Conversations Beyond the Headlines: Palestine and Israel

A Kahn Institute Short-Term Project

Thursday and Friday, April 11–12

Organizing Fellows

Justin Cammy, Jewish Studies and World Literatures
Suleiman Mourad, Religion and Middle East Studies

Project Description

Smith College faculty are invited to join us for sustained conversations that take us beyond headlines and social media to consider the contexts and complexities that sparked the current war between Israel and Hamas and their effects in the classroom and on campus. We are all too aware of the most recent manifestations of longstanding Islamophobia and antisemitism, anti-Palestinianism and anti-Israelism, and we have witnessed or experienced these in our own lives and here at Smith. This micro-faculty seminar seeks to provide an opportunity for colleagues to exchange ideas and perspectives respectfully and to listen and learn from each other. How can we model scholarly discourse on divisive current events while maintaining welcoming and curious classrooms? How might we better encourage student participation without fear of peer retribution or self-censorship? How do our own identities and political commitments shape our activist and scholarly selves both inside and outside the classroom, and how do we balance that with the imperative to create a learning space that welcomes the free exchange of ideas and many different perspectives, including those that are the least voiced by students?

Fellows will meet on Thursday, April 11, from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. for dinner and discussion, and reconvene the next day, April 12, from 12:15 to 2:30 p.m., for lunch and conversation.

Junior faculty are especially encouraged to apply.

Statements of interest are due Thursday, March 28. Fellows will be notified no later than Wednesday, April 3.