Call for Proposals - Global Carceral States: Violence, Transgressions and Technologies of Imprisonment

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
Feb 4, 2021
Call for Proposals - Global Carceral States: Violence, Transgressions and Technologies of Imprisonment

Call for Proposals - Global Carceral States: Violence, Transgressions and Technologies of Imprisonment

By : Jadaliyya Reports

[The following is a call for proposals for a conference titled "Global Carceral States: Violence, Transgressions, and Technologies of Imprisonment" set to take place virtually on 28 and 29 May 2021. Scroll down to read the call in Arabic. Click here to submit a proposal.]

Prisons are a central feature of the lives of millions around the world, and many people are dealing with memories and traumas related to their own imprisonment and/or that of members of their families or communities. Imprisonment remains a central tactic for managing and confining members of populations deemed to be risky, hostile, or superfluous. Techniques of imprisonment are constantly developed, modified and shared, and incarcerated populations continue to be at the receiving end of ever-changing modes of torture and violence. Carcerality, however, is not restricted to the confines of prisons and carceral realities are lived through -amongst others- technologies of surveillance, the erection of bonders and walls, and the ramifications of wars.

Carceralized populations, on the other hand, continue to respond in a multitude of ways to the punitive powers exercised upon them by ruling regimes. Prisoners have long engaged in tactics of resistance, including hunger strikes, inventive and clandestine means of organization, forming communities of solidarity in struggle, engaging in pedagogical knowledge, and through literary and artistic productions. 

We are organizing this conference to reflect upon the current globalized reality, and on imprisonment as one tactic of control, subjugation and dispossession. The conference is also an opportunity to engage with the wide range of resistance tactics and transgressions that prisoners devise against state policies and incarcerating regimes. The topics for proposal are open, with the following suggested themes: modes of violence and torture behind bars; the transnational sharing of carceral practices; sociological aspects of confinement; strategies of resistance; prison literature; political economy of prisons; abolitionist discourses; racial capitalism; global solidarity and carceral landscapes.

We are inviting contributions from scholars, activists and community members and look forward to having this space of discussion across borders between May 28-29, 2021. Paper proposals (in English, Spanish or Arabic) should be submitted by March 8, 2021 by clicking here. Proposals should include a 250-word abstract, and 100-word bio of presenters.  Papers to be sent by May 10, 2021.

This conference is co-sponsored by the Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies at UCSB and Muwatin Institute for Democracy at Birzeit University. For more information, please contact one of the organizers (below):   

Basil Farraj: bafarraj@birzeit.edu   

Alejandro Prado: Alejandro_prado@ucsb.edu

Leila Zonouzi:  zonouzi@ucsb.edu

 

يعقد المؤتمر في الفضاء الافتراضي، ويتعاون في تنظيمه مركز أورفاليا للدراسات العالمية والدولية في جامعة كاليفورنيا – سانتا باربرا (UCSB) في الولايات المتحدة، ومعهد مواطن للديمقراطية وحقوق الانسان في جامعة بيرزيت، فلسطين. 

يُدار "الأمن" "والتهديدات" "والجريمة" في عالم اليوم على أنه ضرورة لتسيير الدولة الحديثة، وتُسَخر مجموعةٌ من تقنيات وتكنولوجيا السيطرة وتُطور باستمرار من أجل هذا الغرض. فبينما كان الأمن والسيطرة حكراً على الدولة أصبحت الآن بمتناول أطرافٍ متعددةٍ، بما فيها منظمات وجماعات غير حكومية، وشركات خاصة وصناعات التكنولوجيا. ورغم ذلك يبقى السجن تكتيكا مركزيا لضبط وإدارة جماعاتٍ معينةٍ باعتبارها خطرة أو معادية أو زائدة عن الوجود. وبالفعل، يلمح نيلسون مانديلا عن ذلك الواقع في سيرته الذاتية، فيقول إن "السجن نقطة ثابتة في عالمٍ متحرك" (٢٠٠٨، ٢٧٥). يشكل السجن سمة مركزية في حيوات الملايين حول العالم، وما زال العديدون/العديدات يعانون من الذكريات والصدمات المتعلقة باعتقالاتهم/ن و/أو اعتقالات أفراد عائلاتهم/ن و/أو الاعتقالات في مجتمعاتهم/ن. 

لطالما رافق التعذيب والعنف خارج إطار القانون الممارسات "القانونية" وعززها ضمن المشروع الاعتقالي، ولطالما تبادلت الدول التكنولوجيا والمعرفة الاعتقالية والضبط والاستغلال عبر الحدود، حتى قبل ظهور ما يعرف بـ"الحرب على الإرهاب". وصممت أنماط العنف في التحقيق، والتي تسمى مجازاً بالضغط النفسي المعتدل وأساليب الاستجواب المعزز، لإضفاء طابع قانوني للعنف واستدامته، وإضفاء الشرعية عليه. لقد كثفت تداعيات الحرب على الإرهاب من سطوة الواقع الاعتقالي حول العالم، مما سمح للأنظمة السجنيّة ابتكار وسائل دائمة التجدد لتعزيز خضوع المعتقلين وسلبهم/ن حقوقهم/ن الأساسية.

