Nawal Musleh-Motut | University of the Fraser Valley (original) (raw)
Papers by Nawal Musleh-Motut
On May 14, 1948 Israel proclaimed its independence, establishing a national home for the Jewish p... more On May 14, 1948 Israel proclaimed its independence, establishing a national home for the Jewish people following the horrors of the Holocaust. However, for Palestinians this proclamation was tied to the Nakba or catastrophe, a term used to mark their displacement, dispossession, and occupation. This cycle of violence has made ethical dialogue and the witnessing of the other's trauma difficult. To begin bridging this divide, my dissertation takes up the impossible yet necessary task of "willing the impossible" (Butler, 2012, p. 222), which entails thinking the unequal yet bound tragedies of the Holocaust and the Nakba contrapuntally, morally and ethically engaging with alterity, and While it would be impossible to acknowledge everyone who has influenced and supported me throughout the conceptualizing, planning, researching, writing, and defense of this dissertation, a few special thanks are in order. First and foremost I would like to express my deepest and sincerest thanks to my participants-Nick, Haifa Staiti, Amanda Qumsieh, Ran Vered, Itai Erdal, and Ofira Roll-for the tremendous risk-taking, openness, courage, imagination, and hopeful possibilities they demonstrated over the course of this project. I could have never anticipated the level of commitment and generosity you showed, both to this project and myself. I am truly grateful for and inspired by each of you. I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to my supervisory committee-Stuart Poyntz, Adel Iskandar, and Dara Culhane-each of who has supported, challenged, guided, and inspired me at every stage of this journey. It has meant the world to me that you trusted me to undertake and complete such daring and exploratory work. Thank you as well to my internal examiner, Parin Dossa, and external examiner, Jasmin Habib. The publications and future research that will result from this dissertation will undoubtedly be stronger for your engagement and feedback. Thank you both for your time and generosity. I am also grateful to Gary McCarron for chairing my defense and Kirsten McAllister for her support and guidance in the early stages of my PhD. Special thanks to my dear friend Jocelyn Roper Hallman who copyedited this dissertation, as well as various other related publications and documents. I appreciate you more than you know! To all of my colleagues and friends in the School of
Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication, 2015
In this paper I trace the various social biographies of selected family photographs that traveled... more In this paper I trace the various social biographies of selected family photographs that traveled from Palestine to Canada and depict my parents' lives in pre-1948 Palestine, the West Bank and Jordan, and cover multiple generations from the 1930s to the present day. In this work I answer previously unattended questions; for instance, how and to what extend did the social and cultural meaning of these photographs change as they were removed from the photographic traditions of the Middle East where they were produced and relocated to Canada with my parents? What social and cultural value did these photographs hold for me and my siblings as members of the postmemory generation growing up in Canada and has this significance shifted now that we are adults? Finally, what importance might this photographic archive come to have for my siblings' children? Utilizing the photographic album that houses the bulk of the family's photographs produced in Palestine and Jordan as an instrument of social and oral performance, I analyze how the members of my family narrate the multiple and fluid memories, investments and realities that these photographs facilitate.
Topia: The Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies, Jun 1, 2012
Connecting the Holocaust and the Nakba Through Photograph-based Storytelling
In this paper I trace the various social biographies of selected family photographs that traveled... more In this paper I trace the various social biographies of selected family photographs that traveled from Palestine to Canada and depict my parents’ lives in pre-1948 Palestine, theWest Bank and Jordan, and covermultiple generations from the 1930s to the present day. In this work I answer previously unattended questions; for instance, how and to what extend did the social and cultural meaning of these photographs change as they were removed from the photographic traditions of the Middle East where they were produced and relocated to Canada with my parents? What social and cultural value did these photographs hold for me and my siblings as members of the postmemory generation growing up in Canada and has this significance shifted now that we are adults? Finally, what importance might this photographic archive come to have for my siblings’ children? Utilizing the photographic album that houses the bulk of the family’s photographs produced in Palestine and Jordan as an instrument of socia...
