Please join us for EPL and Northwestern University's continuing series on the culture, politics, religion, and society of the Middle East and North Africa.
From Ramallah to New York, Tel Aviv to Porto Alegre, people around the world celebrate a formidable, transnational Palestinian LGBTQ social movement. Solidarity with Palestinians has become a salient domain of global queer politics. Yet LGBTQ Palestinians, even as they fight patriarchy and imperialism, are themselves subjected to an "empire of critique" from Israeli and Palestinian institutions, Western academics, journalists and filmmakers, and even fellow activists. Such global criticism has limited growth and led to an emphasis within the movement on anti-imperialism over the struggle against homophobia.
With this book, Sa'ed Atshan asks how transnational progressive social movements can balance struggles for liberation along more than one axis. He explores critical junctures in the history of Palestinian LGBTQ activism, revealing the queer Palestinian spirit of agency, defiance, and creativity, in the face of daunting pressures and forces working to constrict it. Queer Palestine and the Empire of Critique explores the necessity of connecting the struggles for Palestinian freedom with the struggle against homophobia.
About the speaker:
Sa'ed Atshan is Assistant Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at Swarthmore College. He is the coauthor of The Moral Triangle: Germans, Israelis, Palestinians (2020).
Note 10/16/2023: In our mission to be the heart of our diverse community, the Evanston Public Library provides thoughtful, engaging programming from experts in their field, encompassing a wide diversity of perspectives. Over the past eight years, we have been proud to partner with Northwestern University’s Middle East and North Africa Department (MENA) for a continuing series of lectures on the culture, politics, religion, and society of this region. This event is a part of this series, which has hosted numerous Israeli and Palestinian speakers (as well as others from around the region and the world) over the years. All of these speakers have helped us to understand the complexities of life in the Middle East and North Africa, and, in so doing, promote peace, empathy, and justice. At EPL, we mourn for the innocent civilians whose lives have been upended and destroyed by the ongoing violence - in Israel and Palestine, and in Evanston and Plainfield as well. We urge respect for the human rights and dignity of all, and hope for a swift and peaceful resolution.
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