March 16: Eqbal Ahmad Symposium on “Race, Empire, and State-Sanctioned Violence”
The 22nd annual Eqbal Ahmad Symposium will take place on Tuesday, March 16 at 4 p.m. EST.
The 22nd annual Eqbal Ahmad Symposium will take place on Tuesday, March 16 at 4 p.m. EST.
The lecture on “Race, Empire and State-Sanctioned Violence” features three speakers including Barbara Ransby, the author of Making Black Lives Matter; Palestinian scholar, activist, and writer Yamila Hussein Shannan; and Afro-Columbian environmental justice activist Francia Marquez. The event is virtual and open to the public.
During the symposium, the speakers will engage the interconnections between police brutality and multiple forms of militarization and state-sanctioned violence, paying attention to the local and transnational character of movements that confront the racist legacies of colonialism and imperialism.
The panelists will also provide participants with tools for understanding international solidarity struggles that demand public resources be shifted away from policing, and from the Pentagon, both of which perpetuate dehumanizing systems of white supremacy and state violence.
The symposium honors Eqbal Ahmad, who taught at Hampshire College during the last two decades of his life. A writer, teacher, and activist, his insights and trenchant critiques drew on the history of the Partition of India and Pakistan, as well as his participation in the struggle in Kashmir, the Algerian war of national liberation, the U.S. civil rights and anti-war movements, and the Israel/Palestine conflict.
This symposium is also the culminating event of Hampshire’s annual Engage Conference.