Palestinian Geographical Imaginations: political alternatives and decolonial futures beyond the nation-state

这一奖学金将使我能够对政治地理学作出新的和重大的贡献，扩大关于非殖民主义认识论和对定居者殖民政权内的民族国家的土著批评的学术知识(以内勒等人，2018年；Velednitsky等人，2020年；拉德克利夫和拉德胡伯，2020年为基础)。从伯利恒和拉马拉(约旦河西岸)独立的非国家资助的倡议的详细经验描述中，我的博士论文阐明了扰乱以国家为中心的和地缘政治的民族话语的艺术和文化实践。我的研究偏离了将巴勒斯坦文化政治定位为两个相互竞争的民族主义斗争的一部分的学术观点，而是调查了约旦河西岸巴勒斯坦文化倡议的变革潜力。本论文通过三个案例研究展开，即巴勒斯坦比尔宰特博物馆数字档案馆、拉马拉周围农村集体散步和伯利恒巴勒斯坦自然历史博物馆。每一次实验都以拒绝控制、抽象和同质化定居者民族国家的逻辑为前提，对主权的替代范式进行了实验。每个研究项目都表达了一套不同的政治身份，这些身份对民族主义政治不再抱有幻想，并决心在气候变化的情况下挑战剥削性的人类与环境的关系。建立在越来越多的后殖民、土著和非殖民主义地理学著作的基础上，我对“想象”的概念性使用揭示了非殖民主义认识论。具体地说，想象力和政治选择之间的关系在政治地理学的辩论中得到了探索。虽然大多数政治地理学的干预都强调想象力在维持帝国和证明帝国正当化方面的作用，但很少有研究关注它在培育政治选择方面的作用。在团契期间，我的目标是表明文化倡议是先入为主的政治的中心引用，在那里可以想象新的可能性和进步的未来。我通过两个特定和相互关联的镜头来探索它们的潜力和实现。第一种观点认为，在定居者殖民主义下，人与环境之间的关系日益成为巴勒斯坦和不同土著民族非殖民化做法的一个方面。第二种观点将收集和档案实践视为想象可能未来的关键资源，与侧重于档案与国家历史和国家实践的非实体机构权力相关的学术工作形成对比。这些论点至少在三个方向上具有重要的相关性。首先，它们开辟了新的概念途径，超越对自决的种族和领土理解。其次，它们远非仅仅是投机性的练习，而是标志着可行的变革和政治可能性。第三，我将利用这一奖学金在学术界和非学术受众之间交流我的研究成果，特别关注这些成果对学术界(包括大学生)和文化领域的利益攸关方的影响。

This Fellowship will enable me to make a novel and significant contribution to political geography by expanding academic knowledge of decolonial epistemologies and indigenous critiques to the nation- state within settler colonial regimes (building on Naylor et al., 2018; Velednitsky et al., 2020; Radcliffe & Radhuber, 2020). Drawing from a detailed empirical account of independent non-state-funded initiatives in Bethlehem and Ramallah (West Bank), my doctoral thesis illuminates artistic and cultural practices that unsettle state-centric and geopolitical discourses of nationhood. Diverging from scholarship that frames Palestinian cultural politics as part of a struggle between two competing nationalisms, my research investigated the transformative potential of Palestinian cultural initiatives in the West Bank. The thesis develops through three case studies, namely the Digital Archive of the Palestinian Museum of Birzeit, collective walks in rural areas around Ramallah, and the Palestine Museum of Natural History of Bethlehem. Each experiments with alternative paradigms of sovereignty predicated upon the rejection of controlling, abstracting and homogenising logics of settler nation states. Each articulates a diverse set of political identities, which are disillusioned with nationalist politics and determined to challenge exploitative human relations with the environment in the face of climate change.Conceptually, this research project explored cultural practices through the lens of alternative geographical imaginations. Building on a growing body of works in postcolonial, indigenous and decolonial geographies, my conceptual use of 'imagination' sheds light on decolonial epistemologies. Specifically, the relationship between imagination and political alternatives is explored within debates in political geography. While most interventions in political geography have stressed the role of imagination in sustaining and justifying Empire, fewer studies have focused on its role in cultivating political alternatives. During the fellowship I aim to show that cultural initiatives are central cites of prefigurative politics where new possibilities and progressive futures are imagined. I explore their potential and actualisation through two specific and interconnected lenses. The first looks at the relationship between humans and the environment as an increasingly aspect to decolonial practices in Palestine and across different indigenous nations under settler colonialism. The second looks at collecting and archival practices as key resources to imagine possible futures, in in contrast with scholarly work that has focused on the archive in relation to national pasts and disembodied institutional power of state practices.These arguments hold significant relevance in at least three directions. First, they open new conceptual avenues to transcend ethnic and territorial understandings of self-determination. Second, far from being merely speculative exercises, they flag viable changes and political possibilities. Third, I will use this fellowship to communicate the findings of my research both within academic circles and amongst non- academic audiences, paying particular attention to their consequences for academics, (including university students) and stakeholders in the cultural field.