverpool, United-Kingdom. June 25-28.
2011 ‘Accommodating Ontologies: Modernist and Relational Reconfigurations in a Housing Project for Forest People in South India’. Annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association (AAA), Montreal, Canada. November 16-20.
ACADEMIC TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Lecturer, University of Haifa
‘Anthropological Perspectives in Childhood Development’ (Spring 2024)
Guest Lecturer, Anglia Ruskin University
‘Learning and Education among Hunter-Gatherers’ (June 2023)
‘Forest School Session’ (March 2023)
Visiting Lecturer, Tel-Aviv University
‘Personal autonomy, parental responsibility and social order under pressure among contemporary Nayaka hunter-gatherers’ (Summer 2016)
‘Contemporary hunter gatherers and their relations with animals, big ones and small ones, far away and nearby’ (Summer 2016)
Visiting Lecturer, University of Haifa
‘Hunter-Gatherers in a Changing World’ (Summer 2014)
‘House and Home among Hunting and Gathering Societies’ (Summer 2013)
Teaching Assistant, University of Haifa
‘Modern India’ (Winter 2012, 2013)
‘20th Century Hunting and Gathering Societies’ (Summer 2011, 2012)
‘Renovating Home: Anthropological Perspectives’ (Summer 2010, 2011)
‘Anthropological Theories’ (Summer 2009, 2010)
SCHOOL TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Forest School Assistant
Bewick Bridge Community Primary School, Cambridge, United-Kingdom; Years 1-3 (2020-2022)
Cambridge Steiner School, Fulbourn, United Kingdom; Years 3-6 (2021-2022)
Teacher of Environmental Education
Mitzpe Ramon Field School, Israel; Years 1-10 (2001-2003)
SERVICE TO PROFESSION
Reviewer for Scientific Journals
Early Childhood Research Quarterly (2023)
Hunter Gatherer Research (2023)
Ethos (2022)
PNAS (2022)
Examiner
2021, 2023 - External examiner, Master Thesis, Department of Social Sciences, UiT Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway.
Organization of Research Groups
Co-founder and co-director (since 2016) of the Forager Children Interdisciplinary Studies Group (https://foragerchildstudies.wixsite.com). Exploring the pasts, presents and futures of hunter-gatherer children’s learning through integration of social anthropology, psychology, biological anthropology and archaeology. Founded at the University of Cambridge.
Editing Journal Issues
Guest editor for a special issue (vol. 3.3) on hunter-gatherer sharing in Hunter Gatherer Research (University of Liverpool Press).