UNDER THE RUBBLE : PALESTINE AND THE CRISIS OF ACADEMIC FREEDOM

This is an online webinar sponsored by the Network in Defense of Historical Truth and Academic Freedom, the UP Office of the Faculty Regent (OFR), and the UP Center for International Studies (UPCIS). It will be livestreamed on March 7 (Thursday), 10am-12 (Philippine Time) on the UPCIS Facebook page.

The Network in Defense of Historical Truth and Academic Freedom was formed by nine academics based in the Philippines and abroad upon the election of the son of the former dictator, Ferdinand Marcos, as president of the Philippines in 2022. We wish to discuss the challenges to academic expression that scholars of Palestine and scholars in support of Palestine have long faced—and that are only becoming more urgent every day. We believe it is important to illuminate this issue for scholars in Asia and especially in Southeast Asia.
This webinar will bring together speakers and discussants from various parts of the world to share their experiences of restrictions on their freedom as members of the academic community to discuss, investigate, and act on the terrors ongoing in Palestine. We believe academics and students from the Philippines would benefit from being better informed about the history of Palestine and how academics in other countries have intervened. We aim for a lively informal discussion among speakers, discussants, and participants that will impress upon everyone the importance of academic freedom globally and in our respective countries. Presenters will be speaking informally and from their personal viewpoints—a space less and less afforded to them in their academic institutions. We hope to foster continuing dialogue and solidarity on the issues facing Palestine and academic freedom across our various academic communities.

Webinar Speakers and Discussants

NEFERTI X. M. TADIAR is Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Barnard College, Columbia University. She is the author of Things Fall Away: Philippine Historical Experience and the Makings of Globalization (2009); Fantasy-Production: Sexual Economies and Other Philippine Consequences for the New World Order (2004); Life-Times of Becoming Human (2022); and most recently, Remaindered Life (2022). She is founding coordinating committee member of Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine–Columbia, Barnard, Teachers College (FSJP-CBT) and steering committee member of Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FJP) National Network.

SYED FARID ALATAS is Professor of Sociology at the National University of Singapore. He headed the Department of Malay Studies at NUS from 2007 till 2013. He lectured at the University of Malaya in the Department of Southeast Asian Studies prior to joining NUS. Prof. Alatas has authored numerous books and articles, including Ibn Khaldun (Oxford University Press, 2013); Applying Ibn Khaldun: The Recovery of a Lost Tradition in Sociology (Routledge, 2014), and (with Vineeta Sinha) Sociological Theory Beyond the Canon (Palgrave, 2017). His areas of interest are the sociology of Islam, social theory, religion and reform, intra- and inter-religious dialogue, and the study of Eurocentrism.

ANABELLE RAGSAG is from Mindanao, Philippines, and is currently based in Ohron:Wakon, which in Kanienʼkéha (Mohawk) means ravine, and is also known as Hamilton, Ontario where she is a community builder, sessional lecturer, and doctoral student at McMaster University since 2021. She is a Stephen Lewis Social Policy PhD Fellow and Sherman Centre for Digital Scholarship resident. As a Convener of Student Caucuses at the School of Social Work, she co-convened a pan-Canadian Social Work students, academics, and practitioners’ initiative to express solidarity with Palestinian human rights (bit.ly/SocialWorkersforPalestine).

FRANCEZCA KWE is a fiction writer and assistant professor of creative writing at the University of the Philippines Diliman. She is also a unionist and secretary general of the All UP Academic Employees Union Diliman chapter–a militant, progressive, and nationalist union representing UP Diliman’s faculty and research, extension, and professional staff (REPS). As such, her research interests include educational issues, activism, and public sector unionism.

Source: UP Center for International Studies Facebook