APPLY | Ibrahim Abu-Lughod Award in Palestine Studies at CPS

The Center for Palestine Studies at Columbia University invites
applications to the Ibrahim Abu-Lughod Award in Palestine Studies!

The IAL is a nine-month fellowship that recognizes and fosters innovative and ground-breaking scholarship on issues related to Palestine and Palestinians. The award will support a scholar working on a book project in any field of the humanities or social sciences who will spend the academic year at Columbia University in New York, pursuing their research and writing, contributing to curricular matters, and participating in the intellectual life of the Center for Palestine Studies.

The competition is open to all post-doctoral scholars who share the mission of the Center for Palestine Studies to advance the production and circulation of knowledge on Palestinian history, culture, society, and politics through outstanding scholarship. 

Applications are due March 30, 2026.

ATTEND | CUNY Palestine History Colloquium 2026, 03/06/26

ATTEND | What Do They Know? A Portrait of Perpetration and Complicity in the Gaza Genocide w/ Nadia Abu El-Haj, 02/20/26

What Do They Know? A Portrait of Perpetration and Complicity in the Gaza Genocide
Friday, Feb 20, 2026 | 12:30pm - 2:00pm EST | 3700 O St. NW, CCAS Boardroom, ICC 241, Washington, D.C.

There have long been debates about bystanders to genocide and other forms of mass violence. What did they know? How did they just “go along”? If Hannah Arendt famously argued that, in Nazi Germany, there was “nothing but propaganda”, can the same be said with respect to a very different political regime and media environment in contemporary Israel? In this lecture, Nadia Abu El-Haj explores practices of denial, disavowal and impunity that characterize Israeli society amid the genocide in Gaza.

Nadia Abu El-Haj is Ann Whitney Olin Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Barnard College and Columbia University, and Co-Director of the Center for Palestine Studies. She also serves as Vice President and Vice Chair of Board at The Institute for Palestine Studies in Washington, DC. Prof. Abu El-Haj is the recipient of numerous awards, including from the Social Science Research Council, the Wenner Gren Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the Harvard Academy for Area and International Studies, the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, and the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation. Among other publications, she is the author of Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society (University of Chicago Press, 2001), which won the Albert Hourani Annual Book Award from the Middle East Studies Association in 2002; The Genealogical Science: The Search for Jewish Origins and the Politics of Epistemology (University of Chicago Press, 2012); and Combat Trauma: Imaginaries of War and Citizenship in Post-9/11 America (Verso, 2022). She is currently working on a book of essays on the Gaza Genocide.

Fida Adely (moderator) is an Associate Professor at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and the Clovis and Hala Salaam Maksoud Chair in Arab Studies. She is also currently serving as the Director of the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown.

ATTEND | The Scholar and Feminist: Fifty Years of Meeting the Moment

Feb 27-28, 2026
Scholar and Feminist Conference
Event Oval and Barnard Hall
Barnard College

REGISTRATION HAS REACHED CAPACITY.
Click to join the waitlist. See registration update message at the end of this page.

Featuring: Lila Abu-Lughod, Zahra Ali, Sa’ed Atshan, Elizabeth Bernstein, Abigail Boggs, Judith Butler, Leslie Calman, Tina Campt, Elizabeth Castelli, Edwidge Danticat, Lisa Duggan, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Jack Halberstam, Saidiya Hartman, Janet Jakobsen, Rebecca Jordan-Young, Temma Kaplan, Margot Kotler, Greta LaFleur, Sophie Lewis, Nick Mitchell, Manijeh Moradian, Amber Musser, Premilla Nadasen, Anupama Rao, Catherine Sameh, Evren Savci, C. Riley Snorton, Thenmozhi Soundararajan, Catharine R. Stimpson, Neferti Tadiar, Maya Wind, Jacqueline Woodson, and more.

Friday, February 27, 2026, 10am – 7pm
& Saturday, February 28, 2026, 10am – 6:30pm
See detailed program information below.

For half of a century, The Scholar and Feminist Conference has provided a mutually galvanizing space for scholars, activists, and artists to confront the most pressing issues at any given moment. Defining scholarship as for action from the very beginning, the conference has with unflagging regularity “met the moment” with intersectional feminist knowledge to inspire and build a robust response to contemporary crises. In many ways, the conference has grown up alongside academic feminism itself, yet, rather than uncritically mirror this history, it has consistently pushed back against feminism’s institutionalization. The conference highlights provocations, controversies, foundational gaps, and struggles that both cement its field-forming position and trouble a feminist progress narrative.

