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George Fourlas and Sabeen Ahmed will lead a teach-in on anti-colonial solidarity in light of the recent and ongoing war on Gaza and current social-political struggles in the region and globally. Their presentation will be based on Fourlas' recent book, Anti-Colonial Solidarity: Race, Reconciliation, and MENA Liberation.

About the Book:

George Fourlas critiques the ways that orientalism, racism, and colonialism cooperatively emerged and afforded the imaginary landscapes of the recently recategorized Middle East. This critique also clarifies possibility, both in a past that has been obscured by the colonial palimpsest, and in the present through exemplary cases of MENA solidarity that act as guideposts for what might be achieved through effective coordination and meaning-making practices. Hence, in confronting the problem of racialization, the author reflects on the conditions of the possibility of a solidarity amongst MENA peoples, and subjugated peoples more generally, that resists the cyclical character of violent domination which has defined colonial power since at least 1492.

Rather than offer a blueprint for a well-ordered free society, however, Anti-Colonial Solidarity explores what is required to enact an open-ended collectivity that resists rigid universalism, as well as reification, and prioritizes reciprocal relations with others and the environment. At once a rejection of orientalist narratives and a critique of solidarity that illuminates defensive possibilities for MENA people beyond the insufficient, yet still necessary, politics of recognition, Anti-Colonial Solidarity is a call to action for MENA people, and subjugated people more generally, to reclaim ourselves and our history from the trappings of colonial domination.

About the Author & Guest Speaker:

George Fourlas is a senior researcher with Security in Context. Formerly the SHIFT Endowed Associate Professor of Applied Ethics at Hampshire College, Fourlas has also held positions at Franklin and Marshall College, Worcester State University, the University of Oregon, and Globernance (Instituto de Gobernanza Democrática). He is a co-editor of the Radical Philosophy Review and the senior managing editor for Global Insecurity. Learn more about Dr. Fourlas from his website: gnfourlas.com

Sabeen Ahmed is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Swarthmore College, whose work is concerned with questions at the intersection of race, power, and law, and understands empire—which takes the form today of white supremacist racial capitalism—as the defining political and existential problem of modernity.