Marianna Ruah-Midbar Shapiro is a cultural scholar, studying the contemporary Western cultural contradictions and values, the narratives and myths, the identities and worldviews – critically examining the encounters and interconnections between conventional and alternative knowledge constructs, imagination world, and practices.

Her research frequently focuses on the alternative spiritualities’ discourse, and its intersections with various cultural establishments – the academia, Jewish tradition, law, medical and mental health sciences, the educational system, the business arena, and more.

Her doctoral dissertation offered a pioneering hermeneutical model for cultural studies, “the ideational network”.

Ruah-Midbar Shapiro’s public actions are aimed at a creation and establishment of a critical yet pluralistic approach toward contemporary alternative spiritual phenomena, in order to cast channels for the popularization of academic insights: she founded a study track for B.A. in Mysticism and Spiritualities, that won the Israeli Higher Education Council’s approval, at the Zefat Academic College; she co-founded the Israeli annual Conference for the Study of Contemporary Spiritualities (ICSCS), that was conducted for a decade in Israeli universities, mostly as international events; she co-established the Israeli Association for the Study of Religion, as well as MEIDA center for the study of current religions in Israel, at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute; she produced and broadcasted for a year a radio program named “The Mind Academy”; etc.

This site gradually gathers her activities’ products – academic articles, conference lectures, media interviews…

For a concise academic CV, including publications (updated to December 2023), click here.

To contact – click here.