The conference’s history of meeting the moment with a vigorous feminist response provides a toolkit for understanding the present. This year, it asks: what are feminist responses to the global rise of authoritarianism and fascism, white Christian nationalism, ethnic cleansing and colonial violence, attacks on higher education and academic freedom, and assaults on queer and trans rights? Which practices of solidarity and feminist arts of transformation can mobilize resistance, provide sustenance, and produce social change? What can we learn from moments in our past, and how do they serve as a springboard for action today?

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27

All panels are located in the Event Oval in the Diana Center unless otherwise noted.

10:00 am | Welcome by Rebecca Jordan-Young (Director, Barnard Center for Research on Women and Ann Whitney Olin Professor of Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies, Barnard College) and Margot Kotler (Senior Associate Director, Barnard Center for Research on Women)

10:30 am – 12:00 pm | Meeting the Moment: BCRW Directors on Defending Feminist Knowledge

• Leslie Calman (Director, Barnard Center for Research on Women, 1992-1998)

• Elizabeth Castelli (Professor of Religion, Barnard College)

• Janet Jakobsen (Claire Tow Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Barnard College)

• Temma Kaplan (Distinguished Professor Emerita of History, Rutgers)

• Premilla Nadasen (Ann Whitney Olin Professor of History, Barnard College)

• Catharine R. Stimpson (Professor Emerita, NYU)

• Moderated by Rebecca Jordan-Young (Director, Barnard Center for Research on Women and Ann Whitney Olin Professor of Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies, Barnard College)

12:00 pm – 1:20 pm | Lunch

1:20 pm – 1:30 pm | Welcome Remarks by Rebecca Walkowitz, Provost and Dean of the Faculty 

1:30 pm – 3:00 pm | Protectionist Feminism and its Legacies: From the Sex Wars to Carceral Feminism

• Lila Abu-Lughod (Joseph L. Buttenwieser Professor of Social Science, Columbia University)

• Lisa Duggan (Professor Emerita of Social and Cultural Analysis, New York University)

• Greta LaFleur (Associate Professor of American Studies and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Yale University)

• Sophie Lewis (Visiting Scholar, Center for Research in Feminist, Queer and Transgender Studies, University of Pennsylvania)

• Amber Musser (Professor of English, Black, Race, and Ethnic Studies, Africana Studies, The Graduate Center, CUNY)

• Moderated by Elizabeth Bernstein (Professor of Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies and Sociology, Barnard College)

3:15 pm – 4:45 pm | The University in/and Crisis

• Abigail Boggs (Assistant Professor, Sociology, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and Education Studies, Wesleyan University)

• Nick Mitchell (Associate Professor, Department of Feminist Studies and the Program in Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, UC Santa Cruz)

• Maya Wind (Postdoctoral Fellow, Black Studies, UC Riverside)

• Thenmozhi Soundararajan (Founder, Equity Labs)

• Moderated by Anupama Rao (Professor of History and MESAAS, Barnard College) and C. Riley Snorton (Professor of English and Comparative Literature and ISSG, Columbia University)

4:45 pm – 5:30 pm | Reception (James Room, 4th Floor, Barnard Hall)

5:30 pm – 7:00 pm | Performance: Toshi Reagon and BIG Lovely (Lower Level Theater, Barnard Hall)

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SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28

10:00 am | Welcome by Rebecca Jordan-Young (Director, Barnard Center for Research on Women and Ann Whitney Olin Professor of Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies, Barnard College)

10:30 am – 12:00 pm | Transnational Feminist Perspectives on Survival, Solidarity, and Transformation

• Zahra Ali (Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology, Rutgers University – Newark)

• Sa’ed Atshan (Associate Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies and Anthropology, Swarthmore College)

• Catherine Sameh (Associate Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies, UC Irvine)

• Evren Savci (Assistant Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Yale University)

• Neferti X. M. Tadiar (Professor of Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies, Barnard College)

• Moderated by Manijeh Moradian (Assistant Professor of Women’s Gender, & Sexuality Studies, Barnard College)

12:00 pm – 1:30 pm | Lunch

1:30 pm – 3:00 pm | How We Write Black Feminism Now

• Tina Campt (Roger S. Berlind ’52 Professor of Humanities, Princeton University)

• Edwidge Danticat (Wun Tsun Tam Mellon Professor of the Humanities in the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies, Columbia University)

• Saidiya Hartman (University Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University)

• Jacqueline Woodson (Writer)

• Moderated by Alexis Pauline Gumbs (Poet, independent scholar, and activist)

3:15 pm – 4:45 pm | Keynote: Judith Butler
(Distinguished Professor in the Graduate School, UC Berkeley)

