"Demystifying Islamophobia, Anti-Palestinian Racism, and Antisemitism" A Screening and Discussion
“In response to the heightened Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian racism, and antisemitism on university campuses across Canada this panel contextualizes, historicizes, and critically unpacks these concepts to provide a deeper and more nuanced understanding of these forms of oppression and their various manifestations” (WLU).
The panel was followed by a 30 minute debrief/discussion co-facilitated by CRiCS Director Angela Failler and the CRiCS Advisory Committee Student Representative Perry Thomson. Students and Professors from the Centre for Research in Cultural Studies came together to discuss emergent themes from the panel including student solidarity, academic freedom, and links to settler colonialism on Treaty 1.
The webinar featured the following panellists:
Dalia El Farra has a strong background in Community Engagement, Relationship Building, Communications, and Strategic Planning. She has substantial experience in building Diversity, Equity & Inclusion initiatives and various inter-sectoral partnerships and multi-partner networks. The bulk of her work has been in the non-for-profit world, mostly working with immigrants and refugees, as well as her current work with one of Toronto’s post-secondary institutions as a DEDI Advisor with their Human Rights Centre.
Dalia has a Social Service Work background and is currently completing her Master of Education in Social Justice Education with a focus on Workplace Learning and Social Change. She completed her Leadership and Inclusion Certificate through Centennial College, after which she became a Certified Canadian Inclusion Practitioner (CCIP™) through CCDI.
Dalia is Canadian-Palestinian, is a native Arabic and English speaker, volunteers with various community organizations, has two teenage children, and two cats.
Sheryl Nestel holds a PhD from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto where she taught sociology and equity studies from 2000-2012 and was the coordinator of the Office of Teaching Support. She is the author of numerous refereed journal articles, book chapters and reports on race and racism in the health professions and the author of Obstructed Labour: Race and Gender in the Re- emergence of Midwifery (UBC Press, 2007), winner of the Canadian Women's Studies Annual Book Prize for 2007.
She recently completed a ground- breaking research project, Unveilling the Chilly Climate: The Suppression of Speech on Palestine in Canada written with Rowan Gaudet, which surveys the impact of harassment, intimidation, and the suppression of speech on Palestine on faculty, students and activists in Canada. She serves on the steering committees of the Jewish Faculty Network and the International Jewish Collective for Justice in Palestine. She is an Affiliated Scholar at New College, University of Toronto.
Alejandro Paz is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Toronto Scarborough, and he has written about the politics of migration, language and citizenship in Israel/Palestine, as well as settlement in occupied East Jerusalem. His book Latinos in Israel: Language and Unexpected Citizenship (Indiana UP) was published in 2018. His current research is about Israeli English online journalism, and its impact on North Atlantic public opinion. He co-chairs the Hearing Palestine Initiative at the U of T, and is on the steering committee of the Jewish Faculty Network.
Jasmin Zine is a Professor of Sociology and Religion & Culture at Wilfrid Laurier University. Her recent book: Under Siege: Islamophobia and the 9/11 Generation (McGill -Queens University Press) was named on the Hill Times list of Best Books of 2022. She is author of a major report on the Canadian Islamophobia industry that examines the networks of hate and bigotry that purvey and monetize Islamophobia.
She served as a consultant on combating Islamophobia for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Council of Europe (COE), and the Office for the Democratic Institutions and Human Rights at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (ODHIR/OSCE). She is a sought-after media commentator and has given numerous invited talks and keynotes in dozens of countries internationally. Dr. Zine is co-founder of the International Islamophobia Studies Research Association (IISRA).
This webinar was organized with the support of these programs at WLU:
SPONSORS
- Anthropology
- Community Psychology
- Cultural Studies
- Cultural Analysis and Social Theory
- Faculty for Palestine (Laurier & University of Waterloo)
- Global Studies
- Laurier Students' Public Interest Research Group (LSPIRG)
- Independent Jewish Voices (Waterloo Region & Guelph)
- Religion and Culture
- Religion, Culture, Global Justice (MA)
- Social Work
- Social Justice and Community Engagement (MA)
- Sociology
- Women and Gender Studies