Nadia Yaqub, professor of Arabic language and culture and chair of the Department of Asian Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was the featured speaker in the third installment of the #IAS_NUQ AIMS Virtual Seminar Series. In the seminar, Yaqub discussed her role as the editor of Gaza on Screen (Duke University Press, 2023) and explained the genealogy of the book.
Yaqub noted that her involvement with the project traces back to her role in curating the “Gaza on Screen” film festival at Columbia University in 2019. Her fascination with the growing prevalence of visual narratives about Gaza and the amalgamation of various cinematic forms in a single program culminated in the creation of the book.
The book Gaza on Screen is a collaborative effort featuring contributions from scholars and filmmakers with ties to Gaza. Yaqub’s discussion emphasized the significance of screens, both large and small, as tools for mediation that are laden with power and emotions. Yaqub examined the “Gazan narrative” as it is conveyed through film and video, considering the multifaceted dimensions of humanitarianism, human rights, mobility, confinement, and decolonization. Yaqub’s presentation focused on how Palestinian solidarity influences the way films are curated. She highlighted the crucial role of screens in shaping and maintaining connections between Gaza and the global community, which in turn sustains the potential for a different future.
Funded by Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Arab Media, and Information Studies (AIMS) project at #IAS_NUQ is actively working to develop critical media and information studies in the Arab region. The project aims to transform the field into one that is more interdisciplinary, multilingual, collaborative, research-oriented, and policy-relevant.
