Shirly Bahar's writing explores the relationships between representation, politics, and the body. Bahar's first book is Documentary Cinema in Israel-Palestine: Performance, the Body, the Home (Bloomsbury/IB Tauris, 2021), and she has published articles about film, performance art, literature, gender and queer representation from Israel/Palestine, Turkey, and the US. Since 2013, she has curated exhibitions, public programs, and community events in New York City and across the US. Bahar teaches at Columbia University's School of Visual Arts and organizes with Jewish Voice for Peace's BIJOCSM Network.

Programming