Decolonizing Haifa: Shared Living, Intercommunality, Bi-Nationalism
Call for Papers – Academic Workshop
Decolonizing Haifa: Shared Living, Intercommunality, Bi-Nationalism
December 17-18, 2023, at The Social Development Committee, Haifa
The gradual consolidation of “the one-state reality” in Palestine/Israel over recent decades is putting the question of bi-nationalism back on the public and scholarly agenda. Nowhere, perhaps, is this more evident than in “mixed cities”, where both communities live together, albeit under ongoing processes of erasure and elimination associated with the settler colonial drive for Jewish supremacy. Against this backdrop, and the violence it perpetuates, the city of Haifa has emerged as an alternative. In Haifa, historical conditions and contemporary dynamics have led to the creation of a strong Palestinian community, undergoing urban revival that stands firm in the face of ethnic cleansing. This process is reshaping the city’s longstanding ethos of “coexistence”, calling for new imaginaries and visions of what it means—or could mean— for Palestinians and Jews to live together.
To examine these questions, we invite scholars of Haifa in the social science and the humanities to participate in a workshop on decolonizing Haifa, and the potentials and limitations of urban bi-nationalism. The workshop will provide a setting to share and discuss papers prepared in advance for a special volume of the journal Palestine/Israel Review, to be published in July 2025.
Papers accepted to the workshop should be based on original research, investigating specific cases where the possibilities of shared living or bi-nationalism have been practiced, negotiated, or imagined in Haifa, in past or in the present.
Contributions should focus on 20th century histories and contemporary ethnographies of intercommunal relations. We welcome contributions from a range of topical and disciplinary perspectives, including political economy, cultural production, governance and institutions, urban planning, migrant and religious communities, and everyday life.
Workshop participants must commit to contribute an article to the special issue and work with the editors to see its timely publication. The organizers will cover local transportation expenses to Haifa, as well as meals during the workshop.
Please submit an abstract of approximately 400 words clearly outlining your argument, method, and/or sources to Nadeem Karkabi: nkarkabi@gmail.com or to Eilat Maoz: maozeila@gmail.com