Friday, November 24, 5:00 AM EDT

Boycott Theory and the Struggle for Palestine

Nick Riemer will join us to discuss the fundamental questions posed in implementing the 'Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions' (BDS) campaign.

By Politics and International Relations (PIR) | School of Social and Political Science (ed.ac.uk), University of Edinburgh

Zoom (Video Call) Link: Launch Meeting - Zoom

Meeting ID: 879 8206 7240

Passcode: 0wM5LXkZ

Event description:

The academic boycott of Israel, a branch of the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, is one of the richest—and most divisive—topics in the politics of knowledge today. In this talk Nick Riemer will address the most fundamental questions raised by the call to sever ties with Israeli universities. More than a narrow study of the boycott campaign, the talk details how academic BDS relates to a range of live controversies in progressive politics on questions such as disruptive protest, silencing and free speech, the real-world consequences of intellectual work, the rise of the far right, and the nature of grassroots campaigning.

Speaker bio:

Nick Riemer is a Senior Lecturer in the English and Linguistics Departments at the University of Sydney, a member of the History of Linguistic Theories Laboratory at Université Paris Cité, and a Palestine solidarity and BDS activist. His most recent work in Linguistics is L’emprise de la grammaire. Propositions épistémologiques pour une linguistique mineure (ENS Éditions, 2021), and he regularly writes about issues of Palestine solidarity in universities and elsewhere, including in Boycott Theory and the Struggle for Palestine. Universities, Intellectualism and Liberation (Rowman and Littlefield, 2023). He is currently president of the University of Sydney branch of the National Tertiary Education Union.