Arab Studies Journal, 2019
In November 1956, two large-scale killings of Palestinian civilians by Israeli soldiers took plac... more In November 1956, two large-scale killings of Palestinian civilians by Israeli soldiers took place in the towns of Khan Younis and Rafah, both located in the Gaza Strip. Although more than 275 Palestinians in Khan Younis and approximately 111 Palestinians in Rafah were killed, details of these massacres remained absent from Western media and public debate, and instead were left buried and forgotten in a United Nations report that gave them scant treatment.1 That was until 2009—fifty-three years after the fact— when these violent events, their lingering repercussions, and the haunting memories of their survivors were brought to life in Joe Sacco’s aptly titled comic Footnotes in Gaza. Not only does Sacco bring the Gaza massacres into visual presence, but he also gives their victims and survivors names, faces, and voices, thus reviving them from the annals of forgotten history to confront his readers with their harrowing testimonies. In Footnotes in Gaza Sacco returns to the distinct ...
On May 14, 1948 Israel proclaimed its independence, establishing a national home for the Jewish p... more On May 14, 1948 Israel proclaimed its independence, establishing a national home for the Jewish people following the horrors of the Holocaust. However, for Palestinians this proclamation was tied to the Nakba or catastrophe, a term used to mark their displacement, dispossession, and occupation. This cycle of violence has made ethical dialogue and the witnessing of the other's trauma difficult. To begin bridging this divide, my dissertation takes up the impossible yet necessary task of "willing the impossible" (Butler, 2012, p. 222), which entails thinking the unequal yet bound tragedies of the Holocaust and the Nakba contrapuntally, morally and ethically engaging with alterity, and While it would be impossible to acknowledge everyone who has influenced and supported me throughout the conceptualizing, planning, researching, writing, and defense of this dissertation, a few special thanks are in order. First and foremost I would like to express my deepest and sincerest thanks to my participants-Nick, Haifa Staiti, Amanda Qumsieh, Ran Vered, Itai Erdal, and Ofira Roll-for the tremendous risk-taking, openness, courage, imagination, and hopeful possibilities they demonstrated over the course of this project. I could have never anticipated the level of commitment and generosity you showed, both to this project and myself. I am truly grateful for and inspired by each of you. I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to my supervisory committee-Stuart Poyntz, Adel Iskandar, and Dara Culhane-each of who has supported, challenged, guided, and inspired me at every stage of this journey. It has meant the world to me that you trusted me to undertake and complete such daring and exploratory work. Thank you as well to my internal examiner, Parin Dossa, and external examiner, Jasmin Habib. The publications and future research that will result from this dissertation will undoubtedly be stronger for your engagement and feedback. Thank you both for your time and generosity. I am also grateful to Gary McCarron for chairing my defense and Kirsten McAllister for her support and guidance in the early stages of my PhD. Special thanks to my dear friend Jocelyn Roper Hallman who copyedited this dissertation, as well as various other related publications and documents. I appreciate you more than you know! To all of my colleagues and friends in the School of
This thesis examines the development of pan-Arab broadcasting under authoritarian regimes in the ... more This thesis examines the development of pan-Arab broadcasting under authoritarian regimes in the modern Middle East. It undertakes an historical comparison of radio broadcasting under former Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser, more specifically the influential radio program Sawt al-Arab ("Voice of the Arabs"), and satellite television broadcasting under current Qatari Emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, particularly the renowned Al Jazeera News Channel. While Nasser and Al Thani may have employed their nations' broadcasting apparatuses as means by which to achieve their own ends, contemporary comparisons which imply that these authoritarian leaders have encoded their broadcasting content with similar pan-Arab rhetoric are unfounded. Rather, legitimate points of comparison are found in audience decoding responses, for both Sawt al-Arab and Al Jazeera have demonstrated the ability to transform the interactions of domestic, international and expatriate Arabs throu...
Topia Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies, 2012
Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication, 2015
In this paper I trace the various social biographies of selected family photographs that traveled... more In this paper I trace the various social biographies of selected family photographs that traveled from Palestine to Canada and depict my parents’ lives in pre-1948 Palestine, the West Bank and Jordan, and cover multiple generations from the 1930s to the present day. In this work I answer previously unattended questions; for instance, how and to what extend did the social and cultural meaning of these photographs change as they were removed from the photographic traditions of the Middle East where they were produced and relocated to Canada with my parents? What social and cultural value did these photographs hold for me and my siblings as members of the postmemory generation growing up in Canada and has this significance shifted now that we are adults? Finally, what importance might this photographic archive come to have for my siblings’ children? Utilizing the photographic album that houses the bulk of the family’s photographs produced in Palestine and Jordan as an instrument of soc...
