Resistant Ecologies at the End of the World

About the event

Prof. Dr. Munira Khayyat (NYU Abu Dhabi and Princeton University) will speak about life-as-resistance in South Lebanon amidst ever-returning seasons of catastrophic war and an ongoing occupation that is systematically destroying everything across the borderland. She will explore how rooted communities confront methodical annihilation and enduring occupation through defiant acts of return and repair. Her presentation will discuss what it means to study questions of ecological sustainability against the backdrop of the ongoing large-scale destruction of the ecological foundations of life in Lebanon and the region at large, in particular also in Palestine – with mass killings and massive displacements, systematic razing of trees, and destruction of farmland. Additionally, the Israeli military has designated entire swaths of Lebanese land as death zones and demolished dozens of villages.

The lecture zooms in on the epistemic foundation that underpins both ecocidal and genocidal politics, highlighting that the destruction of human life and the earth are intertwined. It raises broader questions about how scenarios of war and destruction are historically and materially connected with other distant and seemingly peaceful geographies. In what ways can academic discussions about genocide and ecocide illuminate current debates about energy, sustainability and/or climate change? How can distinct experiences of resistance inform the enactment of new pathways? These questions require academic attention at a time in which different strands of authoritarianism merge with a reignited drive towards imperialism and colonialism, unequally affecting the possibilities of life and the politics of death. The event will be moderated by Dr. Benjamin Schuetze.