Gaza in Context: A Collaborative Teach-in Series
3CT is collaborating with a group of international institutions to present Gaza in Context, a series of weekly virtual teach-ins and conversations on a host of issues that introduce our common university communities, educators, researchers, and students to the history and present of Gaza, in context.
Please note: this page will be updated weekly with details of live events and video recordings.
Read more about the initiative.
Upcoming events:
Thursday, April 11, 2024, 12:00pm CST
In Defense of Academic Freedom: Defamation, Intimidation, and Suspension (Part 2)
In this second installment, Bassam Haddad and Miriam Durrani moderate a conversation with two faculty members (Danny Shaw and Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda) who have been suspended/fired for their support of Palestine during Israel’s ongoing Genocide in Gaza. They will tell their own story and address the context of their scholarship and advocacy, as well as how their academic freedom was violated. They are not alone.
Past events:
Thursday, April 4, 2024
Gaza War Chronicles (Part 3): Genocide and Justice
Mouin Rabbani addresses the war’s local, regional, and international dimensions and repercussions with emphasis on the complicity of the United States. Prominent themes that have emerged or re-emerged, such as recent ICJ provisional measures and Israel’s starvation tactics and wanton killing will be discussed.
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Thursday, March 21, 2024
In Defense of Academic Freedom: Defamation, Intimidation, and Suspension
In this first installment of a new series, In Defense of Academic Freedom, we host faculty members who have been suspended or placed on administrative leave for their support of Palestine during Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.
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Thursday, March 14, 2024
Ongoing Nakba, Ongoing Return
While the conceptual and material reality of the ongoing Nakba is incredibly relevant in understanding Palestinian history, Rana Barakat addressed how the ongoing Nakba is but one part of the larger framing of Ongoing Return.
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Tuesday, February 27, 2024
The Intersection of Academic Freedom and the War on Gaza: A View from the Region
February 5 of this year marked the ninth anniversary of Dr. Sami Al-Arian leaving the US for Turkey after living in America for four decades. It was the culmination of a twelve-year saga that started in 2003 when he was targeted and arrested by the US government because of his activism on Palestine. We sit down across an ocean and a sea to discuss a view from the region regarding recent developments in the War On Gaza.
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Thursday, February 22, 2024
Present-Absent: ’48 Palestinians (Part 3): Conditional Citizenship, Restrictive Laws, and the Rise of the Far Right in Israel
Since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza, Palestinians in Israel have faced an increasing number of measures aimed at silencing them, with calls to have their citizenship revoked. In this series, we examine various aspects of “citizenship” as well as repressive measures, laws, and regulations that restrict it. This third installment features Honda Ghanim, Sawsan Zaher, Raef Zreik, and Leena Dallasheh in conversation with Bassam Haddad and Isis Nusair.
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Thursday, February 15, 2024
Present-Absent: ’48 Palestinians (Part 2): Conditional Citizens
Since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza, Palestinians in Israel have faced an increasing number of measures aimed at silencing them, with calls to have their citizenship revoked. In this series, we will examine what “citizenship” means and discuss some of the repressive measures. This second installment features Diana Buttu, a Palestinian-Canadian lawyer and analyst based in Haifa and Communications Director to the Institute for Middle East Understanding.
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Tuesday, February 12, 2024
Present-Absent: ’48 Palestinians (Part 1): The Silencing of Palestinian Citizens of Israel During the War on Gaza
Adi Johnny Mansour, a Palestinian lawyer with Adalah Legal Center in Haifa, addresses the crackdown on free speech in Israel through arrests, disciplinary procedures in academic institutions, and the firing of employees from the workplace.
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Thursday, February 8, 2024
Mainstream Media Coverage of the War on Gaza: Complicity, Duplicity, Accountability
This teach-in with Laila Al-Arian, Adel Iskandar, and Will Youmans addresses various aspects of the mainstream media coverage of the War on Gaza in the “West,” including traditional and new media.
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Sunday, February 4, 2024
Ramifications of UNRWA’s Funding Suspension
This talk with UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese discussed the decisions and ramifications of a number of countries withdrawing their funding of UNRWA following Israel’s largely unsubstantiated claims that UNRWA employees were affiliated with Hamas.
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Monday, January 29, 2024
Colonial Zionism and the Shattering of an Age of Coexistence
There is no such thing as a clash of civilizations. Instead, there was a complex, and now obscured, culture of coexistence in the Middle East that was subjected to a relentless late Western colonialism inaugurated after WWI. Ussama Makdisi explores why with moderator Bassam Haddad.
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Tuesday, January 23, 2024
Palestine, Zionism, and the Nakba
Sherene Seikaly traced the history of antisemitism, the rise of Zionism, and the social and economic landscape of Ottoman Palestine. Turning to the twentieth century, the teach-in covered British colonial rule and end in 1948 with the troubled twin birth of the Israeli state and the Palestinian refugee condition.
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Thursday, January 18 and Friday, January 18, 2024
Gaza War Chronicles: From October 7 to The Hague (Parts 1 & 2)
Mouin Rabbani—the host of the incisive Connections podcast and author of the Ongoing War on Gaza Quick Thoughts commentary—examined the background and context of the current crisis, the war itself, and the manner in which it is being conducted.
