Based on contemporary studies of how sexual behaviours derive from metaphorical scripts learned and incorporated by individuals as a function of their involvement in the social group, Lahav-Raz presents pioneering research on Israel's sex industry clients. Her work uses the sexual script theory, which offers insights into how sexual behaviours of Israeli consumers turn into metaphorical scripts encompassing flexible masculinity that draws from both local and universal repertoires of manhood. Her research provides a novel cross-cultural discussion about how digital technologies shape the commercial sex industry in the 21st century and contributes an analytical perspective on the myriad ways in which masculinities are discursively constructed in everyday life. Using discourse analysis, online ethnography, and interviews, her research also contributes knowledge about how changes in the economic infrastructure of mass consumption have affected the values and attitudes of male consumer culture. For further info:  

https://doi.org/10.1080/17530350.2019.1646159 

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-019-09636-0 

https://doi.org/10.1177%2F13634607211013283 

The social exclusion of sex workers and the way they resist both state oppression and radical feminism oppression. For further info:  

https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2019.1642227 

https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-020-00476-4 

After receiving the prestigious Israeli Science Foundation (ISF) two years postdoctoral scholarship (Grant No.45/18), Dr Lahav-Raz is currently researching sex tourism in the Middle East. Using mixed-methods analysis (both quantitative and qualitative), her study explores the functioning of the international sex trade and its implementation in different Middle Eastern countries. This research project is a unique and groundbreaking contribution to studying the intersections between gender politics, global practices of migration, and liminal spaces.  

developing a critical perspective on the influence of EU and US politics on domestic anti-trafficking and sex work governance adopted (or forced upon) Middle Eastern countries. It provides theoretical, empirical, and practical policy-based insights into the rapid changes in global politics and a critical perspective on how a neocolonial mechanism may reinforce a Eurocentric and dichotomist framework. Therefore, it can shift the direction of public debate and policy in controversial areas such as sex work, sex trafficking, and international policies.  

COVID-19 Pandemic 

As a passionate advocate of cross-disciplinary collaborations, Dr Lahav-Raz is part of collaborative longitudinal research, funded by the Schusterman Foundation, of how the COVID-19 pandemic influences the work of sex-workers' aid organization Israel. 

https://doi.org/10.1037/ort0000602

Another research project Dr Lahav-Raz was involved in called "When migration meets isolation: conducting short-term ethnography during the COVID-19 pandemic". The project was conducted when Dr Lahav-Raz was sent to a mandatory 14 days of confinement at a hotel in Tel-Aviv after returning to Israel from two years of postdoctoral research at the University of Leicester, UK. During those 14 days, she conducted a short-term ethnography, combining interviews and visual materials to build a memory of this period and to understand why immigrants decided to come to Israel precisely during a period of a global pandemic; how do they experienced the pandemic at their place of birth and finally, how do they experience the hotel confinement. Through these 14 stories of confinement, she raises questions regarding the unique migratory phenomenon of Israeli society and its ways of dealing with the pandemic. Furthermore, the research discusses the ability to create digital archiving of the pandemic and critical questions regarding how to adapt the anthropological fieldwork method to the extreme era of the COVID-19 pandemic, which produces movement restrictions and prevents physical stay in the research field.  i.e., how can one conduct short-term ethnography in times of global crisis and restrictive conditions such as isolation? For furthere info: https://www.etnograph-quarantinedan.com/?lang=en