John Collins
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
7:30 p.m.
Eben Holden Center

Settler Colonialism and Its Discontents: Why Palestine Matters So Much

With Palestine as a primary example, Collins will focus on the turbulent period that has been called the “long 1960s” to explore the relationship between settler-colonial projects and the specific forms of radical opposition they inevitably produce. 

John Collins teaches courses on Palestine, nationalism, globalization, media analysis, cultural studies, and the global politics of violence.  His book Occupied By Memory: The Intifada Generation and the Palestinian State of Emergency (NYU Press, 2004), based on field research in Balata Refugee Camp, explores the relationship between nationalism, memory, and generational identity in the context of the first Palestinian intifada.  He is also the co-editor, with Ross Glover, of Collateral Language: A User’s Guide to America’s New War (NYU Press, 2002), a collection of essays critically interrogating the rhetoric used to justify U.S. military action after the September 11 attacks.  He received his M.A. and Ph.D. in Comparative Studies in Discourse and Society from the University of Minnesota, where he was a MacArthur Scholar.