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Monday, January 8, 2024
Genocide in Gaza: Dimensions of an Unfolding Catastrophe
John J. Mearsheimer joined 3CT director Lisa Wedeen and Bassam Haddad in conversation to address Israel’s apartheid state, the catastrophe in Gaza, regional reverberations, and the role of the Israel lobby in contemporary U.S. politics.
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Thursday, December 21, 2023
Regional Responses to the War on Gaza
This teach-in featured Mouin Rabbani, Safaa Al-Ahmad, Amal Saad, Hesham Sallam, Omar Sirri, and Ziad Abu-Rish.
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Thursday, December 14, 2023
Colonial Narratives: Between Myth and Reality (Part 2)
This teach-in examined recurring colonial myths, while simultaneously juxtaposing them against actual statements made by original founders, the historical record, and enduring policies/practices of the state of Israel.
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Friday, December 8, 2023
Media and the War on Gaza
Amahl A. Bishara, Dina Matar, and Adel Iskandar addressed the media’s role in shaping Western public opinion of the war and how it has become a battleground for the Israeli state and military.
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Thursday, December 7, 2023
Know Your Rights: The Assault on Campus Activism
This critical and timely conversation on matters of rights and activism–on campus and beyond—addressed First Amendment rights, lessons from other movements, the suppression of free speech, the weaponization of antisemitism, and strategies for addressing and resisting silencing on campus.
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Tuesday, November 28, 2023
Colonial Narratives: Between Myth and Reality
This teach-in examined recurring colonial myths in some detail, while simultaneously juxtaposing them against actual statements made by original founders, the historical record, and enduring policies/practices of the state of Israel. From founding myths, to settlements, to propensity for making/rejecting peace, and beyond, this conversation documents the gap between myths and realities of Israel’s decades-long occupation and dispossession of Palestinians.
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Tuesday, November 28, 2023
International Law and the War on Palestine
Israel’s onslaught against Palestinians has raised a significant number of legal questions regarding the legality of the operation, the regulation of the use of force, as well as the charge of genocide Several international legal teams have submitted petitions to the ICC and the Center for Constitutional Rights has sued President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to stop US support for Israel’s unfolding genocide. This teach-in explored the alleged legal violations, the applicable laws of war, and the significance of international law in the face of a chronic crisis of accountability.
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Monday, November 20, 2023
The Unending War on the Children of Gaza
This teach-in focused on the young people of Gaza who make up nearly half of the population. The reigning narrative on these children dehumanizes them, fueling the war on them. While humanitarian aid is much needed, it is not the long-term solution for their trauma, which is caused by a structural and ongoing process of settler colonialism. Palestinian children know and express resistance daily, despite their lack of formal citizenship.
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Tuesday, November 14, 2023
The Social History of Gaza: The Ongoing Past and Present
This teach-in addressed the context of Gaza over time. In conversation with Abaher al Saqqa—author of the book Gaza: a Social History under British Colonial Rule, 1917-1948—we explored how we live in the present through various lenses of the past.
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Friday, November 10, 2023
Antisemitism & Anti-Zionism
This teach-in featured a discussion on antisemitism and anti-Zionism and how the two have been conflated, especially in recent weeks in light of the ongoing conflict. Speakers include Adam Horowitz, Sherene Seikaly, John Reynolds, and Shira Robinson.
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Thursday, November 2, 2023
Gaza in Geography
This teach-in contextualized the geography of Gaza historically as the once largest district in Palestine to its present day as a besieged Strip. Holding significantly less geographic familiarity than the West Bank with the larger public, we also broke down the significance of the current evacuation line at Wadi Gaza, what the current displacements will mean for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip moving forward, and how the ongoing ground invasion is evolving.
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Tuesday, October 31, 2023
Human Rights, Gaza, and the War on Palestine
Speakers Giulia Marini and Omar Shakir addressed the humanitarian ramifications of Israel’s three-week assault on Gaza, as the death toll and destruction continue to mount.
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Thursday, October 26, 2023
Gaza in History
The second virtual event in the Gaza in Context series featured speakers Beshara Doumani, Ilana Feldman, and Sherene Seikaly. During the event, the speakers explored the broader history of Gaza, and how Gaza fits into the Question of Palestine in the past and the present.
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Friday, October 20, 2023
Gaza 101
The first virtual event in the Gaza in Context series featured speakers Ziad Abu-Rish, Fida Adely, Aslı Bali, Rana Barakat, Rochelle Davis, Beshara Doumani, Noura Erakat, Adel Iskandar, Maya Mikdashi, Sherene Seikaly, and Lisa Wedeen, as well as clips from the 2016 film Gaza in Context.
Gaza in Context is hosted by Jadaliyya and organized by the Arab Studies Institute, Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, George Mason University’s Middle East and Islamic Studies Program, Rutgers Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Birzeit University, Harvard’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Brown University’s Center for Middle East Studies, University of Chicago’s Center for Contemporary Theory, Brown University’s New Directions in Palestinian Studies, Georgetown University’s Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies, Georgetown Doha, American University of Cairo’s Alternative Policy Studies, Middle East Studies’ Global Academy.