Meet our Team

Our work is driven by a group of curious, motivated researchers who bring the lab’s ideas to life.

Lab Director

Jonathan Cohen

The founder and director of the NarraX lab and a Professor of Communication at the University of Haifa

Jonathan Cohen explores communication and media for over 30 years. His research covers the following broad topics:

Identification with media characters
Narrative effects and narrative persuasion
Parasocial relationships and breakups
Narrative thinking and over-interpretation

Jonathan completed his B.A. in Sociology at the University of Haifa before earning his M.A. and Ph.D. at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California. Since returning to Haifa in 1995, he has been a leading figure in media psychology and narrative research. Over the past three decades, Jonathan has held visiting positions at the University of New Hampshire, The Ohio State University, and Temple University, gaining experience with diverse research cultures and lab models.

Jonathan is also a member of the editorial boards of three scientific journals: Annals of the International Communication Association, Communication Methods and Measures, and Media Psychology. In addition, he serves as an ad hoc reviewer for numerous journals across the fields of communication, psychology, and media research.

His work has been recognized through multiple competitive grants from the Israel Science Foundation and top paper awards from the International Communication Association and the National Communication Association. In 2001 he was elected as a fellow of the International Communication Association

For full CV click here.

Team members

Research Assistant

Linoy Reter

M.A. student in the Department of Communications at the University of Haifa

Linoy Reter has been a Research Assistant to Prof. Jonathan Cohen since 2023, working on projects related to narrative thinking and persuasion. Her academic interests focus on media effects, narrative persuasion, and the psychological processes that shape how people engage with the media.

In addition to her work at NarraX, she assists at the Research lab on Digital Content, has experience as a teaching assistant in the Introduction to Mass Communication course, and works as an editor for "Rega News" website.

Linoy brings strong analytical skills and a growing expertise in narrative research. She contributes to methodological development and project coordination within the lab.

Research Assistant

Roni Siani

B.A. student in the Department of Communications and Political Science at the University of Haifa

Roni Siani joined NarraX after taking a course with Prof. Jonathan Cohen. Her main work in the lab focuses on the life-story research project, where she is involved in designing and running experiments with students. She previously conducted a literature review on the crisis of democracy as part of a new narrative persuasion grant proposal. This topic allowed her to combine her two academic interests: communication and political science.

In addition to her work in the lab, Roni is working for the “Rega News” website.

Roni is especially drawn to the study of life stories because of its relevance to everyday experience. Beyond narratives and persuasion, she is interested in collective memory, social psychology, and both national and global politics.

Research Assistant

Linn Shapira

B.A. student in the Departments of Communication and Political Science at the University of Haifa

Linn joined the NarraX lab after receiving an invitation from Prof. Jonathan Cohen to take part in a narrative persuasion experiment. She is currently involved in ongoing lab projects, and her academic interests lie in social psychology and narrative persuasion.

In addition to her work in the lab, Linn is set to begin working as a Teaching Assistant in the Social Psychology course on campus next semester. She hopes to continue combining her interests in narratives, social psychology, and political science throughout her studies.

Research Assistant

Anna Zaporozhskaia

An international student in the Department of Communication at the University of Haifa

Anna joined the NarraX Lab after reaching out to Prof. Jonathan Cohen. She is interested in mass communications, the development of narrative skills, and the evolving relationship between audiences and media.

Her background includes a B.A. and M.A. at Lomonosov Moscow State University, where she specialized in discourse and languages studies, and a work experience in PR. After relocating to Israel, she decided to connect her academic interests with narrative research.

Former team members

Graduate Researcher

Liran Peretz

A PhD student in Communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst

Liran Peretz is a PhD student in Communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She holds a BA in Communication Studies and Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies and an MA in Communication Studies, both from the University of Haifa, where she graduated summa cum laude. Her MA thesis, Conservative Feminism and Pseudo-Feminist Conservatism: Analyzing Public Discourse about Abortion in 21st Century Israel, was supervised by Dr. Oren Livio.

Liran began working with Prof. Cohen during her Master’s studies while also working as his Teaching Assistant. Her research focuses on language and social interaction, particularly how people use language to construct and maintain power relations within Israeli society. She has presented her studies at local and global conferences (US and Europe) and is currently studying mundane interaction in English-language TikTok videos, as well as being a member of the Amherst Language and Social Interaction Working Group.

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