Live with ASI: Episode 2.3 Digest – September 2021

New Article Submission

Thank you for your interest in Jadaliyya. We welcome all submissions. The most significant requirement is for Jadaliyya submissions to be analytically compelling and offer a perspective or argument that has not been covered at length either on Jadaliyya or elsewhere. Because of the volume of submissions, well-written pieces are prioritized. Length is flexible, 1000 to 2500 words is the average range. However, we will accept longer pieces. Once submitted, several members of the editorial committee will review your piece and one of them will inform you of the decision.
Author Details
Article Details
Select Countries
Select Keywords
Select Topics
Only RTF, Word, and Pages documents accepted.

Recommended image size: 762x800 px

Location of each image should be indicated in the text of the article via a square bracket caption that includes: (1) a description of the image; (2) the photographer/designer and source of the image. Please note we only use images you as the author have the right to use, which usually means those of your own creation or those published under Creative Commons. Alternatively, you need specific permission from the copyright holder.
Please read the Release Form and provide an electronic signature [your full name] below to confirm that you accept its terms
Required
Hyperlink words in your article if they refer to links on the internet. We encourage more, rather than less, links (try to avoid footnotes—embed them as hyperlinks if possible)

Article added successfully.

Pages Menu BETA
Sep 13, 2021
Live with ASI: Episode 2.3 Digest – September 2021

Live with ASI: Episode 2.3 Digest – September 2021

By : Arab Studies Institute

Live with ASI is a monthly broadcast program that showcases recently published content from the Arab Studies Institute’s various branches. This content includes articles, reviews, pedagogical resources, podcasts, and more. Also featured in the broadcast are brand new interviews and discussions with authors and contributors

This month’s episode of Live with ASI covered two months of knowledge production within ASI, its various branches and partners. In Episode 2.3, co-hosts Bassam Haddad and MK Smith discussed pedagogy, highlighted a number of engaging podcasts and interviews, spoke with a number of ASI’s close partners, and announced a new podcast by the Knowledge Production Project.

This episode featured exclusive live interviews with an exciting set of scholars, including Zahra Babar, Lisa Wedeen, Benon Sevon, Carly A. Krakow, Huma Gupta, Mouin Rabbani, Rochelle Davis, Mouin Rabbani, Peter Mandaville, Amaney Jamal, and Adel Iskandar.

Ten Years On Project: Recap and Looking Forward (4:07)



Zahra Babar, Associate Director for Research at Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS) at Georgetown University in Qatar, joins the show live from across the globe.


We are now nine months into the collaborative year-long project, Ten Years On: Mass Protests and Uprisings in the Arab World. The Ten Years On project brings together seventeen of our partners to produce resources for educators, researchers, students, and journalists to more critically understand the Arab Uprisings, and their various dimensions, over the past decade.

The project has put on over twelve panels and events, with discussions ranging from regional dynamics, Islamism, gender, art, and media. The next Ten Years On signature Event “Activism in Exile: Diasporic Communities in the Wake of the Arab Uprisings,” will be held on September 30th, and is co-organized by the Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS) at Georgetown University in Qatar. Associate Director of CIRS, Zahra Babar, joined the show live to speak about the upcoming panel.

Lisa Wedeen speaks about the intellectual contributions of the Ten Years On project thus far, including its consideration of how to revamp approaches to knowledge production and creative thinking.


Lisa Wedeen, Mary R. Morton Professor of Political Science and the College and Co-Director of the Chicago Center for Contemporary Theory at the University of Chicago, also joined the show live to discuss the contributions of the Ten Years On project. Among her reflections on the importance of the project, Wedeen pointed to the ongoing debate around marking the ten-year anniversary in ways that remain true to the ongoing struggle and profound disappointments of the Arab Uprisings.

Afghanistan (18:45)


Benon Sevon reflects on the potential regional implications of the American withdrawal from Afghanistan. 


Last month, Jadaliyya Co-Editor Mouin Rabbani spoke with former United Nations Under-Secretary-General Benon Sevan, who served as UNenvoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan from 1988–1992, about current developments in Afghanistan. During the podcast episode, Rabbani and Sevon examined the withdrawal of US and NATO forces from Afghanistan and the collapse of the government in Kabul, as well as how it compares with the Soviet withdrawal in 1989 and its aftermath. Sevon joined LWA Episode 2.3 live to discuss these issues further. [13] 

The Catch-Up with Carly (25:53)


Carly A. Krakow joined live for her monthly current affairs segment, The Catch-Up. 


