Fall 2024 Events
Past Events
War Making as World Making: Kenya, the United States, and the War on Terror
November 19, 12:30 p.m. 鈥 2:00 p.m. | Letts Hall Formal Lounge 100
A book talk with author Dr. Samar Al-Bulushi of University of California, Irvine, in conversation with Dr. Mariam Durrani and Dr. Zolt谩n Gl眉ck
Sponsored by the Department of Anthropology and Ethnographies of Empire
Lyd: Film Screening and Q&Awith directors Rami Younis and Sarah Ema Friedland
October 28
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The film Lyd (the Arabic name of Lod, a city now in Israel) is about a 5,000-year-old bustling Palestinian town that was taken over when Israel was established in 1948. An exploration of what it once was, and what it is now, in the context of the continuing conflicts and the war in Gaza, Lyd鈥檚 excavation of one community鈥檚 complex history offers us not only lessons, but possible futures. Made by a Palestinian from Lyd and a Jewish American, Lyd provides much-needed context for this moment, as it goes deep into the history of the city and its residents.
Film screening was followed by a moderated conversation with the film鈥檚 directors, Rami Younis and Sarah Ema Friedland.
Events Archive
Black Power and Palestine
with Dr. Michael Fischbach
February 22, 7:00 p.m.
BOL Bookstore, 1822 N. Capitol Street NW
Join us for a discussion with Dr. Michael Fischbach on the history of solidarity between Black Power and Palestinian liberation struggles.
Co-sponsored by the Antiracist Research and Policy Center.
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Deadly Refusals
Decolonization in Times of Counterterrorism
Dr. Serra Hakyemez, Assistant Professor, Anthropology & Global Studies, University of Minnesota
February 29, 1:00 p.m. 鈥 2:30 p.m. | Hamilton 104
Dr. Serra Hakyemez will present part of her forthcoming book, Deadly Refusals, which examines the enduring commitment of Kurdish prisoners to decolonization as an open-ended, unfixed political potential in counter-terror courts and maximum-security prisons. This work is based on archival and ethnographic research that stretched over ten years (2008-2018), during which Hakyemez followed the court trials of Kurdish prisoners, collected their fiction and non-fiction books, and conducted interviews with former political prisoners. Drawing on feminist, psychoanalytic, and political-legal theory, Hakyemez in this talk will explore what the "deadly refusals" of Kurdish prisoners look like in Turkish maximum-security prisons where they face constant surveillance and punishment. Artwork: "Kurdistan" by Zehra Dogan. Co-sponsored by Ethnographies of Empire Research Cluster.
Humanitarian Danger and Palestinian Life in Gaza
Professor Ilana Feldman, George Washington University
April 3, 2:30 p.m. 鈥 4:00 p.m. | MGC 200
This talk will explore the multiple forms of humanitarian danger that are confronting Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The massive humanitarian crisis caused by Israeli bombardment and siege of Gaza is a clear danger. The healthcare system has been decimated by attack, starvation is looming as a product of the restriction on entry of food and fuel, the vast majority of the population has been displaced, and a significant portion of its buildings (both public buildings and homes) are destroyed or damaged. It is only possible to understand, and respond to, this overwhelming threat by also understanding how "humanitarianization" is repeatedly used as a weapon against Palestinians. The talk will situate today's humanitarian dangers within a longer historical context in which Gazans have repeatedly confronted such dynamics. Co-sponsored by the Department of Anthropology, Ethnographies of Empire Research Cluster, and the Arab World Studies Program.
Black Women鈥檚 Sense of Place: Community Building as Spatial Production during the Urban Crisis in Brooklyn
Dr. Amaka Okechukwu, Assistant Professor of Sociology, George Mason University
April 25, 1:00 p.m. 鈥 2:30 p.m. | MGC 245
At the onset of neoliberalism, experiencing the impact of ghettoization and disinvestment from public and private sectors, Black communities in Brooklyn resisted the urban crisis in the 1970s and 1980s. Drawing from the scholarship of Black feminists, social scientists, and geographers, this presentation concerns Black women鈥檚 work, that is, how Black women鈥檚 knowledge, strategies, and practices challenged these socio-spatial forms of marginalization. Using oral history, newspaper, and archival sources, I argue that Black women undermined socio-spatial marginalization by challenging the limiting beliefs held about Black women, mothers, and families; proclaiming new visions for the Black community, developing alternative social and physical spaces for Black women and families; and asserting their central role in a Black nationalist geography. These socio- geographic strategies asserted a counter- geography of Black social life during the urban crisis.
