Annike Nicolaisen of Norway earned a BA in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Oslo. Her academic interests are security studies, gender and conflict, international relations of the Middle East and Iranian studies. She has a keen interest in security strategy and conflict in the Middle East, and with the support of the Wergeland and Holst scholarship she is able to deepen her knowledge by attending the course “Conflict Resolution from Theory to Practice: Israel as a Case Study.” In addition to her academic interests, she enjoys learning about people, cultures and languages, a passion that led her to spend three years traveling around the globe. Nicolaisen plans on continuing her studies and her objective is to pursue an MA in Security and Diplomacy Studies this coming fall.
Liat A. Albretsen of Norway just finished a BA in Religious Studies with a minor in Arabic with Middle Eastern studies. Since learning Modern Hebrew is not an option at any institution in Norway, she has done two Ulpans in Israel. Liat is starting her MA this autumn and wants to continue developing her Hebrew skills to be able do fieldwork for her future MA thesis. Liat has a special interest in Judaism, Zionism and Semitic languages – especially Judeo-Arabic and the Hebrew dialect of the Yemenite Jews. Thanks to the TTS scholarship she will attend a Modern Hebrew Ulpan. She hopes that by improving her Modern Hebrew she will be able to do linguistic fieldwork on first generation immigrants from Yemen.
Karen Ornat of Denmark will soon be finishing her BA in Middle Eastern Studies and Modern Hebrew at The University of Copenhagen. Karen is particularly interested in Israeli historiography, collective memory, and the history of Zionism. Thanks to the generosity of TTS, she will attend a Modern Hebrew Ulpan this summer. She hopes that by advancing her Modern Hebrew she will gain a better understanding of all aspects of the Israeli culture and society
Ellen Simmerlein of Sweden is a student teacher at Uppsala University. She hopes to teach in the Jewish school in Sweden. Many pupils with Hebrew as a native language attend the school and as Hebrew is an important part of Judaism, it is preferable to know some Hebrew for the job. At Uppsala University she has studied one semester of Biblical Hebrew and now seeks to improve her Modern Hebrew fluency. She expects to improve her Hebrew language skills during the Jerusalem Ulpan and is grateful for the opportunity given even though times are as they are with Covid-19 plaguing the world.