Description
In what ways are Western universities and academic spaces complicit in genocide, and how can we actively resist this complicity? This roundtable will critically explore how universities and academic forums in the Western world, including those within the field of international studies, contribute to or tacitly support genocidal violence—particularly in the context of Israel's prolonged and Western-backed assaults on Gaza and, since September, on Lebanon, alongside Israel’s long-term scholasticide against Palestinians.
Building on existing calls to decolonise the university, as well as critiques of the neoliberal university, this session will examine how academic institutions’ structural and colonial biases and their material participation in the structures of racial capitalism perpetuate silence and complicity around issues of genocide, revealing deeper layers of structural violence within Western "liberal" academia. We will discuss ongoing efforts by university staff and students who are actively resisting this complicity, including divestment and boycott campaigns, on-campus student-led encampments, and teaching and academic events aimed at challenging these injustices.
This roundtable brings together scholars who are directly engaged in movements to disrupt the status quo and advocate for institutional accountability. By providing a space to share experiences and strategies, this session will support the broader movement to end academic complicity in colonial violence.
N.B. Part 2 of this roundtable is "Complicity with Genocide in Universities and Academic Spaces (Part 2): Silencing Palestine"
