We are very excited to have Professor Didier Fassin (Collège de France and Institute for Advanced Study), for the next installment of the Bisan Lecture Series, on Wednesday November 13th, at 7PM Palestine time, who will speak on “Moral Abdication. On the Consent to the Destruction of the Palestinians of Gaza“. Register here to get the Zoom link!
We are very excited to have Professor Didier Fassin (Collège de France and Institute for Advanced Study), for the next installment of the Bisan Lecture Series, on Wednesday November 13th, at 7PM Palestine time, who will speak on “Moral Abdication. On the Consent to the Destruction of the Palestinians of Gaza“.
Register here to get the Zoom link!
Title: Moral Abdication. On the Consent to the Destruction of the Palestinians of Gaza
Abstract: Consent to the destruction of the Palestinians in Gaza has created an enormous gulf in the global moral order. History will record how Western governments and large parts of their elites have supported the war waged by Israel following Hamas’s attack on October 7, 2023, and have silenced voices calling for a ceasefire, a just peace, and the respect of international law. Not only have buildings been devastated and civilians massacred, but language and thought have also been damaged. The webinar will discuss how the history of the occupation of Palestine and the oppression of Palestinians has been negated, how a specific vocabulary and grammar of facts have been imposed, how accusations of antisemitism have produced censorship and self-censorship, how mainstream media have contributed to rendering the brutalization invisible, and how the unequal worth of lives and the differential treatment of deaths have been normalized. Elements of interpretation of this moral abdication will be proposed.
Short Biography: Didier Fassin is an anthropologist, sociologist, and physician. He is a Professor of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study and a Professor at the Collège de France, holding the Chair in Moral Questions and Social Issues. He also holds a research directorship at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales.
At the crossroads of two disciplines, he initially conducted studies in medical anthropology, focusing on issues of power and inequality in Senegal, Ecuador, and France. His research on the politics and experiences of AIDS in South Africa led him to develop the conceptual framework of the embodiment of history to explain the reproduction of social disparities and the emergence of heterodox interpretations of the epidemic. A former vice-president of Médecins Sans Frontières, he launched a scientific program on humanitarianism in various international contexts of conflict and disaster, analyzing the implications of framing injustice as suffering, violence as trauma, and resistance as resilience. He also investigated immigration and asylum policies as part of the French collective project on borders and boundaries (Comede).
He has authored over twenty books, translated into seven languages, the most recent of which is “A Strange Defeat: On Consent to the Crushing of Gaza” (in French: Une étrange défaite, Sur le consentement à l’écrasement de Gaza, La Découverte, 2024).
Register here! You can find the list of previous and upcoming lectures on our website.
The Bisan lecture on October 16 was delivered by Prof. Rashed. In his lecture, Professor Rashed offered a political reading of the situation of Arabic studies in the Western academic world. He linked the marginalization of Arabic sciences and philosophy to the invention of a so-called “Judeo-Christian” European identity, and revealed historical layers of studies, which tracked the traditionally close relationship between Hebrew and Arabic research and how it gave way to colonial interpretations which effaced this rich relationship and reduced the results to accommodate with the new invented framework. Thus, for example, we heard of chapters in the history of mathematics and of philosophy, which ignored essentialist national identities – be they Greek, Arab, or Jewish – and concentrated in content alone. The same spirit was kept by anti-colonialist studies, but breached by the lack of interest in epistemology, characterizing the colonial spirit. This historical reading was accompanied by an examination of the present situation in Western universities today, where Arabic studies belong to orientalist departments, which isolate the rich, universal past of the Arab scholarship and its interactions with Jewish and Latin studies and prevent it from being integrated into a universal history. You can download the notes and watch the video of Rashed’s lecture here.
This lecture is sponsored by the Bisan Center for Research and Development and Scientists for Palestine.
In light of the urgent need to assist the people of Gaza, who are currently experiencing immeasurable loss of life and widespread devastation, please read this humanitarian aid appeal from ANERA, forwarded to us by a friend of BLS, Dr. Sara Roy of Harvard University. Hoping to see many of you at this webinar, we send you our best regards.
The Bisan Lecture Series Steering Committee
BLS Statement of purpose In concert with Scientists for Palestine and the Bisan Center for Research and Development, and in keeping with their joint commitment to full integration of Palestine in the global community of learning, the Bisan Lecture Series sponsors discourses on subjects of cultural, scientific, and societal importance by leading research experts and public intellectuals of varied heritage and viewpoint. The interactive webinars are free and open to the public, and recordings of each will be posted soon afterward.