Dr. Shourideh Molavi / Jens Haendeler
The course introduces land as both an object of investigation and as a site of intervention, the very medium within which power and resistance are represented and conducted. Through the focused case study of the Palestinian Bedouin community, the course will attempt to unpack the inherent tensions between power, law, space and violence in the contemporary territory of Palestine/Israel. The types of knowledge production that delimit this community and their constructed relationship with land(scape), space as ‘distinct’ are a useful analytical lens toward understanding how changing governance regimes in historic Palestine have resulted in contemporary colonial and territorial dynamics. Starting from the case-study of the Bedouin community, students will learn how to use theory and empirical fieldwork to discuss conflicts and identity-formation as simultaneous processes of space-making. The course explores the intersections between aesthetics, legal frames and territorial divisions in their relation with contemporary spatial-political realities.