Sahq, Dirt, Shaheed: Queer Poetics and Palestinian Resistance with Mejdulene Bernard Shomali

This talk uses a combination of poetry, research, and prose to consider some of the discursive and material facets of Palestinian liberation theories and practices, with special attention to forms of affective and embodied resistance.

Mejdulene Bernard Shomali is a queer Palestinian poet and associate professor in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Williams College. She received an MA in Women’s Studies from the Ohio State University and a PhD in American Culture from the University of Michigan. Her research and creative writing occur at the intersection of transnational feminist thought, queer of color critique, and Arab and diasporic Arab cultural production.

Meidulene was a fellow in the Institute for Citizens and Scholars and the Cornell Society for the Humanities. She is the author of Between Banat: Queer Arab Critique and Transnational Arab Archives (Duke University Press 2023) which won the 2024 Association for Middle East Women’s Studies book award honorable mention. She is also the author of the poetry chapbook agriculture of grief: prayers for my father’s dementia (Finishing Line Press 2024). Her current research concerns affect and embodiment in Palestinian resistance.

Please visit the Center for the Study of Women website for more information.