On May 14, 1948 Israel proclaimed its independence, establishing a national home for the Jewish p... more On May 14, 1948 Israel proclaimed its independence, establishing a national home for the Jewish people following the horrors of the Holocaust. However, for Palestinians this proclamation was tied to the Nakba or catastrophe, a term used to mark their displacement, dispossession, and occupation. This cycle of violence has made ethical dialogue and the witnessing of the other's trauma difficult. To begin bridging this divide, my dissertation takes up the impossible yet necessary task of "willing the impossible" (Butler, 2012, p. 222), which entails thinking the unequal yet bound tragedies of the Holocaust and the Nakba contrapuntally, morally and ethically engaging with alterity, and While it would be impossible to acknowledge everyone who has influenced and supported me throughout the conceptualizing, planning, researching, writing, and defense of this dissertation, a few special thanks are in order. First and foremost I would like to express my deepest and sincerest thanks to my participants-Nick, Haifa Staiti, Amanda Qumsieh, Ran Vered, Itai Erdal, and Ofira Roll-for the tremendous risk-taking, openness, courage, imagination, and hopeful possibilities they demonstrated over the course of this project. I could have never anticipated the level of commitment and generosity you showed, both to this project and myself. I am truly grateful for and inspired by each of you. I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to my supervisory committee-Stuart Poyntz, Adel Iskandar, and Dara Culhane-each of who has supported, challenged, guided, and inspired me at every stage of this journey. It has meant the world to me that you trusted me to undertake and complete such daring and exploratory work. Thank you as well to my internal examiner, Parin Dossa, and external examiner, Jasmin Habib. The publications and future research that will result from this dissertation will undoubtedly be stronger for your engagement and feedback. Thank you both for your time and generosity. I am also grateful to Gary McCarron for chairing my defense and Kirsten McAllister for her support and guidance in the early stages of my PhD. Special thanks to my dear friend Jocelyn Roper Hallman who copyedited this dissertation, as well as various other related publications and documents. I appreciate you more than you know! To all of my colleagues and friends in the School of
Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication, 2015
In this paper I trace the various social biographies of selected family photographs that traveled... more In this paper I trace the various social biographies of selected family photographs that traveled from Palestine to Canada and depict my parents' lives in pre-1948 Palestine, the West Bank and Jordan, and cover multiple generations from the 1930s to the present day. In this work I answer previously unattended questions; for instance, how and to what extend did the social and cultural meaning of these photographs change as they were removed from the photographic traditions of the Middle East where they were produced and relocated to Canada with my parents? What social and cultural value did these photographs hold for me and my siblings as members of the postmemory generation growing up in Canada and has this significance shifted now that we are adults? Finally, what importance might this photographic archive come to have for my siblings' children? Utilizing the photographic album that houses the bulk of the family's photographs produced in Palestine and Jordan as an instrument of social and oral performance, I analyze how the members of my family narrate the multiple and fluid memories, investments and realities that these photographs facilitate.
Topia: The Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies, Jun 1, 2012
Connecting the Holocaust and the Nakba Through Photograph-based Storytelling
In this paper I trace the various social biographies of selected family photographs that traveled... more In this paper I trace the various social biographies of selected family photographs that traveled from Palestine to Canada and depict my parents’ lives in pre-1948 Palestine, theWest Bank and Jordan, and covermultiple generations from the 1930s to the present day. In this work I answer previously unattended questions; for instance, how and to what extend did the social and cultural meaning of these photographs change as they were removed from the photographic traditions of the Middle East where they were produced and relocated to Canada with my parents? What social and cultural value did these photographs hold for me and my siblings as members of the postmemory generation growing up in Canada and has this significance shifted now that we are adults? Finally, what importance might this photographic archive come to have for my siblings’ children? Utilizing the photographic album that houses the bulk of the family’s photographs produced in Palestine and Jordan as an instrument of socia...
