From Spacio-cide to Genocide: War on Gaza

You are cordially invited to join us for a public lecture organized by the ECMC Chair in Islamic Studies; and the Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies (MEIS) at the University of Alberta, and co-sponsored by the Department of Political Science, Canada Research Chair in the Politics of Citizenship and Human Rights, and Edmonton Council of Muslim Communities

From Spacio-cide to Genocide: War on Gaza

Sari Hanafi, Professor of Sociology at American University of Beirut, Lebanon Past President of the International Sociological Association (ISA)

The Evening Includes a Complimentary Pizza Reception

Please register by May 7 @ 5:00 PM

Abstract

In the 16-month Gaza War, the Palestinian civilian death toll has reached 48 times that of Israeli casualties during the October 7 Hamas attack. How can we frame this war? What kind of moral reasoning and clarity is possible? In my talk, I will present this conflict as a shift from "spacio-cide"—targeting land to render it uninhabitable and compel the "voluntary" transfer of the Palestinian population—to genocide. Beyond analysing the current dynamics of the war, I will examine the politics of denial within some Western media and academic circles and the sanctioned culture of cancellation surrounding this conflict. I will conclude by exploring various scenarios, from a new Nakba to the possibility of a just political solution, each of which could radically transform not only the Palestinian-Israeli conflict but also the broader geopolitical landscape.

Bio

Sari Hanafi is currently a Professor of Sociology, Director of the Center for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies and Chair of the Islamic Studies program at the American University of Beirut. He was the President of the International Sociological Association (2018-2023). He was also the editor of Idafat: the Arab Journal of Sociology (Arabic) (2017-2022). Recently he created the “Portal for Social impact of scientific research in/on the Arab World” (Athar). He was the Vice President of the board of the Arab Council of Social Science (2015-2016). He holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales-Paris (School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences) (1994). He is the author of numerous journal articles and book chapters on the sociology of religion; connection of moral philosophy to the social sciences; the sociology of (forced) migration applied to the Palestinian refugees; politics of scientific research. Among his recent books are: Studying Islam in the Arab World: The Rupture Between Religion and the Social Sciences (Forthcoming in Routledge); Knowledge Production in the Arab World: The Impossible Promise (with R. Arvanitis); and The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of the Middle East (co-edited with A. Salvatore and K. Obuse). He is the winner of 2014 Abdelhamid Shouman Award and 2015 Kuwait Award for social science. In 2019, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate (Doctor Honoris Causa) from the National University of San Marcos (the first and the leading university in Lima- Peru – established in 1551). In 2022 he became a lifetime corresponding fellow of the British Academy. For more information, please visit his website: https://sites.aub.edu.lb/sarihanafi/