An-Najah Organizes a Lecture on Political Prisoners in the US and Palestine
On Sunday, November 6th, 2016, the English Department at An-Najah National University organized a lecture titled: “Writing and Fighting for Revolution’s Freedom: The Black and Palestinian Political Captive’s Movement, on and off the Page” at the library's conference room in the Old Campus.
The lecture was given by Professor Greg Thomas, Associate Professor at Tufts University in the US and Prof. Mohammad Hamdan, Assistant Professor at the English Department at An-Najah.
Prof. Thomas began by introducing George Jackson who was a Black Panther Political Prisoner as well as the art exhibition he created on Jackson and his connection to the Palestinian resistance poetry at the Abu Jihad Centre in Al-Quds University’s Abu Dis Campus.
He went on to talk about the black political prisoners today in the US and the reproduction of the art exhibition in California for the 50th Anniversary Conference of the Black Panther Party last month. In the conference, he displayed portraits of Palestinian ex-detainees.
In turn, Prof. Hamdan presented on his ongoing research titled: “Post and Politics: Palestinian Prisoners, Smuggled Sperm and Derrida’s Prophecy”. In his study, he talked about Palestinian prisoners writing and sperm smuggling.
The presentations used images as part of the discussion.
At the end, both Professors answered students and faculty questions on the lectures.
Notes:
Prof. Thomas was born in Washington DC and is a Literature Professor at Tufts University. He has been doing research on Palestinian political prisoners and is currently working on his third book which is on George Jackson. He specializes in literature, translation, hip hop music, cinema and political literature.
The lecture was also attended by Dr. Ekrema Shehab, Head of the English Department and Ms Shatha Jararaa from the Public Relaaations Department as well as other department staff members and students.
