Recently Hebrew University was pleased to welcome two inspiring women, both University alumnae, into its leadership: Prof. Mona Khoury was appointed Vice President of Strategy and Diversity, and Prof. Sara Cohen was named Dean of the Rachel and Selim Benin School of Computer Science and Engineering.
In 2016, only 18% of Hebrew University professors were women. Today the number stands at 22.8% – a slight improvement. We hope that Prof. Khoury and Prof. Cohen are harbingers of changes to come – increasing the representation of women at Hebrew University. Scopus sat down with them to ask about their path into academia, their research, and how they are leading Hebrew University into the future.
Before we start talking about the present and looking into the future, let’s talk about where it all began. Your decision to begin studying, and your choice to come to Hebrew University.
Prof. Mona Khoury: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem wasn’t an obvious choice for me. I knew I wanted to study. My parents, who didn’t have the opportunity to get a higher education, wanted me and my sister to go to university. I grew up in Wadi Nisnas, a disadvantaged neighborhood in Haifa. It really shaped my worldview. I wanted to work with people, to help people. I settled on social work. My parents preferred I stay close to home, but a relative who had studied at Hebrew University convinced them I’d be fine. Once I arrived in Jerusalem, I fell in love – with the campus, the students, the atmosphere. From the beginning, I knew I’d continue to a master’s degree, to increase my impact.
Prof. Sara Cohen: My interest in computers started early on, when I was in third grade and my father bought the family a computer. It was pretty early technology; personal computers hadn’t really taken off yet. I taught myself some programming. When it was time to choose a course of study, I enrolled in both mathematics and computer science at Hebrew University and participated in the Amirim Nature honors program. By the end of my first year, I had fallen in love with computer science and kept it as my only major. I was fortunate to be guided in my Amirim research project by Prof. Yehoshua (Shuky) Sagiv, who introduced me to the world of databases, which is still my focus today.
You both eventually decided to purse doctoral studies at Hebrew University. Can you share a bit about the people who guided you along the way?
SC: I originally had no thoughts of graduate studies, but Shuky was persuasive and convinced me to continue, and then to transfer to a direct PhD track. Shuky is a very caring person, a fatherly mentor for me. He truly believes in his students – as people, not only as researchers. I’d just given birth to my first child when I began my PhD studies and was worried about balancing research and family. He advised me to be fully present, whether at home or on campus, which was great advice – although not always easy in practice. Long before working from home was in style, Shuky helped and encouraged me to conduct my research wherever was more convenient for me.
Shuky also insisted that I travel to international conferences, to meet people and advance my career. He would cover the costs of flying out, presenting, and returning a day or so later, to make it easier for me and my growing family.
MK: Speaking of balancing an academic career and family life… I knew that a postdoctoral position abroad was necessary if I wished to obtain an academic appointment in Israel. I had secured Fulbright funding and a position in Chicago, but my husband couldn’t come for the entire year. I went alone, with our 11-month-old daughter. I put her in daycare. It wasn’t ideal, but I was at a critical point in my career.
Regarding guidance during my studies – back then, I didn’t fully understand what it meant to pursue an academic career. As a faculty member, and later, as the Dean of the Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare, I feel greatly responsible for directing and guiding my students from day one: mapping out their academic route, training them to write research proposals, instilling in them the skills to become top-notch researchers – with all that entails.
Let’s talk about your research. Could you explain your field to our readers?
MK: I got my academic start studying violence in schools – I adopted a new perspective in my doctoral studies, shifting the focus from the individual student to the larger context: the students’ characteristics, their neighborhood, the school climate, and family characteristics – exploring how these factors may simultaneously affect student behavior. My advisor, Prof. Rami Benbenishty, had just begun a project with Prof. Ron Astor (today at UCLA). It was exciting to be part of an entirely new field with a large sample size – 16,000 schoolchildren. To this day, I continue to study juvenile violence in a variety of contexts – schools, social networks (cyberbullying), and political violence.
SC: I study databases, which is essentially how we store, search, and extract data. My over-arching research goal is to make data access efficient, effective, and user-friendly. In particular, I am currently interested in diversity, fairness, and representativeness in querying. This is especially pertinent in the 21st century, the era of big data. The ability to identify sets of data items, within a huge set, in an unbiased manner, is crucial for enabling equitable use of this data later on.
This issue of Scopus focuses on leadership. Could you share the ways you are fostering the next generation of leaders at Hebrew University?
SC: Our main goal is to ensure that our students graduate with a deep understanding of the field of computer science and a top-notch skill set, so that they can become leaders in both academia and high-tech industries. As society increasingly outsources actions and decisions to machines, wider considerations come into play. True leaders must also understand how the algorithms they build affect the world at large. Recent real-life examples of discriminatory artificial intelligence are a case in point.
The Benin School of Computer Science and Engineering has an exciting undergraduate program called MATAR, Interfaces of Technology, Society, and Networks, in which students learn, among other topics, about the history and role of mass media, its impact, and ethical dilemmas. Our school also offers an undergraduate course in cyber law (taught by a retired judge), and a course on data revolutions from historical and social perspectives. I look forward to exploring additional ways to better equip our students to use technology to make the world a better place.
MK: It is so inspiring to hear that computer science students can take courses on the ethical, or human-centered aspects, of technology. Of course, caring for people and their well-being is the basis for social work.
My identity is multifaceted – I am an Arab, a woman, a mother, a researcher – and so much more. Of course, these identities intersect and affect each other. As Vice President of Strategy and Diversity, I am working to increase diversity – whether through subsidizing Arabic language classes, creating specific courses for fostering cooperation between students from different backgrounds, or celebrating Women’s Day by pairing up inspirational women from across the Hebrew University community, to get to know each other.
Thank you so much and best of luck in your new positions!