Call for Papers: Holding onto Palestine. Reimagining Anthropology at a Time of Genocide, 2024
Key themes: elimination, genocide, racism, mass displacement, resistance, praxis, global convergences, research methodologies, humanitarianism, digital warfare, academic freedom and silencing, epistemologies
Location: Hybrid/Beit Jala, Palestine*
Conference Date: August 1-4, 2024
Application deadline: April 14, 2024
Much like 1948 and 1967, 7 October 2023 ushered in a violent project of erasure and elimination of Palestinians as an indigenous population. While uncertainty, fear and anguish have been features of Palestinian daily life for decades, at this time of high-flame violence, with their habitat becoming spaces of blatantly visible non-life, questions of the meaning and practice of remaining present, of existence itself, have never been more urgent. These extreme times require a bold agenda for critical inquiry. How can anthropology make sense of contemporary mass killing, large scale physical destruction, genocidal rhetoric and transfer plans as colonial powers seek to destroy and empty Gaza while silencing criticism and dissent dissent around the world? How can the tools and concepts of anthropology respond to these violences in all their forms? In turn, what can Palestine, as one of the most protracted examples of occupation and colonial erasure, offer to the anthropology of genocide, settler-colonialism, de-colonization, indigeneity, and emancipatory ethics and knowledge? This Conference will explore these questions through a focus on several interconnected themes: processes and dynamics of elimination; forms of activist as well as everyday praxis and resistance and their epistemologies; and “convergences” and alliances between Palestine and experiences of the structural violence of Western colonial modernity elsewhere. We seek to reflect on the conditions for transversal politics and the kinds of epistemologies and knowledges generated in such everyday praxis and mobilizations.
For the Fourth Insaniyyat conference, we encourage submissions that engage with the wide range of research possibilities that ethnography can open up. How might engaging various dimensions of elimination, genocide, and resistance orient research praxis? How might engaging with the key themes of this Conference and their linked concepts re-direct some of our epistemological premises? More generally, what does an awareness of these concepts and their valences bring into view? What are the possibilities and conditions for anthropology at a time when our community’s very existence is at stake? What ethical and political compass should guide the work of anthropologists and ethnographers in the face of Palestinians’ annihilation? What kind of research is plausible and even imaginable when portions of Palestine are disappearing? We welcome a wide range of submissions that engage with these themes in the context of Palestine and Palestinians. This includes (but is not limited to) those that address them through the following lenses: elimination, genocide, racism, mass displacement, resistance, praxis, global convergences and alliances, methodologies, humanitarianism, digital warfare, media, academic freedom and silencing, and un-childing, among others. The Conference comprises a keynote talk (Prof. Ghassan Hage) and commentator, a roundtable, thematic panels, and two graduate student workshops.
To apply, please send an abstract (max 500 words) and an academic bio (max 200 words) by April 14 , 2024 to: conference@insaniyyat.org
Submissions may be in either English or Arabic. Academic researchers who engage in ethnographic methods are welcome to apply as well.
Graduate Student Workshops Two closed workshops to support the work of advanced graduate students of anthropology working on Palestine or with Palestinians will be held during the Conference. These aim to support students in developing their research through discussion with peers and faculty mentors, as well as to build professional knowledge networks. Applicants who are graduate students, especially advanced graduate students, are encouraged to apply to either workshop. Note that applicants will not be accepted to both workshops. Please explain your preference in the letter of interest.
Workshop 1: Dissertation Proposal Seminar. Participants in this closed session will each have the opportunity to workshop their dissertation project proposal with peers and faculty mentors. The purpose of this workshop is to collaboratively refine individual research and/or receive support for challenges faced in the initial fieldwork stage. Participants' abstracts will be circulated in advance and each participant will present their project.
Workshop 2: Research Paper Colloquium. The second closed session for graduate students provides an opportunity to present and receive feedback on written work (draft dissertation chapter or research article). Papers will be pre-circulated to peers and faculty mentors. Participants will make a short (10 minute) presentation of their work and will be required to read the submissions of other participants prior to the colloquium.
Requirements for Workshops: Letter of interest (500 words), paper or chapter abstract (500 words), academic biography (100 words) to the following email address: conference@insaniyyat.org
Deadline for applications: April 14, 2024
Notification of acceptance: May 15, 2024
Deadline for Submission of papers: July 15, 2024
Travel/Accommodation Grants A handful of overseas travel grants and accommodation expenses are available for graduate students, as well as unemployed/under-employed faculty. Please note in your academic bio whether you will be seeking a travel and/or accommodation grant and provide a basic explanation/justification of your need for aid in order to attend the conference.
Travel grants are competitive. Applicants for grants will be informed as soon as possible of the outcome.
* In the event the Conference cannot be held in Palestine due to the continuing assault on the occupied West Bank, it will be held in Amman, Jordan. Notification of a change in venue will be announced by early July 2024. The Conference will be hybrid and we welcome applicants who can only give on-line presentations in lieu of attending in person.