Unpacking Zionism

Unpacking Zionism

por Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism
Temporada 1
Empire’s Laboratory: Zionism is a real estate project
Taylor Miller is a writer and researcher based between the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts. She earned her Ph.D. in political geography from the University of Arizona. Taylor is a Contributing Editor and writer for Columbia University’s Avery Review, and other recent works are featured with Social Text, Al Mayadeen, Weird Economies, The New Inquiry, Protean, with forthcoming essays in Yale School of Architecture’s Perspecta, Antipode and Kohl Journal. She’s motivated by border abolition and cactus propagation. Resources: https://averyreview.com/issues/70/silicon-wadi-silicon-desert https://proteanmag.com/2024/05/13/against-these-walls-a-unity-of-struggle-from-gaza-to-sonora/ https://socialtextjournal.org/periscope_article/walking-through-walls-and-scaling-the-roof-direct-action-to-end-the-genocide-in-palestine/
In Flames: APA Resolution with Barry Trachtenberg, Lara Sheehi, & Jordan Dunn
Bios: Lara Sheehi: is a Research Fellow at the University of South Africa’s Institute for Social and Health Sciences, a licensed clinical psychologist, and the host of the Psychic Militancy podcast. Lara’s work focuses on psychoanalysis, the psychic refusals central to liberation struggles and life-making in the Global South, the psychic dimensions of resistance and revolution, and critical Zionism studies. She is author of the forthcoming book, From the Clinic to the Streets Psychoanalysis for Revolutionary Futures (Pluto, 2026) and the co-author, with Stephen Sheehi, of Psychoanalysis Under Occupation: Practicing Resistance in Palestine which won the Middle East Monitor’s 2022 Palestine Book Award for Best Academic Book. Lara is a member of the founding collective for the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism and is on the advisory board for Forensic Architecture. Jordan Dunn: is a licensed clinical psychologist based in New York City. He works as a supervising psychologist and organizer for community action and reflection at the Greene Clinic, a sliding scale, community psychoanalytic, training clinic. He also serves as a council representative at the American Psychological Association representing APA Division 39 the society of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychology. Trained at the New School for Social Research, he has received multiple fellowships, and publishes on psychotherapy and culture. He organizes locally with Jews for Racial and Economic Justice and is part of Jewish Psychologists for Justice, a grassroots organizing group fighting for collective liberation. Barry Trachtenberg: is a historian of modern Jewish history and the Holocaust and author of several books on Jewish history and the Nazi Holocaust. He has published on issues related to American support for Israel, Zionism, anti-Zionism, and antisemitism in venues such as Jewish Currents, the Guardian, Jacobin, the Forward, Electronic Intifada, and Mondoweiss. He is a member of the Academic Advisory Boards of Jewish Voice for Peace and the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism, the steering committee of the Genocide and Holocaust Studies Crisis Network, and is Faculty Affiliate of the Center for Security, Race and Rights at Rutgers Law School. He holds the Rubin Presidential Chair in Jewish History at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC.
In Flames: On Anti-Anti-Zionism with Sean Malloy & Emmaia Gelman
Episode's resources: https://mondoweiss.net/2025/12/stop-calling-right-wing-criticism-of-israel-anti-zionism/
Empire’s Laboratory: ‏الأرض اللي بطعمي The land that feeds
In this episode, Alex and Lara talk with Danya Nadar about the ways Zionism is implicated in the ongoing destruction and plunder of land and resources in Guatemala, especially through imported land-based practices and irrigation technologies, and the ways that Indigenous people continue to resist. Bio: Danya Nadar is an Egyptian-Canadian PhD candidate affiliated with the Institute of Development Policy (IOB) at the University of Antwerp since 2020. From 2009, Danya worked as a documentary film and news producer focusing on social and political economy topics in North Africa and east of the Mediterranean, and where she is also part of the revolutionary media collective mosireen.org. In 2018 she switched careers to pursue her passion, conducting research alongside Indigenous peasant farmers. She was a research fellow (2019-2020) at the International Development Research Centre in Canada which allowed her to continue the research she had started in occupied Palestine (2018-2019) on ancestral knowledges related to seeds, land tenure, gendered social dynamics, and alternative/parallel food networks. Her current research looks at the interconnected ways food is weaponized by relationally comparing the colonization of Palestine (past to present) with that of Ch’orti’ territories in Guatemala’s east, and the ways ancestral knowledges related to land, seeds, and cosmo vision to resist land encroachment and dispossession towards reconstitution of ancestral territories. Show notes: https://agroecologynow.net/agricultural-research-in-times-of-the-eu-race-to-arms/ Antony Loewenstein book: https://antonyloewenstein.com/books/the-palestine-laboratory-how-israel-exports-the-technology-of-occupation-around-the-world/
Empire’s Laboratory: Palestine has always been a global phenomenon
Nadim Bawalsa is a historian of modern Palestine and the author of Transnational Palestine: Migration and the Right of Return before 1948 (Stanford University Press, 2022), winner of the 2023 Nikki Keddie Book Award and the 2023 Palestine Book Award. He is the associate editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies. Shownotes: Nadim's book: https://www.sup.org/books/middle-east-studies/transnational-palestine Weavers of Revolution: The Yarur Workers and Chile's Road to Socialism by Peter Winn: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/weavers-of-revolution-9780195045581 Between Arab and White: Race and Ethnicity in the Early Syrian American Diaspora by Sarah Gualtieri ucpress.edu/book/9780520255340/between-arab-and-white Extra readings from Nadim: Nadim Bawalsa with the Arab Center Washington DC: https://arabcenterdc.org/resource/transnational-palestine/ On the limits of Palestinian-Chilean solidarity with Palestine today: https://fromtheperiphery.com/2025/09/29/206-the-limits-of-palestinian-ness-w-pablo-abufom/ A special issue in JPS on Palestinian migration before 1948: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rpal20/46/2?nav=tocList
In Flames: On Iran and Intersectional Anti-Imperialism with Manijeh Moradian
Episode's resources: Iran and the US Anti-War Movement https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/25872/Iran-and-the-US-Anti-War-Movement Iran in Crisis: Seven Essays on the Obstacles to Freedom https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/47192/Iran-in-Crisis-Seven-Essays-on-the-Obstacles-to-Freedom-Introduction Raha Iranian Feminist Collective https://www.rahafeministcollective.org/ Havaar: Iranian Initiative Against War, Sanctions, and State Repression https://web.archive.org/web/20230209153914/http://havaar.org/category/campaign/ https://www.instagram.com/feminists4jina/ https://www.instagram.com/decolonize_anarchism/
Introducing: In Flames
Introducing a new series of podcast shorts: In Flames. Episodes are anti-Zionist hot takes on what's happening right now. With rotating hosts from the Institute's Collective and Advisory Board. Subscribe so you don't miss new episodes.
