Scholar to compare Palestinians' and black Americans' struggles

Many parallels can be drawn between the fight for civil rights among black people in the United States and the struggle for equality among Palestinians in Israel, according to Maha Nassar, an assistant professor in the School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies at the University of Arizona.

Nassar will explore this comparison with her presentation, "Shared Solidarities: Palestinians and Black Americans in the 1960s and Today," as part of Benedictine University's Global Studies Forum at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 4, in Goodwin Hall, Room 321, on the Benedictine campus, 5700 College Road, Lisle. The public event is free.

Drawing from Arabic and English sources, Nassar will show how transformations in communication and geopolitical shifts in the 21st century have led a growing number of black and Palestinian activists to see themselves as engaged in a shared, yet complex struggle for equality and justice.

One example includes a large social media response to the unrest that unfolded in Ferguson, Missouri, following the police shooting of Michael Brown in August 2014. Using the Twitter hashtag #FromPalestinetoFerguson, hundreds of Palestinians posted messages of support and advice about how to handle tear gas and rubber bullets, illustrating a growing sense of solidarity between the two groups.

A specialist in 1950s and 1960s Palestinian history, Nassar does research that seeks to uncover how intellectuals constructed and contested nationalist narratives.

Her recently completed monograph, "Resisting Isolation: Palestinian Citizens of Israel and the Arab World," examines the ways in which Palestinian cultural producers in Israel positioned themselves within a Third World cultural and political milieu that extended far beyond the confines of the nation-state.

By mapping the strategies they deployed, her book demonstrates the importance of Arabic newspapers and literary journals in fostering transnational communities of solidarity.

Nassar earned a bachelor of arts in English language and literature at Benedictine University and a master of arts in Middle Eastern studies and a doctorate in Near Eastern languages and civilizations at the University of Chicago.

The Global Studies forum brings outstanding speakers to campus to analyze current world events with faculty and students in a systematic and interdisciplinary way, and is sponsored by Benedictine's College of Liberal Arts, the Global Studies major and funds from a Title VI Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language Education grant.

For information about the Global Studies Forum, contact Lynn Dransoff at (630) 829-6250 or ldransoff@ben.edu.