Carly A. Krakow spoke with Bassam and MK to share updates from two recent broadcast interviews she conducted that aired over the summer. The first was with Afrah Nasser, Independent Press Freedom Award-winning journalist and Human Rights Watch Yemen Researcher. The second was with Palestinian filmmaker Hind Shoufani, co-writer and editor for Oscar-nominated and BAFTA-winning Palestinian film “The Present.”

Both are available to watch now through the links below!

Environment in Context (29:37)


LWA Producer Mohammad Abou-Ghazala spoke with Huma Gupta for an inside look at the key takeaways from the new special episode of the Environment in Context podcast.


In August, the Environment in Context podcast series held a special episode, titled “Red, Green, and International: Abolition Geographies and Environmental Movements.” In the podcast episode, host Huma Gupta and China Sajadian, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the CUNY Graduate Center, discussed abolition geographies and environmental movements with renowned geographer and activist Ruth Wilson Gilmore, who teaches in Earth and Environmental Sciences, and directs the Center for Place, Culture, and Politics, at the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center.

Connections Podcast (35:46) 


Jadaliyya Co-Editor Mouin Rabbani shared some of the recent highlights for his podcast, Connections.


Over the last year, Jadaliyya Co-Editor Mouin Rabbani has excelled at a new endeavor: podcasting. Connections offers timely and informative interviews on current events and broader policy questions related to the Middle East. The audiovisual podcast combines journalism, analysis, and scholarship. With thirteen fascinating episodes out now, each featuring thought provoking conversations with key players in the latest policy and knowledge production conversations. Mouin Rabbani joined the show to discuss highlights from the six Connections episodes published over the past two months.

Pedagogy (38:34)


The Middle East Studies Pedagogy Initiative (MESPI) recently released two “Essential Readings” (ERs). To create ERs, MESPI invites scholars to submit foundational and diverse reading lists on topics pertinent to their research. This summer Sardar Saadi put together an ER on the Left in Kurdistan, and Rochelle Davis published a list on Refugees and Forced Displacements.[22]  

In collaboration with the Ten Years On Project, MESPI also released the first of three bouquets covering academic articles on various aspects of the Arab uprisings. The first bouquet in the series, “Cultural Production during the Arab Uprisings in Peer-Reviewed Articles (2010-2020),” highlights articles related to cultural production in the context of the Arab uprisings. It also includes a subsection relating to cultural production prior to, and, following the Arab uprisings.

Partners Feature (39:25)


So much of what ASI produces depends upon our incredible partners throughout the world. In this episode of LWA, co-host Bassam and MK highlighted three of these partnerships: Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, George Mason University’s Center for Global Islamic Studies, and Princeton’s Arab Barometer.

Dr. Rochelle Davis from Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS) joined the show live to discuss the history and mutual benefits of the CCAS-ASI working relationship, including the founding of the Arab Studies Journal.

  • Click here to learn more about the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies

Peter Mandaville, Director of Ali Vural Ak Center for Global Islamic Studies at George Mason University, discusses the center’s partnership with MESPI to create “The Islam Module,” which is an innovative pedagogical tool to help instructure engage with productive questions related to Islam. 

  • Click here to learn more about the Ali Vural Ak Center for Global Islamic Studies

Dean Amaney Jamal of Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs, who is the Co-Founder and Co-Principal Investigator at the Arab Barometer, talks about the power of pulling together collective networks in order to create the Ten Years On project.

Announcement: KPP Podcast – Search Files (54:04) 


A new podcast series from the Knowledge Production Project was announced.


Search Files covers trends in knowledge production and pedagogy in the Middle East and North Africa based on a constantly evolving dataset and pedagogic research.

The KPP and Middle East Studies Pedagogy Initiative (MESPI) teams of ASI will converse with data visualization and MENAexperts, as well as educators and faculty from industry and academia. The podcast will also interview faculty as well as people behind the sceneswho gather the records that make it possible to critically analyze trends in knowledge production.

Be sure to tune in next month to hear about the first episode!

Pressing Matter (55:59)


Adel Iskandar discusses the upcoming episode of the media-focused Pressing Matter podcast, which he co-hosts with Malihe Razazan. The episode takes a cue from the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and looks at post-9/11 warmongering in the media. 