"Why Anthropology?"
with Akbar Ahmed, Manissa Maharawal, Francis Martin, and moderated by David Vine
September 21, 5:30 - 7:00 p.m.,听SIS Abramson Family Room
Ahmed and Martin, who conducted four unprecedented and award-winning book and film projects based in decades of field work, will discuss anthropology and its relevance in today's world. Maharawal will share remarks and observations, which will be followed by a Q&A and broader conversation with the audience.
Let Us Return! Film Screening of Absolutely Must Go and Discussion with Exiled Chagossian Leaders
September 26, 6:00 p.m., |听Letts Hall Formal Room 100
The exiled Chagossian people have been struggling to return to their homeland for more than 50 years. The Chagossians were forcibly removed from their homes by the US and UK governments during the creation of the US military base on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia. This special event will feature a screening of the new award-winning documentary "Absolutely Must Go." Q&A will follow with Nobel Peace Prize-nominated Chagossian leader, Olivier Bancoult, who is visiting the US for meetings in Congress and at the United Nations.
The Last Colony:听Philippe Sands in Conversation with Olivier Bancoult
9/27, 6:00 pm |听Busboys and Poets 14th & V Sts. NW
Decades after being forced out of their homeland by the US military base on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia, the exiled Chagossian people won an unprecedented lawsuit at the International Court of Justice. Marking the release of the US edition of lawyer Philippe Sands鈥檚 book听The Last Colony, Sands and Chagossian leader Olivier Bancoult will discuss Chagossians鈥 ongoing struggle to return to their homeland and finally win justice. The conversation will be moderated by Cristina Becker, Associate Director researcher for Human Rights Watch, which has described the treatment of Chagossians as a crime against humanity.
New York Liberation School Book Launch & Community Dialogue with Conor 'Coco' Tom谩s Reed
October 3, 1:00 p.m. |听Mary Graydon Center 200
In the 1960s and 鈥70s鈥攚hen Toni Cade Bambara, Samuel Delany, David Henderson, June Jordan, Audre Lorde, Guillermo Morales, Adrienne Rich, and Assata Shakur all studied and taught at CUNY鈥擭ew York City鈥檚 classrooms and streets radiated as epicenters of Black, Puerto Rican, queer, and women鈥檚 liberation. Conor 'Coco' Tom谩s Reed is part of the next generation of insurgent CUNY thinkers nourished by these legacies. Highlighting the decolonial feminist metamorphosis that transformed our educational landscape, New York Liberation School explores how study and movement coalesced across classrooms and neighborhoods. Reed鈥檚 immersive and wide-ranging narrative brings us into the archives and up close to the stories of its main participants in order to reactivate these vibrant histories. The result is a radiant reclamation of collective history that charts a vision for liberating education and society today.
Conor 鈥楥oco鈥 Tom谩s Reed is a Puerto Rican/Irish gender-fluid scholar-organizer of radical cultural movements in the Americas and the Caribbean. They are co-developing the quadrilingual anthology Black Feminist Studies in the Americas and the Caribbean, and are the current co-managing editor of L脕PIZ Journal and a contributing editor of Lost & Found: The CUNY Poetics Document Initiative. Coco is a co-founding participant in Free CUNY, Rank and File Action, and Reclaim the Commons, and a member of CUNY for Abortion Rights.
Negar Razavi: Security experts, the 鈥淢iddle East,鈥 & Re-Imagining U.S. Empire from the 鈥淐enter鈥
October 17, 1:00 p.m. |听Mary Graydon Center 200
In this presentation, Dr. Razavi considers how the "Middle East" operates and exerts power on the security establishment of Washington through the realm of policy expertise and debates on the region. Based on over two years of ethnographic fieldwork in Washington, along with fieldwork in Iran, her research considers how the U.S. currently operates as an adaptive, transnational global hegemon no longer beholden to or driven by its own narrowly-defined national interests or security demands.
Negar Razavi (she/her) is an Associate Research Scholar at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies at Princeton University. As a political anthropologist, Razavi focuses her work on critical studies of security, expertise, gender, race, empire, humanitarianism, and U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. She has published her research in Social Text, Political and Legal Anthropology Review (PoLAR), Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, and Critical Studies on Security. She has a PhD in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania and has held previous positions at Northwestern University, the College of William and Mary, and UPenn.
Orisanmi Burton鈥檚听Tip of the Spear Book Talk
November 29,听5:30 p.m. |听BOL Bookstore & Cafe, 1822 N Capitol St NW
Co-sponsored by the Antiracist Research and Policy Center and the Department of Anthropology.