The last few weeks have been devastating. Like many of you, I have been feeling this sense of immobilization, of helplessness, as we witnessed Hamas’s attack in Israel that killed 1,400 civilians and the Israeli state’s  bombing of Gaza that, as of the time of taping in late October 2023, have killed over 8000 Palestinians, as reported by the Associated Press.

We had a long conversation about whether we should proceed, as planned, with the episodes that we have in store for this season. But doing so didn’t feel right. Instead, we wanted to make sense of the truly awful things we are seeing around us.

So this week, we're joined by Academic Aunties producer, Dr. Nisha Nath as we talk with Palestinian scholar and activist Dr. Jennifer Mogannam, an Assistant Professor of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Jennifer talks to us about how to understand what is happening now by understanding the larger historical context.

Related Links

• Palestine Feminist Collective Digital Action Toolkit
• An Open Letter from Columbia University and Barnard College Faculty in Defense of Robust Debate About the History and Meaning of the War in Israel/Gaza
• Letter signed by over 140 prominant feminist scholars
• Middle East Studies Association Board Statement on Palestine and Israel
• Race and Ethnicity Caucus at York Letter