NEWTONS (1:01:39) 


James L. Gelvin published an edited book titled, The Contemporary Middle East in an Age of Upheaval with Stanford University Press. The book addresses what has been called the “New Middle East,” which the American invasion and occupation of Iraq and the Arab uprisings of 2010-11 ushered in, and places contemporary events in the context of broader historical trends.

Laura Robson’s new book from Oxford University Press titled, “The Politics of Mass Violence in the Middle East” looks at how mass violence became a constitutive element of the state and political authority in the “Mashriq” over the course of the 20th Century. 

Here are some of the other New Texts Out Now:

Grad Student Corner (1:03:13)


Cat Haseman highlights content produced over the summer with a special focus on considering what is most pertinent and interesting to graduate students.
 

In this session of the Grad Student Corner, Cat pointed students to Jadaliyya’s Maghreb Page. Over the past two months, the page has published several pieces in English and in French related to the political events unfolding in Tunisia since July 25. Cat highlighted Ouiem Chettaoui’s recent article “Tunisia: Western Pundits or “Hot-Take” Arsonists,” who challenges the reader to think about how hasty opinions and policy prescriptions promoted on the internet, especially by non-Tunisian, Western-based pundits, can influence narratives and outcomes. 

Must-Reads (1:05:40)

This month’s episode of Live with ASI ended with a look at two must-read articles from Jadaliyya. 

Jadaliyya Co-Editor Mouin Rabbani interviewed Hiba Zayadin, Gulf researcher at Human Rights Watch, to get a better understanding of the controversial treatment of the migrant laborers in Qatar tasked with constructing facilities for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

July marked the fiftieth anniversary of the communist massacres in Sudan. A piece published over the summer titled “Prison Memories: Sudanese Communists and the Aftermath of July 1971 in Kober” by Shahenda Suliman, recognizes the Kober colonial prison as a site of political practice and inquiry. Its walls, Suliman writes, tell the stories of Sudanese nationalism, anti-colonialism, marxism, and political Islam.

"Reflections on the State of Democracy in Iran after the 2021 Elections: An Elegy for the Voting Non-Voter" by Shervin Malekzadeh looks at the protesting non-voters in Iran and inquires into whether Iran’s newly empowered hardliners will pursue a new social contract between state and society.

  • ALSO BY THIS AUTHOR

    • Live with ASI: Episode 2.5 Digest — November 2021

      Live with ASI: Episode 2.5 Digest — November 2021

      We are very happy to share with everyone that this month marks Jadaliyya’s 11th birthday! Over the last 11 years, Jadaliyya has grown tremendously in ways we truly could never have imagined. Stay on the lookout for an 11th anniversary post on Jadaliyya that will highlight a year of knowledge production and celebrate the many activists, journalists, and scholars who have collaborated and published scholarship over the past year

    • Live with ASI: Episode 2.4 Digest — October 2021

      Live with ASI: Episode 2.4 Digest — October 2021

      Live with ASI is a monthly broadcast program that showcases recently published content from the Arab Studies Institute’s various branches. This content includes articles, reviews, pedagogical resources, podcasts, and more. Also featured in the broadcast are brand new interviews and discussions with authors and contributors.

    • Live with ASI: Episode 2.2 Digest – July 2021

      Live with ASI: Episode 2.2 Digest – July 2021

      Live with ASI is a monthly broadcast program that showcases recently published content from the Arab Studies Institute’s various branches. This content includes articles, reviews, pedagogical resources, podcasts, and more. Also featured in the broadcast are brand new interviews and discussions with authors and contributors.
Feb 16, 2011 Lebanon
Jadaliyya Reports By :
Jadaliyya Reports

Past is Present: Settler Colonialism Matters!

On 5-6 March 2011, the Palestine Society at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London will hold its seventh annual conference, "Past is Present: Settler Colonialism in Palestine." This year`s conference aims to understand Zionism as a settler colonial project which has, for more than a century, subjected Palestine and Palestinians to a structural and violent form of destruction, dispossession, land appropriation and erasure in the pursuit of a new Jewish Israeli society. By organizing this conference, we hope to reclaim and revive the settler colonial paradigm and to outline its potential to inform and guide political strategy and mobilization.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is often described as unique and exceptional with little resemblance to other historical or ongoing colonial conflicts. Yet, for Zionism, like other settler colonial projects such as the British colonization of Ireland or European settlement of North America, South Africa or Australia, the imperative is to control the land and its resources -- and to displace the original inhabitants. Indeed, as conference keynote speaker Patrick Wolfe, one of the foremost scholars on settler colonialism and professor at La Trobe University in Victoria, Australia, argues, "the logic of this project, a sustained institutional tendency to eliminate the Indigenous population, informs a range of historical practices that might otherwise appear distinct--invasion is a structure not an event."[i]

