About the conference
We are thrilled to announce the first convening of the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism in October 2023! This inaugural gathering will bring together ICSZโs community of scholars and activists to build and share knowledge about how โthe IHRA definition of antisemitismโ both amplifies and hides repressive power and state violence.
As detailed below, this is a working meeting for scholars and activists of ICSZโs community, particularly those engaged in researching and confronting the repressive use of โthe IHRA definitionโ to foreclose critical discussion and scholarship on Zionism. A selection of papers and videos of presentations will, however, be published after the event.
Research by activists and academics
The convening is structured by eight panels dedicated to theorizing, mapping, and political education. Presentations draw from the rich, wide-ranging landscape of academic, activist and community work that focuses not only on the โIHRA definitionโ itself, but also on the cultural, intellectual and political conditions that lend it power, its impacts, and our modes of resistance to it.
Logistics
The convening will take place in the intellectual space of UC Santa Cruz (Oct. 13) and NYU (Oct. 14). Participants at each site will be invited to join the other site remotely.
Download the CONFERENCE POSTER & PROGRAM PREVIEW!
Read letters of support for the ICSZ conference.
Read the full letter:ย “In the context of grieving all the lives lost this weekend and in remaining committed to a future where all people live in freedom and safety, we note that, while Israel has declared war on Gaza, its war on Palestinians started over 75 years ago. As we write elsewhere, Israeli apartheid and occupation โ and United States complicity in that oppression โ are the source of all this violence. We have come to this position through study; we therefore uphold the ICSZโs right to study Zionism and insist that it is not antisemitic to do so.”
Jewish Voice for Peace to UC Santa Cruz administrators
Conference co-sponsors:
Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism
American Friends Service Committee
Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies Program, SFSU
British Committee for the Universities of Palestine
Center for Creative Ecologies, UC Santa Cruz
Center for Racial Justice, UC Santa Cruz
Critical Race & Ethnic Studies Department, UC Santa Cruz
CUNY4PALESTINE
Democratic Socialists of America International Committee
DSA Santa Cruz
DSA Santa Cruzโs BDS and Palestine Solidarity Working Group
Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA)
Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies, New York University
Jewish Voice for Labour
Jewish Voice for Peace
National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP)
NYU Law Students for Justice in Palestine
Palestine Justice Coalition
ReThinking Foreign Policy
Sparkplug Foundation
Students for Justice in Palestine at CUNY Law
Teaching Palestine: Pedagogical Praxis and the Indivisibility of Justice
UC Ethnic Studies Faculty Council
U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI)
Planning Collective :
Rabab Abdulhadi, AMED Studies Program, San Francisco State University/Teaching Palestine
M. Muhannad Ayyash, Mount Royal University
Dov Baum, PhD
Arlo Fosberg, Feminist Studies, UC Santa Cruz
Emmaia Gelman, Sarah Lawrence College
Yulia Gilich
Terri Ginsberg, USACBI
Christine Hong, Critical Race & Ethnic Studies and Literature, UC Santa Cruz
Jennifer Kelly, Feminist Studies and Critical Race & Ethnic Studies, UC Santa Cruz
Arun Kundnani
Sean L. Malloy, University of California, Merced
Jennifer Mogannam, Critical Race & Ethnic Studies, UC Santa Cruz
Sheryl Nestel, Independent Jewish Voices
Lisa Rofel, National Board, Jewish Voice for Peace; Professor Emerita, University of California, Santa Cruz
Jenna Sharkawy