Doing and Undoing Anthropology in settler-colonial settings

Abstract (English)

As Palestine is still amid processes of settler-colonization, and Israel is widely understood as a settler-colonial entity, the current surge of violence brought forth questions and challenges conversing with broader debates on the praxis of decolonization and the effects of colonialism on both the settler and the colonized societies.
Zionist settler colonial violence of land exploitation, replacement, and extermination of the indigenous population foremost impacts the lives of Palestinians (Sabbagh-Khoury, 2022). Yet, it is also embedded in the subjectivity of the Jewish-Israeli settler (Kotef, 2020). This panel seeks to unfold the ways in which settler colonial structures influence practices, knowledge production, and research of scholars situated within both settler and indigenous collective groups. While our own knowledge is situated within the Zionist settler society in Palestine/Israel, we welcome papers exploring epistemological, ethical, and political challenges that indigenous scholars working in Palestine and/or other settler-colonial spaces face. We are therefore looking for papers exploring topics such as (but not restricted to):
· Challenges to decolonizing syllabi and research in settler-colonial universities.
· Pedagogical approaches to teaching classes comprising settler and indigenous students.
· Ethical problematics in conducting research and fieldwork in settler-colonial regimes.
· Questions of safety and well-being of researchers, their families, and their interlocutors.
· The positionality of researchers and the impact of settler-colonial regime on research.
· Ontological, epistemological, and methodological concerns, critics, and modifications stemming from settler-colonial settings.
· Questions regarding freedom of speech in Academia and other spaces.
· Professional stance facing Anti-normalization demands, BDS restrictions, or writing/unwriting Land Acknowledgments.