Therefore, the classification of the Zionist movement as a settler colonial project, and the Israeli state as its manifestation, is not merely intended as a statement on the historical origins of Israel, nor as a rhetorical or polemical device. Rather, the aim is to highlight Zionism`s structural continuities and the ideology which informs Israeli policies and practices in Palestine and toward Palestinians everywhere. Thus, the Nakba -- whether viewed as a spontaneous, violent episode in war, or the implementation of a preconceived master plan -- should be understood as both the precondition for the creation of Israel and the logical outcome of Zionist settlement in Palestine.

Moreover, it is this same logic that sustains the continuation of the Nakba today. As remarked by Benny Morris, “had he [David Ben Gurion] carried out full expulsion--rather than partial--he would have stabilised the State of Israel for generations.”[ii] Yet, plagued by an “instability”--defined by the very existence of the Palestinian nation--Israel continues its daily state practices in its quest to fulfill Zionism’s logic to maximize the amount of land under its control with the minimum number of Palestinians on it. These practices take a painful array of manifestations: aerial and maritime bombardment, massacre and invasion, house demolitions, land theft, identity card confiscation, racist laws and loyalty tests, the wall, the siege on Gaza, cultural appropriation, and the dependence on willing (or unwilling) native collaboration and security arrangements, all with the continued support and backing of imperial power. 

Despite these enduring practices however, the settler colonial paradigm has largely fallen into disuse. As a paradigm, it once served as a primary ideological and political framework for all Palestinian political factions and trends, and informed the intellectual work of committed academics and revolutionary scholars, both Palestinians and Jews.

The conference thus asks where and why the settler colonial paradigm was lost, both in scholarship on Palestine and in politics; how do current analyses and theoretical trends that have arisen in its place address present and historical realities? While acknowledging the creativity of these new interpretations, we must nonetheless ask: when exactly did Palestinian natives find themselves in a "post-colonial" condition? When did the ongoing struggle over land become a "post-conflict" situation? When did Israel become a "post-Zionist" society? And when did the fortification of Palestinian ghettos and reservations become "state-building"?

In outlining settler colonialism as a central paradigm from which to understand Palestine, this conference re-invigorates it as a tool by which to analyze the present situation. In doing so, it contests solutions which accommodate Zionism, and more significantly, builds settler colonialism as a political analysis that can embolden and inform a strategy of active, mutual, and principled Palestinian alignment with the Arab struggle for self-determination, and indigenous struggles in the US, Latin America, Oceania, and elsewhere.

Such an alignment would expand the tools available to Palestinians and their solidarity movement, and reconnect the struggle to its own history of anti-colonial internationalism. At its core, this internationalism asserts that the Palestinian struggle against Zionist settler colonialism can only be won when it is embedded within, and empowered by, the broader Arab movement for emancipation and the indigenous, anti-racist and anti-colonial movement--from Arizona to Auckland.

SOAS Palestine Society invites everyone to join us at what promises to be a significant intervention in Palestine activism and scholarship.

For over 30 years, SOAS Palestine Society has heightened awareness and understanding of the Palestinian people, their rights, culture, and struggle for self-determination, amongst students, faculty, staff, and the broader public. SOAS Palestine society aims to continuously push the frontiers of discourse in an effort to make provocative arguments and to stimulate debate and organizing for justice in Palestine through relevant conferences, and events ranging from the intellectual and political impact of Edward Said`s life and work (2004), international law and the Palestine question (2005), the economy of Palestine and its occupation (2006), the one state (2007), 60 Years of Nakba, 60 Years of Resistance (2009), and most recently, the Left in Palestine (2010).

For more information on the SOAS Palestine Society 7th annual conference, Past is Present: Settler Colonialism in Palestine: www.soaspalsoc.org

SOAS Palestine Society Organizing Collective is a group of committed students that has undertaken to organize annual academic conferences on Palestine since 2003.

 

[i] Patrick Wolfe, Settler Colonialism and the Transformation of Anthropology: The Politics and Poetics of an Ethnographic Event, Cassell, London, p. 163

[ii] Interview with Benny Morris, Survival of the Fittest, Haaretz, 9. January 2004, http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/php/art.php?aid=5412