Noa Lahav Ayalon
Research Interests: I specialize in Early Modern philosophy, particularly Spinoza, and explore the intersection between Early Modern philosophy and science to enrich contemporary interdisciplinary research. I also work on philosophy of emotions, religion and morality.
Reason for visit to Harvard: I am visiting Harvard as a post-doctoral fellow to continue my work on Spinoza and Early Modern science, as well as to benefit from and contribute to the Embedded EthiCS program.
I studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Boston University and earned my PhD at the University of Haifa with a dissertation on Spinoza's theory of love in 2021. Since, I have held a post-doctoral position in the Department of Humanities and Arts at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and taught at Tel Hai Academic College. I have experience teaching a variety of other topics in the history of philosophy and the relationship between philosophy and science.
I’m currently working on a book manuscript titled “Spinoza on Love and the Meaning of Life”, as well as a project on Spinoza's definition of life. My time at Harvard is supported by the Rothschild Fellowship for postdoctoral research. In addition to my research, I'm interested in community outreach and interdisciplinary collaboration, working in non-academic settings and in science labs.