This periscope brings together political analyses of the academic boycott as a global movement, from different political locations and contexts of struggle, as a way of taking stock of past gains and challenges and providing directions for the future. In this collection, edited by Sunaina Maira and Neferti Tadiar, Sunaina Maira highlights the radical significance of the boycott for struggles within the U.S.; Salma Musa traces the anti-colonial and anti-apartheid political genealogy of the academic boycott; Haidar Eid addresses the boycott’s strategy of denormalization as a means to decolonization; Kristian Davis Bailey argues for the need to develop the interconnections between racial and colonial violence; Robin D. G. Kelley argues for Black-Palestinian solidarity as a political stance; and Steven Salaita underscores the principles of decolonial activity and justice that will spell the future of the BDS movement.
In 2012, Social Text published a Periscope dossier on Palestine by a delegation of American Studies scholars to Palestine organized by USACBI. The following year, the first academic boycott resolutions were passed by the Association of Asian American Studies and … Continue reading “Solidarity and Radical Change”
2015 was the tenth anniversary of the official launching of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement by Palestinian civil society organizations, including over 170 political parties, activist organizations, trade unions, women’s groups, and other segments of the Palestinian national movement, … Continue reading “A Radical Vision of Freedom”
Because I am a Palestinian, born to a “goy mother,” I do not have the option of leaving the blockaded Gaza Strip where I live to attend a conference, or a give a talk at any international academic institution. Along … Continue reading “BDS: Decolonizing Palestine”
In 2005, indigenous Palestinians issued the most authoritative call for international solidarity to come out of Palestine in decades. A broad coalition of unions, popular organizations, and civil society institutions representing Palestinians within the 1967 occupied territories, Palestinian citizens inside … Continue reading “BDS and Third World Internationalism”
The summer of 2014 was a crucial historical conjuncture in which Palestinian-Black solidarity both deepened and became more complex, as Angela Davis’s latest book, Freedom is a Constant Struggle (2015) was absolutely right to identify. The killings of Eric Garner, … Continue reading “An Anti-Racist Movement”
Embedded within each of the three goals of the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS)–the right of return for refugees, full legal equality within Israel, and an end to occupation and colonization of Palestinian land—is an appeal to … Continue reading “Strengthening Anti-Racist Politics within BDS”
When the editors of this dossier asked me to contribute, they suggested I look toward the future of BDS and think about what might await, and what should await, the movement as it moves forward. Where might its activists most … Continue reading “BDS Beyond Palestine”
