2016

Amahl Bishara

  • Associate Professor
  • Tufts University
Picture of Amahl Bishara

Project

Expressive Environments and the State: Laws, Violence, and Other Roadblocks to Palestinian Exchange

Program

Frederick Burkhardt Residential Fellowships for Recently Tenured Scholars

Department

Anthropology

Location

For residence at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study during calendar year 2017

Abstract

Palestinian citizens of Israel and Palestinians of the West Bank share aspects of their political identities, expressive cultures, and cultural norms. Each group lives under Israeli sovereignty, albeit with different legal statuses. Despite these similarities, organized political interaction between them is scant. I examine this puzzle by studying the different conditions for political expression and action for each group. I argue that everyday life is a foundation for political expression; thus I ethnographically examine mobility and the built environment alongside laws and military actions. This project analyzes how states shape publics. It also interrogates how assumptions about state sovereignty can further limit possibilities for expression.