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An Online Seminar

Palestine Through the Lens of Queer Politics

9.11 - 10.23/2021

alQaws is pleased to launch our first online seminar, “Palestine Through the Lens of Queer Politics.” This 6-week seminar will be aimed at US-based queer Palestinian organizers who take a holistic approach to Palestinian liberation, grounded in queer, feminist, and anti-colonial politics. The school will be prioritizing cross-border capacity-building and relationships between diaspora organizers and the queer movement in Palestine. 

This seminar grew out of alQaws’ 2021 fellowship, a three-month political education program that we have been organizing since 2019. Each year, the chosen fellow is tasked with developing an initiative focused on knowledge-sharing and movement building for LGBTQ Palestinians.

The seminar builds on the previous iteration of the fellowship—which focused on reorienting strategies to combat “pinkwashing”—and aims to build deep relationships with Palestinian queer organizers in the US, share alQaws’ knowledge production with a broader audience, and strengthen the grassroots movement for Palestinian and queer liberation. Foundational to this effort is an emphasis on the settler-colonial context and its sexual and gendered politics, with a special focus on analyzing pinkwashing as a form of colonial violence. 

Expanding our analysis around pinkwashing allows us to situate queer liberation within the larger colonial context of Palestine and challenge fragmentation of Palestinian communities. The seminar will also explore the intersections of capitalist and patriarchal violence within the context of the Palestinian queer struggle. 

Seminar participants will work with and learn from alQaws activists, allies, organizers, and researchers based in Palestine and abroad.

What is alQaws looking for in a seminar participant? 

• Palestinian Queer organizers living or based in the US
• Organizers who are involved in movement, community, or campus-based organizing
• Commitment to anti-colonial feminist queer values
• Desire to be connected to the Palestinian queer movement
• Ability to attend all seminar meetings

When?

The online seminar will take place during September-October 2021, in a format of 2-hour, online weekly meetings on Saturdays. The school will be followed with a face-to-face gathering in November (Location TBD), if COVID-19 regulations permit it.

Saturdays at 9AM PT/ 12PM ET.  

Meetings dates: 9.11, 9.18, 9.25, [10.2 Break], 10.9, 10.16, 10.23

Registration open until: August 9th, 2021

Register here.

For any inquiries: [email protected]