Hadas Zahavi

Hadas Zahavi is the Founding Director of Columbia University Global Center for Peace Innovation (https://peacecenter.french.columbia.edu), where she leads an interdisciplinary lab, pedagogical hub, and contemporary art gallery. Positioned at the intersection of peace studies, contemporary Francophone literature, and media theory, her research examines how the modern image of peace is shaped within nations that define themselves as “peaceful” while being deeply entangled in war; through the arms trade, military interventions, inherited trauma, and militarized pollution, and how contemporary literature respond to these realities by creating new forms of witnessing and resistance. This work culminates in her forthcoming book Comment témoigner d’une guerre qu’on n’a pas vécue (Hermann, 2025), developed from her doctoral research at Sorbonne Nouvelle–THALIM–CNRS–TAU and her Fulbright postdoctoral fellowship at Princeton University, with related articles published in journals such as Oxford French Studies, Genre, and Memory, Mind & Media (Cambridge University Press).

Key Publications 

"Comment témoigner d’une guerre que l’on n’a pas vécue ?", Hermann, 2025.

“The Michelin Guides to the Battlefields of the First World War: The Destruction of War as a Tourist Attraction”, French Studies (Oxford Academic), Vol. 76, No. 2, 2022. 

“Peace in Every Shot: How Kodak Changed the Way We See War”, Memory, Mind & Media (Cambridge University Press), 2025. 

“Peace: An Extreme Situation?”, Genre (California State University), Vol. 40, 2024.

“Toward a Literary Genre of 'Neither Peace nor War’”, European Journal of Life Writing, Vol. 11, 2022.

“Pourquoi la guerre semble-t-elle si amusante dans notre album familial ?”, Mémoires en Jeu, No. 21, 2024.

“Le Front de la Première Guerre Mondiale Comme Parc d'Attraction Touristique”, Mémoires en Jeu, Vol. 18, 2024.

“Le Témoin Amnésique”, in Culture de la Mémoire et Poétique de l’Oubli (L’Harmattan), 2025.