Les Field, Professor, University of New Mexico, Department of Anthropology.
Professor Field will also moderate a global discussion dinner on same topic in September.
Thursday, August 22nd, 2024 – 4:00 p.m.
Botts Hall, Albuquerque Special Collections Library,
423 Central NE, Albuquerque, NM.
The Gaza Strip, 139 square miles where over 2.1 million Palestinians live in cities such as Gaza, Khan Yunis, and Rafah and the refugee camps that surround them, is a unique political unit where crimes against humanity and mass murder have been features of its history since its creation in 1948. Despite not being officially recognized as a state, the Gaza Strip is treated as an enemy state by Israel. Its anomalous and perilous sociopolitical status is intricately intertwined with a population where over two-thirds are refugees and their descendants whose origin is elsewhere in Palestine. This crisis has been exacerbated by the devastation of both the built and natural environments since the Israeli invasion following the October 7, 2023, atrocities. The lecture will examine how and why the Gaza Strip was created and how the conditions of its creation are understood as part of histories of colonialism and settler colonialism in Palestine/Israel.
Les W. Field is a Professor in UNM’s Department of Anthropology, where he has taught since 1994. Focused upon the comparative study of forms of coloniality, indigenous identities, and the construction of nation-states in Nicaragua, Colombia, California and Palestine, Dr. Field teaches a class titled “Settler Colonialism in Palestine in the 21st Century,” as well as a class titled “Colombia in War and Peace: Race, Class, and Gender at the Epicenter of Conflict and Peace-making.” As the Director of UNM’s Peace Studies Program, Dr. Field co-organized with Alex Lubin an undergraduate and graduate student field school in 2011 and 2015 in the Occupied West Bank. His current book project is about types of human relationships and communities that are variously understood as utopias, dystopias, anti-utopias, and indigenous futurisms, in Nicaragua, Colombia, Native North America, Palestine, and Jewish historical places.
$15 for AIA Members; $20 for Non-Members; Students under 30 with ID – Free.
Pay online or mail check made out to AIA by August 20th to: AIA, PO Box 92921, Albuquerque, NM 87199.
