A List
12/06/04

SLU PROFESSOR WRITES BOOK ON FIRST PALESTINIAN INTIFADA

CANTON – A new book by a St. Lawrence University professor explores the 
memories of Palestinians in the "intifada generation," those who were between 
10 and 18 years old when the intifada began in 1987.
	Occupied by Memory, by Assistant Professor of Global Studies John 
Collins, has just been published by New York University Press. Based on extensive 
personal interviews, "the book provides a detailed look at the intifada memories 
of ordinary Palestinians," according to the publishers.
      These personal stories are presented as part of a complex and politically 
charged discursive field through which young Palestinians are invested with 
meaning by scholars, politicians, journalists and other observers. What 
emerges from their memories is a sense of a generation caught between a past 
that is simultaneously traumatic, empowering and exciting – and a future that 
is perpetually uncertain. In this sense, Collins argues that understanding the 
stories and the struggles of the intifada generation is a key to understanding 
the ongoing state of emergency for the Palestinian people. The book will be 
of interest not only to scholars of the Middle East but also to those 
interested in nationalism, discourse analysis, social movements and oral 
history.
	Collins is the co-editor of the 2002 NYU Press book Collateral Language: 
A User's Guide to America's New War. A graduate of Wesleyan University, he 
earned his master's degree and Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota.
 
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