Sociologist Luisa Gandolfo will discuss masculinity and the militarisation of society in Palestine-Israel, in a research seminar at the International Institute of Social Studies on 9 April 2015.
About the Seminar
Since 1948, conflict has either rested on the sidelines of Palestinian and Israeli society or been active in its cities, towns and borders. In turn, subsequent generations’ hold either a direct experience of unrest and/or a memory of what has occurred before, as postmemory sustains the narratives passed on by family members, the community and the media. The period between outbreaks of violence is reduced to a hiatus and the sense of ‘surviving’, but not quite ‘living’ is reinforced. Likewise, the militarisation of society is reinforced through cultural mechanisms, whether it is through the war games enacted by children, the online games in which the player assumes a role as a fighter in the conflict, or the mediums of film and literature, including graphic novels and cartoons. Drawing on fieldwork conducted last December, Luisa will focus on the cultural and commemorative processes through which the militarisation of Israeli and Palestinian society occurs and the extent to which this informs the articulation and performance of gender in society.
More information (ISS)
About Luisa Gandolfo
Dr. Luisa Gandolfo is Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Aberdeen, where her research focuses on post-war reconciliation, identity and socio-cultural practices in the Middle East and North Africa, with particular foci on Palestine-Israel and Tunisia. In her current capacity as a EURIAS-NIAS Fellow, her work focuses on the juxtaposition of artistic practices and cultural memory in Palestine-Israel, and the intersection of death, loss, trauma and postmemory.