“Entangled Diasporas: Israel the Palestine in Transnational Perspective”

Palestinian and Jewish-Zionist histories and cultures are thickly intertwined. Both communities share a history of diasporic experience and a diasporic consciousness as “imagined communities,” and yet, they are usually studied in isolation from one another. 

This workshop brings the two together with the aim of deepening our understanding of the ways in which these diasporas, and their respective nation-building projects, have shaped one another, whether through geographic proximity and struggle or in the realm of the imaginary.

The workshop takes inspiration from the concept of “entangled histories” (histoire croisée), which refers to histories of societies, cultures, and peoples that have existed in geographic proximity to one another, physically bordering or even overlapping each other. By placing Palestinian and Jewish diasporas in this context and recognizing their entanglement with each other, the workshop explores meaningful comparisons between them as well as scrutinizes interactions and mutual influences.

The workshop is organized by Toufoul Abou-Hodeib and Doug Rossinow. 

Programme

Monday, March 25

10.00–10:30    Welcoming Remarks

Doug Rossinow and Toufoul Abou-Hodeib

10.30–12.30    Panel 1: Archive and Method in Diaspora and Exile

Respondent: Nadim Khoury, Bjørknes University College, Oslo

Keith P. Feldman, University of California, Berkeley
Diaspora and Relation: Errant Methods

Mezna Qato, University of Cambridge
Traces beyond Territory: Exile and Practices of Archival Retrieval

12.30–14.00    Lunch/Coffee at Professorboligen 

14.00–16.00 Panel 2: Mobilizing Alliances and Solidarities

Respondent: Hilde Henriksen Waage, University of Oslo

Seth Anziska, University College London:
American Jews between Begin and Arafat: Communal Politics and Citizen Diplomacy in the 1970s and 1980s

Sune Haugebølle, Roskilde University:  
Palestine as Entanglement: Palestinian-Danish Relations in the Radical Left

Tuesday, March 26

09.30–11.30    Panel 3: Building Diasporic Identities

Respondent: Jacob Høigilt, University of Oslo

Shaul Mitelpunkt, University of York
From ‘A Traitor’ to ‘A Genius’: Israeli Immigrants to the United States in 1970s Imagination

Toufoul Abou-Hodeib, University of Oslo 
The Politics of Palestinian Folklore in Exile

11.30–13.00    Lunch/Coffee at Professorboligen

13.00–15.00    Panel 4: Seeing and Managing the Stateless

Respondent: Nils Butenschøn, University of Oslo

Kjersti Berg, University of Bergen    
On the Margins: Shu’fat Refugee Camp 1960-2018

Doug Rossinow, University of Oslo
American Jews Discuss Palestinian Refugees: The Forgotten Years, 1947–70

15.00–15.15    Coffee break

15.15–16.30    Closing Discussion

Led by Toufoul Abou-Hodeib and Doug Rossinow

See event webpage