واجهت الجماعات الخاضعة للاعتقال الإجراءات العقابية التي تمارسها الأنظمة الحاكمة بوسائل شتى، فخاض الأسرى أساليب مقاومة مختلفة مثل خوض الإضرابات عن الطعام، وتشكيل التنظيمات السرية، وإيجاد قنوات تواصل خارج أسوار السجن، وبناء حركات تضامن ثورية، والخوض في التعليم التحرري. وتغني الانتاجات الفنية والأدبية للأسرى مداركنا حول وقائع السجن والاعتقال. وكما تنوه أفري جوردون، تشكل هذه المعرفة منهجية راديكالية عن الاعتقال تكشف لنا ماهية العيش فيما يسمى مساحات الموت، والانتزاع والحرمان من الحقوق (٢٠٠٨، ٦٥٤).

يستقبل المؤتمر مساهمات في تحليل الواقع المادي للسجون وحيثيات المكان والزمان للتجربة الاعتقالية. وتعرض لاستخدام الحدود والجدران والحواجز باستمرار لإدارة الشعوب وتقييدها في مساحات محددة، ولمساهمة تكنولوجيا المراقبة في تتبع حركة الشعوب للوقاية من التهديدات التي قد تمثلها على الأنظمة المهيمنة، وهذا ما يوسع مداركنا تجاه مفهوم الضبط الاعتقالي وما يمكن أن ينتج عنه وطرق مواجهته. لقد حصرت الحرب المعاصرة، بشكلها التقليدي والعشوائي، الشعوب في مساحات محددة وداخل المراكز الاعتقالية، كما وحدّت حركة الشعوب بشكل كبير، وكثفت تقنيات ومنطق المراقبة. وبات المنطق الاعتقالي لا يخدم فقط الاعتقال ومعاقبة الأشخاص الخطيرين، بل أيضاً يستخدم لهندسة السكان اجتماعياً، وسحق أي معارضة. وبذلك لا يشمل المفهوم الاعتقالي فقط الأسرى والسجناء، بل أيضاً ضبط المجتمعات.

تستقبل لجنة المؤتمر الأوراق التي تتأمل في الواقع الاعتقالي المعولم، وتلك التي تدرس الاعتقال كأحد أساليب الضبط والإخضاع والانتزاع. يأمل المنظمون أن يشكل المؤتمر فرصة للباحثين/ات للمساهمة في فهم السجون والتعذيب والعنف والقوة والأمننة وقضايا أخرى ذات علاقة. كما ويدعو الباحثين/ات إلى الاشتباك مع وسائل المقاومة التي يخوضها الأسرى عالمياً ضد سياسات الدول والأنظمة السجنيّة. وبينما بالإمكان اقتراح أي موضوع يتناول الاعتقال ومقاومته، نطرح المواضيع التالية:

- أساليب العنف والتعذيب داخل السجون.

- عولمة أساليب الاعتقال وتشاركها عبر الحدود.

- الحياة في الأسر وبعده: الجانب السوسيولوجي للأسر.

- استراتيجيات المقاومة داخل السجون.

- قصص الأسرى وانتاجاتهم/ن الأدبية الثقافية.

- الاقتصاد السياسي للسجون وللأنماط الاعتقالية الأخرى.

- الخطابات التحررية وحركات تفكيك السجون ومواجهة عنف الدولة.

- المنظور الزمني والمشهدي للاعتقال.

- النوع الاجتماعي والجنسانية والأنظمة السجنيّة.

- الرأسمالية العرقية، والإرث الكولونيالي، وشبكات التضامن العالمية. 

تقديم الأوراق


ترسل ملخصات الأوراق أو المداخلات، في حدود ٢٥٠ كلمة، ونبذة تعريف، إلى العناوين أدناه في موعد أقصاه ٨ أذار ٢٠٢١. وسيطلب ممن تقبل مساهماتهم/ن تسليم الأوراق الكاملة في موعد أقصاه ١٠ أيار ٢٠٢١.

Bafarraj@birzeit.edu

Muwatin@birzeit.edu

اللغة


نستقبل الأوراق باللغة العربية أو الإنجليزية أو الاسبانية ويوفر المؤتمر ترجمة فورية.

للمزيد من المعلومات، الرجاء التواصل مع العناوين التالية،

باسل فراج، معهد مواطن: Bafarraj@birzeit.edu

معهد مواطن: mwatin@birzeit.edu

اليخاندرو برادو، جامعة كاليفورنيا في سانتا باربارا: Alejandro_prado@ucsb.edu

ليلى زونوزي، جامعة كاليفورنيا في سانتا باربارا: zonouzi@ucsb.edu
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