Elastic Empire tells the story of how aid is also war, which I examine through an ethnographic accounting of how the embedding of US counterterrorism laws and infrastructures into civilian aid flows to the West Bank and Gaza Strip has multiplied the si..
Lisa Bhungalia
Lisa Bhungalia is an Assistant Professor of Geography and International Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Their first book, Elastic Empire: Refashioning War through Aid in Palestine, published by Stanford University Press in 2024, examines the entanglements of aid, law, and war in Palestine with attention to the surveillance and policing regimes produced through the embedding of counterterrorism laws and infrastructures into civilian aid flows. They are the recipient of the Middle East Studies Association 2024 Albert Hourani Book Award, the Middle East Monitor 2024 Palestine Academic Book Award, and the American Association of Geographers 2025 Glenda Laws Award. Their other published work has appeared in Politics and Space, Political Geography, Geopolitics, Small Wars & Insurgencies, Society and Space, Environment and Planning A, and Middle East Report, among other venues.