Empire’s Laboratory: Walking with Palestinians, Zapatistas, Panthers, and jaguars
In this episode, Alex and Lara interview Linda Quiquivix about radical histories and traditions of resistance to colonialism, with a focus on Zionism and its instantiations in Latin America. Palestine 1492: A Report Back by Linda Quiquivix, available for free here: https://wildoxbooks.org/books/palestine-1492/ Jimmy Johnson & Linda Quiquivix, "Israel and Mexico Swap Notes on Abusing Rights" found here: https://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-and-mexico-swap-notes-abusing-rights/12475 For Zapatista communiques see: https://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/ Mentioned in the episode: México Profundo: Reclaiming a Civilization, found here: https://utpress.utexas.edu/9780292708433/
The Anti-Defamation League’s Attacks on Professional Associations: What to Know and How to Respond
This episode is a recording of a webinar titled "The Anti-Defamation League’s Attacks on Professional Associations: What to Know and How to Respond," hosted by Scholars for Justice and Human Rights in Professional Associations on February 9, 2026. The focus of the session was the Anti-Defamation League's November 2025 report falsely alleging that over a dozen professional academic associations were riddled with antisemitism, based on interviews with a small number of pro-Israel voices inside these associations. Panelists discussed how we should understand the ADL today — an organization that once claimed to serve civil rights but is now partnering directly with the white nationalist right — and how we can configure resistance. The panelists included Emmaia Gelman, Amira Jarmakani, Isaac Kamola, and Lara Deeb, with commentary from Amy Hagopian and Roy Eidelson of SJHRPA. Emmaia Gelman is director of the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism, co-chair of the American Studies Association Academic and Community Activism Caucus, and author of The Anti-Defamation League and the Racial State (forthcoming from the University of California Press). Amira Jarmakani is a professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and affiliated faculty with the Center for Islamic and Arabic Studies and LGBTQ+ studies at San Diego State University. She is a core member of the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism and a Member of the Palestinian Feminist Collective. Isaac Kamola is a professor of Political Science at Trinity College. He currently directs the American Association of University Professors’(AAUP) Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom, which is committed to the pursuit of knowledge free from intimidation and retaliation. Lara Deeb is a professor of Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies at Scripps College. She co-chairs the Middle East Studies Association’s Task Force on Civil and Human Rights. The task force tracks the changing political and legal context as it impacts scholars of the Middle East and produces resources to support faculty and students. Amy Hagopian is a professor emeritus in the School of Public Health at the University of Washington. She has been a leader in the American Public Health Association for over two decades, recently serving as chair of the editorial board of the Association’s journal. Last year, after receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association’s International Health Section, the Association revoked her membership when an anonymous complainant claimed they were made to feel unsafe by her work for Palestinian health justice within the Association. Roy Eidelson is the past president of the Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict, and Violence of the American Psychological Association. He is the author of Doing Harm: How the World's Largest Psychological Association Lost Its Way in the War on Terror. Video recording available here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jbInc34588
Empire’s Laboratory: The Bombs Dropped in West Asia Explode at Home
In this first episode, ICSZ founding collective member, Lara Sheehi, is joined by advisory board member and co-host, Alex Aviña. Using Alex’s concept and analysis of the Palestine-Mexico border as an orienting frame, they talk about why this series feels especially urgent now, and also discuss his newest analysis about the US imperial aggression on Venezuela. Alex Aviña, “Notes from the Palestine-Mexico Border,” NACLA (Sept 3, 2025), https://nacla.org/notes-from-the-palestine-mexico-border. Alex Aviña, “The Cult of Hercules-Mammon is Back,” Foreign Exchanges (Jan 13, 2026), https://www.foreignexchanges.news/p/the-cult-of-hercules-mammon-is-back.
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