Prof. Marianna Ruah-Midbar Shapiro is a scholar of culture and religion, focusing on contemporary alternative spiritualities in the West (specifically in Israel and the Jewish world). She critically examines contemporary culture: cultural contradictions, narratives and myths, values, identities, worldviews, and cosmologies.

Frequently, her research explores encounters and affinities between conventional and alternative structures of knowledge, imagination, and practice. She studies alternative spiritual discourse in its encounters with various cultural arenas – academic institutions, medical and mental health sciences, Jewish tradition, popular culture (such as music and cinema), law and state bodies, the education system, the business sector, and more. In her doctoral dissertation (2006), she proposed a groundbreaking interpretive model for cultural research: “The Conceptual Network.”

In her public endeavors, Prof. Ruah-Midbar Shapiro works to create and establish an academic approach that is both critical and pluralistic toward contemporary alternative spiritual phenomena; to build a bridge of mutual discourse between academia and the alternative field; to encourage candid self-reflection on both sides; and to establish channels for embedding academic insights among the general public.

Currently, Prof. Ruah-Midbar Shapiro is a faculty member at Beit Berl College, in the M.A. Program in Education, Mindfulness, and Social-Emotional Learning (SEL). In addition, she is a member of the Board of Directors (and a founding board member) of the Israeli Association for the Study of Religions (IASR). She is also a research fellow at The Center for the Study of Human Spirit at the University of Haifa, and a research fellow at the Tel Aviv University Laboratory for Consciousness and Soft Logic. She founded and directs “The Forum for the Study of Contemporary and Alternative Spiritualities”, and the “Spirituality and Academia” social media channel.

One of Prof. Ruah-Midbar Shapiro’s major achievements was the establishment of a B.A. program in Mysticism and Spirituality at Zefat Academic College, which received approval from the Council for Higher Education. Furthermore, she co-founded the annual Israeli Conference for the Study of Contemporary Spiritualities (ICSCS), which took place for about a decade at Israeli universities, often in an international format, and was a partner in founding MEIDA Center – The Center for the Study of Contemporary Religions in Israel, under the auspices of the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. She also produced and hosted a radio program – “The Academy of the Mind/Spirit”, among other endeavors.

This website is continuously updated to feature materials from her work – academic articles, conference lectures, media interviews, and more.

For a concise academic CV, including publications (updated to 2025), click here.

To contact – click here.