With an introduction by Jack Halberstam (Professor of Gender Studies and English, Columbia University)

5:00 pm – 6:30 pm | Reception (James Room, 4th Floor, Barnard Hall)

ATTEND | Theory from Below: Family Museums as Spaces of Knowledge Production and Epistemological Resistance in Palestine, w/ Mazen Iwaisi, 12/15/25

Theory from Below: Family Museums as Spaces of Knowledge Production and Epistemological Resistance in Palestine

This intervention examines how local Palestinian communities embody "theory in action" through family-based museums, challenging traditional museological frameworks and institutional practices. Drawing from ethnographic research on three family museums in the West Bank, I discuss how these grassroots initiatives represent a form of theory in action that emerges organically from community needs rather than institutional mandates. These museums operate as living experiences where theoretical concepts of heritage preservation, cultural memory, and community engagement are tested, adapted, and reimagined through daily practice.

The analysis reveals how family museums function as sites of epistemological resistance, deploying strategies that transcend mere preservation. These museums actively challenge hegemonic knowledge production systems of colonial archaeology by legitimizing local epistemologies that have been systematically marginalized. Through meticulous documentation of family histories and material culture, they directly confront Israeli settler-colonial narratives of terra nullius landscapes. By establishing autonomous spaces for knowledge production beyond the quasi-state apparatus and NGO networks, these museums engage in what I call 'epistemic disobedience.' Their approaches to preservation, curation, and community engagement generate theoretical innovations that emerge from lived experiences of resistance to dispossession - not as abstract academic exercises but as urgent responses to ongoing cultural erasure and spatial eradication.

By focusing on how theory emerges from practice in these settings, this intervention proposes a more grounded understanding of "theory in action" - one that recognizes local communities as theoretical innovators rather than just practitioners. This work contributes to broader discussions about decolonial museum practices, community-based heritage management, and the role of families in generating new theoretical frameworks for cultural preservation. The goal is to demonstrate how family museums represent not just the application of theory but the active creation of theoretical knowledge through lived experience and daily practice.

More info here.

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Mazen Iwaisi is a Palestinian archaeologist whose work is focused on the geopolitics of Palestinian archaeology practice and theory. He has obtained his PhD from Queen's University Belfast on the concept of archaeo-politics in the making of the Palestinian National Spatial Plan — his research centres on archaeology and cultural heritage and how they relate to spatial and urban planning.

S26 COURSE | From Ruins to Remains: Palestine & Archaeology w/ Brian Boyd

Anth GR5555 From Ruins to Remains: Palestine & Archaeology

“The ruins of Gaza will be the archaeology of the future” (Iwaisi & Barghouth 2023)

This course reexamines the idea of “ruins” in Palestine, reframing them as “remains” - material, social, and cultural presences that persist despite efforts of erasure by colonial, national, or ideological forces. Students will explore how archaeology, often misrepresented as a quest for ‘discoveries’, is always deeply entangled with politics, nationalism, colonialism, and cultural appropriation in Southwest Asia. The course emphasizes ‘remains’ rather than ‘ruins’, drawing on Walter Benjamin’s idea of fragments as revitalized pieces of the past. It traces European imaginaries from the classical writings of Josephus and others, through the medieval Crusades, to the 17 th and 18 th centuries, when the depiction and representation of a romanticized past of ‘biblical’ landscapes was vividly created by European writers, artists and cartographers. These Orientalist perspectives were formalized in the 1870s with the region’s mapping by the British Survey of Western Palestine (1871-77) – a meticulous survey of the ‘biblical’ places in Palestine. The map that resulted from this survey was subsequently used as the basis for the partition plan by the British government which took over southern Palestine from the Ottoman administration in 1917 (the British Mandate), and was also used as the base map to create the political boundaries of the state of Israel, established in 1947/8, involving the displacement of 750 000 Palestinians from more than 400 villages across the region. The materiality of the Nakba remains across the landscapes of contemporary Palestine and Israel, standing as an evidential archive. We will consider how the notion of ‘remains’ articulates with settler colonial appropriation of archaeological narratives that seek to keep evidence for a Palestinian presence in the landscapes of the region firmly in the past – as ‘ruins’.

ATTEND | 'Our Genocide,' a discussion w/ B'Tselem, 11/19/25

A discussion of the recently published report, 'Our Genocide' by The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, B'tselem. Speakers Yuli Novak and Kareem Jubran will be joined by Professor Diana Greenwald to discuss the research and its significance in the fight against genocide in Palestine.

This event is organized by the Middle East Institute and co-sponsored by the Institute for the Study of Human Rights. For more info + to register, click here.