Arab Studies Journal, 2019
In November 1956, two large-scale killings of Palestinian civilians by Israeli soldiers took plac... more In November 1956, two large-scale killings of Palestinian civilians by Israeli soldiers took place in the towns of Khan Younis and Rafah, both located in the Gaza Strip. Although more than 275 Palestinians in Khan Younis and approximately 111 Palestinians in Rafah were killed, details of these massacres remained absent from Western media and public debate, and instead were left buried and forgotten in a United Nations report that gave them scant treatment.1 That was until 2009—fifty-three years after the fact— when these violent events, their lingering repercussions, and the haunting memories of their survivors were brought to life in Joe Sacco’s aptly titled comic Footnotes in Gaza. Not only does Sacco bring the Gaza massacres into visual presence, but he also gives their victims and survivors names, faces, and voices, thus reviving them from the annals of forgotten history to confront his readers with their harrowing testimonies. In Footnotes in Gaza Sacco returns to the distinct ...
On May 14, 1948 Israel proclaimed its independence, establishing a national home for the Jewish p... more On May 14, 1948 Israel proclaimed its independence, establishing a national home for the Jewish people following the horrors of the Holocaust. However, for Palestinians this proclamation was tied to the Nakba or catastrophe, a term used to mark their displacement, dispossession, and occupation. This cycle of violence has made ethical dialogue and the witnessing of the other's trauma difficult. To begin bridging this divide, my dissertation takes up the impossible yet necessary task of "willing the impossible" (Butler, 2012, p. 222), which entails thinking the unequal yet bound tragedies of the Holocaust and the Nakba contrapuntally, morally and ethically engaging with alterity, and While it would be impossible to acknowledge everyone who has influenced and supported me throughout the conceptualizing, planning, researching, writing, and defense of this dissertation, a few special thanks are in order. First and foremost I would like to express my deepest and sincerest thanks to my participants-Nick, Haifa Staiti, Amanda Qumsieh, Ran Vered, Itai Erdal, and Ofira Roll-for the tremendous risk-taking, openness, courage, imagination, and hopeful possibilities they demonstrated over the course of this project. I could have never anticipated the level of commitment and generosity you showed, both to this project and myself. I am truly grateful for and inspired by each of you. I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to my supervisory committee-Stuart Poyntz, Adel Iskandar, and Dara Culhane-each of who has supported, challenged, guided, and inspired me at every stage of this journey. It has meant the world to me that you trusted me to undertake and complete such daring and exploratory work. Thank you as well to my internal examiner, Parin Dossa, and external examiner, Jasmin Habib. The publications and future research that will result from this dissertation will undoubtedly be stronger for your engagement and feedback. Thank you both for your time and generosity. I am also grateful to Gary McCarron for chairing my defense and Kirsten McAllister for her support and guidance in the early stages of my PhD. Special thanks to my dear friend Jocelyn Roper Hallman who copyedited this dissertation, as well as various other related publications and documents. I appreciate you more than you know! To all of my colleagues and friends in the School of
This thesis examines the development of pan-Arab broadcasting under authoritarian regimes in the ... more This thesis examines the development of pan-Arab broadcasting under authoritarian regimes in the modern Middle East. It undertakes an historical comparison of radio broadcasting under former Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser, more specifically the influential radio program Sawt al-Arab ("Voice of the Arabs"), and satellite television broadcasting under current Qatari Emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, particularly the renowned Al Jazeera News Channel. While Nasser and Al Thani may have employed their nations' broadcasting apparatuses as means by which to achieve their own ends, contemporary comparisons which imply that these authoritarian leaders have encoded their broadcasting content with similar pan-Arab rhetoric are unfounded. Rather, legitimate points of comparison are found in audience decoding responses, for both Sawt al-Arab and Al Jazeera have demonstrated the ability to transform the interactions of domestic, international and expatriate Arabs throu...
Topia Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies, 2012
Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication, 2015
In this paper I trace the various social biographies of selected family photographs that traveled... more In this paper I trace the various social biographies of selected family photographs that traveled from Palestine to Canada and depict my parents’ lives in pre-1948 Palestine, the West Bank and Jordan, and cover multiple generations from the 1930s to the present day. In this work I answer previously unattended questions; for instance, how and to what extend did the social and cultural meaning of these photographs change as they were removed from the photographic traditions of the Middle East where they were produced and relocated to Canada with my parents? What social and cultural value did these photographs hold for me and my siblings as members of the postmemory generation growing up in Canada and has this significance shifted now that we are adults? Finally, what importance might this photographic archive come to have for my siblings’ children? Utilizing the photographic album that houses the bulk of the family’s photographs produced in Palestine and Jordan as an instrument of soc...