Yael Machtinger is a PhD Candidate in Socio-Legal Studies, at York University, Canada. She has been awarded an Ontario Graduate Scholarship twice, and most recently has been funded by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Fellowship, and the Religion and Diversity Project Fellowship. Yael’s Doctorate exploring religion and law, examines get refusal in Toronto and New York, relying on socio-legal literatures dealing with religion, identity and culture, as well as gender and storytelling. Yael’s research gives women’s narratives centre stage for the first time and unearths a number of interesting findings. Yael’s most recent publication, “Socio-Legal Gendered Remedies to Get refusal: Top-Down, Bottom-Up” in "Women’s Rights and Religious Law", was published by Routledge in 2016 and she has a forthcoming contribution on gender, religion, and domestic violence in an edited collection with Brill Press, “When Prayers are Not Enough: Religion, Gender and Family Violence” coming out in 2017. Yael has won the President’s University-Wide Teaching Award and the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in the Law and Society Program, having taught both core courses and seminars. She has also presented papers at numerous academic conferences, community panels, and guest lectured on a variety of subjects internationally. Yael also directs the “By Women For Women Speaker Series” at BAYT, the largest Orthodox synagogue in Canada and Yael was recognized as one of “24 Jews Changing the World” by Canadian Jewish News.