"Teaching Palestine in the Age of Precarity"
Precarity Committee Workshop, MESA Annual Meeting
Saturday, November 21, 2026, 10:30 AM – 3:00 PM
The workshop will include 16 precarious scholars who engage with Palestine through their teaching, writing, and political expression such as campus organizing. It will be led by specialists in Palestine studies in two separate sessions. The morning session will focus on teaching Palestine and the Middle East and North Africa, focusing on practical tools for teaching “controversial” texts and topics in the classroom. The afternoon session will center on writing about Palestine for both scholarly audiences and popular non-specialist audiences, focusing on addressing both editorial censorship and the tendency towards self-censorship. In both sessions, participants will explore strategies to push back against the “Palestine exception” and the larger repression of political expression.
Participants will submit a draft syllabus or detailed course description and an abstract or pitch for a piece of writing in advance for discussion in the breakout groups.
The workshop will be closed to the 16 precarious scholars and presenters; it will not be recorded.
Applications are due September 24, 2026.
