One may expect an account that opens with diaspora, persecution, and trauma in a Jewish context to conclude with Zionism or “Jewish and democratic” as the circumventing script that counters past and prevents future violence. Accordingly, one may also expect diaspora and violence to be used interchangeably. That Sarah Schulman’s book opens with diaspora, persecution, and trauma but arrives at totally different conclusions is one of the significant contributions of her political journey and memoir. Schulman constructs a chronological account of her emergence as a supporter of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, which is enriched by the unresolved entanglement of contested identities, sites of accountability, and political struggles. Structured around two events and the moments that precede and follow them, the book opens with “Before” (introd.)—that is, before “Awareness” (chap. 1)—and thereafter leads to “Understanding” (chap. 11). “Before” delineates Schulman’s early biography and family history of persecution and...
Israel/Palestine and the Queer International by Sarah Schulman
RUTH PRESER is a feminist and a postdoctoral fellow at ICI Berlin Institute for Cultural Inquiry. She combines queer theory, cultural studies, and empirically informed inquiry in her work, which lies at the intersection of narrative and performative theory, public cultures, and politics of belonging. Her most recent article, “A Methodology of Damage,” appeared in the International Journal of Social Research Methodology (2014). Currently she is working on a monograph on queer Israeli diaspora in Berlin. Contact: [email protected].
CHEN MISGAV engages in and writes about activism, planning, and gender, sexual, and other identities. He is a PhD candidate in the Department of Geography and Human Environment and the PECLAB at Tel Aviv University; his dissertation is titled “Spatial Activism: Perspectives of Body, Identity, and Memory,” under the supervision of Tovi Fenster. Misgav has published articles and book chapters on activism, identity, gender, and sexuality in Hebrew and English and has coedited a themed issue on gender and geography for HAGAR: Studies in Culture, Politics, and Identities. Contact: [email protected].
Ruth Preser, Chen Misgav; Israel/Palestine and the Queer International by Sarah Schulman. Journal of Middle East Women's Studies 1 March 2015; 11 (1): 111–113. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/15525864-2832394
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