Celebrated writer and scholar, Edward Said, asserted that Palestinians have been denied “permission to narrate” or the power to represent their histories and stories on the public stage. Yet Palestinians have a long history of literature and art that flourishes today, even as their representations of history, land, and identity remain tied to a highly politicized context that creates challenges to representing Palestine.
This program will examine representations of Palestine and Palestinian people and their many forms of cultural expression as Palestinians narrate their lives and experiences on their own terms, and in solidarity with other liberation struggles. We will also explore writings and art by Jews, Israelis, African Americans, Indigenous peoples, and others in solidarity with the movement for Palestinian liberation from decades of Israeli dispossession and occupation.
Through art, literature and film by and about Palestinians, we will deepen our understanding of the politics and problematics of representation, the conflicting historical narratives of Palestine/Israel, and the impacts of settler colonialism and military occupation on Palestinian lives and creative production. In examining these themes through a feminist decolonial lens, we are committed to dismantling racism, Islamophobia and anti-Semitism, as we envision a future that includes equal civil and human rights for all peoples.
Students will engage in media analysis projects focusing on visual imagery and discourse and learn trends in contemporary literature, film, and art, from traditional resistance art of the PLO era to new experimental forms. How do artists use different materials and written forms, and invest them with meaning? How do they use humor or absurdity to navigate the minefields of Palestinian experience, or the language of Western art to communicate with Western audiences? And what are the implications of these representations in movements for Palestinian human rights and liberation?
Anticipated Credit Equivalencies
3 - Arts and Visual Culture
3 - Postcolonial Theory and Literature
3 - Modern Middle East Studies
3 - Media Studies & Politics
Students taking this program for 16 credits will engage in a 4-credit media/image analysis or art practice project.
Registration
Academic Details
Education, history, international studies, community advocacy, visual arts, politics, writing, and human and social services.
$50 fee covers art show entrance fees