L'Institut d'études des femmes
The Institute of Women's Studies
présente / presents
LES CAFÉS FÉMINISTES /
THE FEMINIST CAFÉS
2011-2012
Eastward Pedagogies:
The Case of Israeli-Palestinian Women's Critical Peace Dialogues
Wafaa Hasan
PhD Candidate in the Department of English and Cultural Studies
McMaster University
Jeudi, 26 janvier | Thursday, January 26, 2012, 14:30
Pavillon Desmarais Hall, 55 Laurier E., salle/room 3105
La conférence sera donnée en anglais.
Entrée libre / Free admission
INFO : womenst@uOttawa.ca<mailto:womenst@uOttawa.ca>
Abstract
With a focus on Israel's occupation policies around material borders I
examine the current dialogue dynamics between Israeli and Palestinian
woman (in comparison to the years of the first intifada) to contextualize
the current Palestinian-feminist boycott of Israeli-Palestinian feminist
peace dialogues. I combine a series of interviews conducted with
Palestinian and Israeli women between 2007 and 2009 with a discursive
analysis of the film To Die in Jerusalem and a published academic dialogue
between Nahla Abdo and Ronit Lentin to explore the ways in which the
interview responses from Palestinian women reflect "live" dialogue
dynamics between Israeli and Palestinian women. The study of these
dialogues show that Palestinian women are often interpellated into narrow
points of entry when it comes to dialoguing with Israeli women.
Palestinian women are often asked to speak within the terms of an "event"
(such "Cast Lead"), through concepts of the unity of womanhood
extrapolated from community and through pedagogies of "good motherhood."
These points of entry act as pedagogical moments and reflect dynamics of
Orientalist/colonial feminist movements. As a result, even among critical
feminist dialogues, Palestinian women become the receivers of questions
and interrogation. Such dynamics are paralleled by the conditions of
Israeli-imposed material borders where movement Eastward is more possible
than it is Westward. As a result a comprehensive Palestinian boycott of
feminist dialogues (pertaining to the hegemonic Israeli feminist movement)
has emerged. Simultaneously, however, Palestinian women are taking back
dialogue by attempting to set their own criteria for transnational and
international feminist dialogues and their contents. While material and
discursive disparities in power precede possibilities for fair dialogue
between Israeli and Palestinian women, I argue that there is some hopeful
agency in these new developments.
BIO
Wafaa Hasan is a PhD Candidate in the Department of English and Cultural
Studies at McMaster University in Hamilton Ontario, Canada. She was the
founding Associate Director of the Canada Research Chair Symposium on
Canadian Literary Culture. Hasan has published in the CLCWeb: Comparative
Literature and Culture Journal and has recently finished co-editing a book
entitled, Countering Displacements: The Creativity and Resilience of
Indigenous and Refugee-ed Peoples (University of Alberta Press). For more
information see: www.literaryculture.ca<http://www.literaryculture.ca>.
