2009 Edward Said Memorial Lecture
Speaker: Professor Saree Makdisi
Academic, Author, Middle East Analyst
Lecture title:
From Occupation to Reconciliation
SATURDAY, 9 October 2010, 5:30PM-7:00PM
Napier Building, THE UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE,
NORTH TERRACE, ADELAIDE SA
#EdwardSaidMemorialLecture #ESMLadelaide
About Dr Saree Makdisi
Saree Makdisi is a professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California in Los Angeles, UCLA. He has published widely on his area of expertise, British
Romanticism and is a regular contributor on contemporary Arab politics and culture. Born in
New York in 1964, to a family entrenched in academia, he is the nephew of the late Edward
Said and the grandson of Anis Makdisi, a distinguished professor of Arabic at the American
University of Beirut.
"In terms of discussions of the Palestinian question in the US, the academy is one of the last places where serious, rigorous, independent thinking remains possible; a place where Israel's myths about itself have been pretty much turfed out and been replaced by serious historical narratives. This is why academic freedom has been under such constant attack by individuals and institutions pledged to defending Israel's image in America," Makdisi explains.
Widely published in his academic area, Makdisi has also written many commentaries on Palestine for publications such as the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Houston Chronicle, London Review of Books and the San Francisco Chronicle.
In 2008 Makdisi published his book Palestine Inside Out: Everyday Occupation. The book
combines the personal experiences of daily life under occupation with an analysis of how the
occupation functions as a whole. He said, "What I discovered when I went there, for all that I knew, I still found myself shocked."
