About
Prof. Tammy Harel Ben Shahar is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law. Her scholarship engages issues in the intersection between Law and Philosophy, and focuses especially on Education Law and Philosophy, Distributive Justice, Human Rights, and Political Philosophy. Prof. Harel Ben Shahar completed her doctoral studies at the Hebrew University Law Faculty. Her dissertation on Equality in Education and the Privatization of Education won the Bronfman prize for outstanding dissertation in the Humanities, Social Sciences and Law. After completing her doctoral studies, Harel Ben Shahar spent two years as a post-doctoral scholar at Columbia University and at the Tikvah Center in the NYU Law school as a Fulbright fellow. She has served as visiting professor at leading institutions including University of Pennsylvania and University of Bern, and has been awarded numerous research grants and academic prizes.
Publications
- “Justice for Grasshoppers: Effort and Unequal Rewards” Synthese 206:81 (with Nethanel Lipshitz, 2025
- “Talent Policy: Problems and Solutions”. Political Quarterly (2025) (with Catherine M. Robb, et al.)
- “Can Employers SAVE Us from Student Loans? Credentialism, Arms Races, and Debt Forgiveness” 82 Washington and Lee Law Review 189-258. (with Omer Kimhi, 2025)
- Limitarianism and Relative Thresholds. Canadian Journal of Philosophy 54:43-58 (2024)
- Educational Justice and the Value of Excellence. Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy 28:483-507 (2024)
- “‘Trashing’ Whiteness: Race-Consciousness and the Failed Promise of Merit” Arizona State Law Review 56:1075-1131 (with Lihi Yona, 2024)
- “Redefining Ability, Saving Educational Meritocracy?” of Ethics 27: 263-283 (2023)
- “Ability Segregation” Tulane Law Review 97:205 (2023).
- “Ability and Ability Grouping” in: Handbook for The Philosophy of Education (ed. Randell Curren, Routledge) (2022).
- “Democratic Equality and Higher Education: Moving from Access to Completion”, (with Sigal Ben-Porath and Dustin Webster) Journal of Social Philosophy (2022).
- “Employment and Education, an agenda for future research”, in: A Research Agenda for Social Welfare Law, Policy and Practice (with Amir Paz-Fuchs) ( Michael Adler, Elgar) 2022).
- “Algorithmic Parenting” (with Eldar Haber), Fordham Intellectual Property, Media & Entertainment Law Journal (2021).
- “Higher Education: Too Much of a (Potentially) Good Thing?” (with Omer Kimhi), Wake Forest Law Review (2019).
- “Separate but Equal Reconsidered: Religious Education and Gender Separation” (with Amir Paz-Fuchs) Human Rights Law Review (2019).
- “For God’s Sake, Don’t Segregate! Two Kinds of Religious Schools and Equality in Education“, Studies in Law, Politics and Society (2019).
- “Privatization of Education in Israel,” in: The Privatization of Israel (eds. Galnoor, Mandelkern, and Paz-Fuchs, Springer 2018).
- “Big Data and Educational Justice” Theory and Research in Education (2017).
- “Reshaping Ability Grouping Through Big Data” (with Yoni Har Carmel), Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law (2017).
- “Religious Justification, Elitist Outcome: Are Religious Schools Being Used to Avoid Integration?” (with Eyal Berger) Journal of Education Policy (2018)
- “Positional Goods and the Size of Inequality“, Journal of Political Philosophy (2017).
- “Race Class and Religion: Creaming and Cropping in Religious Charter Schools“, Columbia Journal of Race and Law7: (2016)
- “Equality in Educational Outcome: Why We Must Go All the Way”, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice (2016)
- “Distributive Justice in Education and Conflicting Interests: Not (Remotely) As Bad As You Think”, Journal of Philosophy of Education (2015)
Publications in Hebrew
- “Should Public Schools in Israel be Allowed to Charge Payment from Parents,” Law & Government (Mishpat U’Mimshal) (2022).
- Close-by and Separate: On the segregation of refugees in school: following Brown v. Tel Aviv (with Shahar Yinnone) Icon-s-IL-Blog (2022).
- Regulating the Legal Clinical Education in Israel (with Ruthy Lowenstein Lazar & Yael Efron) Regulation Studies (2022).
- The Private School is Dead, Long Live Privatization (with Haran Reichman), Hukim (2022).
Education
- Post-doctoral fellow, Columbia University Law School (2015).
- Post-doctoral Tikvah fellow, NYU School of Law (2014); David Berg fellow (2014).
- L.L.D, The Faculty of Law, Hebrew University, Jerusalem (2013).
- L.L.B (summa cum laude), The Faculty of Law, University of Haifa, (2003).
Research Areas
- Political Philosophy
- Distributive Justice
- Philosophy of Education
- Education Law
- Equality
- Law and Philosophy
Additional Info
Grants, Prizes and Fellowships
- Israel Science Foundation grants (ISF) 2019-2022; 2024-2028
- The Ettie and Dusty Miller Prize for outstanding junior researchers, 2019
- German Israel Foundation (GIF) grant 2018
- Chosen to participate in Israel’s 2017 Junior Law Faculty Workshop, 2017
- The Center for Ethics and Education Grant, 2016
- The Tikvah Foundation Fellowship
- The Fulbright-Rabin Award, 2014
- The Alan Bronfman prize for best PHD dissertation.
- The Birk Award for Distinguished Young Scholar of Law, 2013
- The Harry and Sylvia Hoffman Leadership Program Fellowship 2011-2013
- The Sarah Wolf Award, Hebrew University, 2012
- Kretzmer Human Rights Fellowship, The Minerva Center for Human Rights, 2011
- Research Fellow, the Faculty of Law, Hebrew University 2009-2011
- The Switzerland-Israel Philosophy Fund Scholarship, 2009
