In the first part, we will explore and discuss diverse obstacles faced by Palestinian refugees locally in Florence, and comparatively in other contexts more broadly. Our speakers will share their perspectives and experience on approaching logistical issues such as visas, health insurance, discrimination – as well as navigating claims of antisemitism in doing work on Palestine. We will have a participatory open discussion, in which the aim will be to collectively discuss how to aggregate and account for these issues, so that we might produce action points to more proactively support Palestinian refugees to our local community in Florence, and to join our European University Institute.
After a short break we will then focus on the more academic dimension and explore the difficulties and outright repression scholars working on Palestine face. Western universities often embrace anti- cancel culture narratives to justify their failure to combat racist, sexist, colonial, or homophobic speech on campus. Their response is however diametrically opposite when it comes to anti-racist researchers and professors, who find their voices suppressed by censorship and layoff threats. In Europe, just like racism itself, the problem continues to be ignored and hidden from the (white) public eye. Yet, that is the modus operandi of its academic institutions, especially regarding anti-Zionism. The recent developments in Israel’s genocidal colonial project have intensified that institutional persecution and shed light on how academic freedom is often limited to those who speak within the current hegemonic frame, while others must fear consequences to their career and lives. In the second part of our joint event, we invite all to break the myth of the leftist university . We welcome persons who have experienced said persecution to discuss academic repression and the fallacy of cancel culture in a world where most universities (and especially those in the Global North) are willingly furthering the status quo and actively impeding radical emancipatory critique. We would also like to discuss a potential definition on antisemitism which the EUI and other universities could adopt.
We will therein conclude by continuing the discussion on the petition for an Inclusive and Anti-Apartheid EUI, launched by the Working Group on Palestine at our previous ICJ case event, in order to discuss in further detail questions of funding, visas, academic freedom and other obstacles in helping to support scholars at risk. Our aim will be to produce recommendations on how to ensure academic freedom and how to protect scholars working counter-hegemonic projects such as the important work being done on Palestine.
Speakers:
Arees Bishara (Tel Aviv University)
Maria Chiara Rioli (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia)
Federica Stagni (Scuola Normale Superiore & SESAMO)
Jairo Flores-Funez (Texas Tech University)
Anna Younes (Graduate Institute)
Malaka Shaikh (University of St Andrews)