Wednesday, May 15th 2024 marks the 76th anniversary of the 1948 Nakba - the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and the ongoing the violent dispossession of Palestinian land and its peoples.
We're proud to partner with our constituency group, Feminists for Justice in/for Palestine, to offer a virtual open-classroom discussion on the history of the Nakba, the Association's recommitment to Palestine as a Feminist Issue, and what it means to be and act in feminist solidarity in the movement for a free Palestine.
This program is a collaborative effort that is co-sponsored with the Arab and Muslim Ethnicities Diasporas Studies (AMED) and Teaching Palestine: Pedagogical Praxis and the Indivisibility of Justice Open Classroom Series and Feminists for Justice in/for Palestine.
Event Time(s):
10:00 AM - 12:00 PM PT
1:00 PM - 3:00 PM ET
8:00 PM - 10:00 PM Palestine
Our Speakers Include:
Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi - Dr. Abdulhadi is the principal investigator of Teaching Palestine: Born and raised in Nablus, Palestine, Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi is founding Director and Senior scholar of SFSU’s Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies Program. Widely published with over 80 articles, books, anthologies and newspaper articles as a scholar, activist and 10-year UN based journalist, with over 80 publications in several languages, including the Feminist Studies article on Israeli settler colonialism in context: celebrating Palestinian death on Israel’s war on Gaza in 2014 which remains appropriate today. She is co-founder and editorial board member of the Islamophobia Studies Journal; and policy advisor for Al-Shabaka. She serves on the Board of Directors of National Students for Justice in Palestine; the Advisory Board of US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel; the Executive Committee of California Scholars for Academic Freedom; and as co-chair of Feminists for Justice in/for Palestine Interest Section at the National Women’s Studies Association. She has received numerous awards, including the Evelyn Shakir National Arab American Book Award, Alex Odeh Memorial Award, the Jere L. Bacharach Service Award Life Achievement award by the Middle East Studies Association, and most recently, the Angela Y. Davis Award from the American Studies Association.
Huwaida Arraf - Huwaida Arraf is a Palestinian-American civil/human rights attorney and social justice activist. She has been involved in legal, political, and grassroots initiatives for Palestinian rights for the last two decades, including co-founding the Nobel Peace Prize-nominated International Solidarity Movement (ISM), and leading the Free Gaza Movement which, beginning in 2008, organized sea voyages to confront and challenge Israel's illegal blockade on Gaza. Huwaida is one of the organizers of the Freedom Flotilla, which is currently preparing to sail to break Israel’s siege and deliver over 5,500 tons of life-saving aid to the people in Gaza. When she’s not organizing actions, Huwaida practices civil rights law in Detroit, where she resides with her husband Adam and two children, Diyaar (11 years old) and Mayaar (9 years old). Huwaida was a 2022 candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives for Michigan's 10th Congressional District. She serves the National Women's Studies Association as a 2024 Annual Conference Co-Chair.
Jehan Helou - Jehan Helou was born in Haifa before the Nakba, uprooted with her family to Lebanon. Jehan was a pioneer in the Palestinian national struggle and women’s liberation movement. She was a member in the leadership of the General Union of Palestinian Women as well as the Palestinian National council. She directed the Tamer Institute for Community Education in Ramallah and has been president for the Palestinian section of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) since 2003. Her work is featured in Making Palestine's History: Women's Testimonies and She Who Struggles: Revolutionary Women Who Shaped the World.
Dr. Heidi R. Lewis - Dr. Lewis is the David & Lucile Packard Professor and Associate Professor of Feminist & Gender Studies at Colorado College. Her areas of specialization are Feminist Theory and Politics (emphasis on Black Feminism), Hip Hop Discourse (emphasis on Rap), and Critical Media Studies. She regularly teaches Introduction to Feminist & Gender Studies, Feminist Theory, Critical Media Studies, Black Feminist Theory, Hidden Spaces, Hidden Narratives: Intersectionality Studies in Berlin (study abroad), Hip Hop and Feminism, Critical Race Feminism, and Critical Whiteness Studies. Dr. Lewis has been an active member of the National Women’s Studies Association for the past 15 years, starting with her participation in the Women of Color Leadership Project in 2008. In addition to being selected to attend the Curriculum Institute in 2014 and regularly attending the Chairs and Directors Meeting since 2018, she also served as Secretary position from 2021-2022. She is honored and excited to serve as the NWSA's President from 2023-2025.
Malak Mattar - Malak Mattar was born in 1999 in the Gaza Strip and grew up under occupation and the military siege. From a family of talented cultural practitioners, Mattar started making art as a teenager during Operation Protective Edge, 2014, and she soon began to sell work online and exhibit internationally. She won a scholarship to study political science at Istanbul Aydin university (2018–22) and another to study a Masters of Fine Art at Central Saint Martin’s, London, in 2023. She’s also the author of Sitti’s Bird Gaza Story.
Dr. Lena Meari - Lena Meari, an assistant professor of cultural anthropology at the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences and the Institute of Women’s Studies at Birzeit University, Palestine. Has special interest in the geopolitics of knowledge production; subject formation in colonial contexts; decolonizing methodologies; decolonial feminist theory; and revolutionary movements. Her research and activism focuses on political carcerality in Palestine and the formations of sumud.
*artwork featured used with permissions of artist Malak Mattar