2018 Conference, New York University, New York
On April 27-28, 2018, NACLA (North American Congress on Latin America), MERIP (Middle East Research and Information Project), and Jadaliyya convened scholars, artists, and activists for a two-day international conference at New York University that explored new and longstanding links between Latin America and the Middle East. Contributors considered social movements, cultural exchanges, political and economic institutions, and transnational solidarity and diaspora politics in light of the Arab spring and winter, and against the backdrop of nearly two decades of left wing governance in Latin America. Below you can find a schedule of the conference as it played out, plus links to the recorded footage and to the published pieces on which participants’ presentations were based.
Friday, April 27:
Welcome:
Alejandro Velasco (New York University; NACLA), Omar Dahi (Hampshire College; MERIP), Sinan Antoon (New York University; Jadaliyya) & Laura Weiss (NACLA): “The Latin East,” NACLA
Session 1: The Politics of Art: Readings, Reflections, and Refractions
Chair: Omar S. Dahi (Hampshire College; MERIP)
Houzan Mahmoud (Kurdish Culture Project) & Ismail Hamalaw (Kurdish Culture Project), “The Latin Boom in Iraqi Kurdistan,” NACLA
Lena Meari (Birzeit University), “Reading Che in Colonized Palestine,” NACLA
Roosbelinda Cárdenas (Hampshire College) and Hiba Bou Akar (Columbia University), “Writing about Violence,” MERIP
Sinan Antoon (New York University; Jadaliyya), “Reading César Vallejo in Arabic,” MERIP
Rania Jawad (Birzeit University), “Traveling Pedagogies and Theaters of Violence,” Jadaliyya
Discussant: Eman Morsi, "Comments on the Politics of Art: Readings, Reflections, and Refractions,” Jadaliyya
For a recording of the panel, click here.
Session 2: Political Parallels and Economic Intersections
Chair: Alejandro Velasco
Paul Amar, “Military Capitalism,” NACLA
Kaveh Ehsani (DePaul University), “Blessing or Curse? From Resource Nationalism to Neoliberalism in the Politics of Oil in the Middle East and Latin America,” forthcoming in Jadaliyya
Cecília Baeza (Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo) and Paulo Pinto, “The Syrian Uprising and Mobilization of the Syrian Diaspora in South America,” MERIP
Paulo Daniel Farah (Universidade de São Paulo), “South-South Solidarity and the Summit of South American-Arab Countries,”MERIP
Discussant: Arang Keshavarzian, forthcoming in Jadaliyya
For a recording of the panel, click here.
Session 3: Mapping Solidarities
Chair: Sinan Antoon
Tariq Dana (Doha Institute), “Palestine Beyond Slogans,” NACLA
Sara Awartani (George Washington University), “Puerto Rican Decolonization, Armed Struggle and the Question of Palestine,”MERIP
Nadim Bawalsa (New York University), “Palestine West of the Andes,” NACLA
Amal Eqeiq (Williams College), “Of Borders and Limits: Comparative Indigeneity in Mexico and Palestine,” Jadaliyya
Omar Imseeh Tesdell (Birzeit University) , “Planting Roots, Claiming Space,” NACLA
Discussant: Ella Shohat (New York University), “Comments on Trans-Regional Studies,” Jadaliyya
For a recording of the panel, click here.
Saturday, April 28:
Session 4: Confluences and Cartographies
Chair: Laura Weiss
Fernando Camacho Padilla (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid), “Reading Latin America in Tehran,” NACLA
Marwan M. Kraidy (University of Pennsylvania), “A Tale of Two Modernities,” NACLA
Kevan Harris (UCLA), “Divergent Histories and Converging Inequalities in the Middle East and Latin America,” MERIP
Omar S. Dahi and Alejandro Velasco, “Latin America-Middle East Ties in the New Global South,” MERIP
Discussant: Ali Mirsepassi, “Comments on Confluences and Cartographies,” Jadaliyya
For a recording of the panel, click here.
