Contemporary Issues in the Levant: Palestinian Futures
Date: 3/28/2025
Time: 4:10 PM - 5:30 PM
Room: 412B, Level 4, Huntington Place
Type: Paper - Hybrid/Streamed
Recorded: No
Theme: Making Spaces of Possibility
Curated Track:
Sponsor Group(s):
No Sponsor Group Associated with this Session
Organizer(s):
Tara Di Cassio
Georgina Gemayel University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
Chair(s):
Tara Di Cassio,
Georgina Gemayel, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
Description:
Dear Colleagues:
A session titled "Contemporary Issues in the Levant: Palestinian Futures" will be held at the upcoming American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting in Detroit, MI, March 24-28, 2025. We invite you to submit an abstract to present at our session and engage in a critical and timely discussion on these pressing issues.
The Levant region of the Middle East, historically known for its fertile lands, rich culture and traditions, and resilient communities, is currently undergoing a multitude of intersecting challenges. From ongoing violent conflicts to climate change, erasure of cultural identities to forced displacement, recent events have only exacerbated the tribulations of the land and its people. Current and ongoing crises such as genocide and famine illuminate the pressing need for scholarship that critically examines the contemporary issues of the region and contributes to pathways forward toward sustainable futures for the people of the Levant.
Amid the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the increased dispossession and violence in the West Bank since October 7, 2023, this session’s theme, Palestinian Futures, invites conversation about Palestinian futures forged and envisioned that disrupt settler imaginaries of and quests for the future. Therefore, we aim to create a space for scholars to critically analyze the intersecting forces shaping the future of Palestine and the wider Levant, including those arising from settler colonialism, international displacement, and critical health and food insecurity to name a few.
This session aims to highlight work that fosters dialogue on the contemporary issues of the Levant region, focusing on this session’s theme Palestinian Futures. We welcome all recent works related but not limited to:
Palestinian Futures: Envisioning justice, liberation, and self-determination through art, activism, and scholarship.
Intersecting Crises of the Levant Region: Covering geopolitical tensions, climate change and its impacts, health and livelihoods, and colonial and imperialist legacies.
Transnational dimensions: Studies on forced migration, refugee experiences, and diasporic experiences.
Presentations (if applicable) and Session Agenda:
Tara Di Cassio |
“It’s a Movement”: Performing Palestinian Past and Future in Saint Levant’s Deira |
Mohamed Elyassini, Indiana State University |
Geographies of resistance against the US-enabled and funded Israeli genocidal war and ethnic cleaning in Palestine |
Samuel Ajah |
Geographical perspectives on Indigenous and Western views relationality and their influence on Palestinian liberation |
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Contemporary Issues in the Levant: Palestinian Futures
Description
Type: Paper - Hybrid/Streamed
Date: 3/28/2025
Time: 4:10 PM - 5:30 PM
Room: 412B, Level 4, Huntington Place
Contact the Primary Organizer
Tara Di Cassio
tldicass@unc.edu
Session sponsored by: