Assuming Boycott: Resistance, Agency, and Cultural Production

A New Book (OR Books, 2017) edited by Kareem Estefan, Carin Kuoni, and Laura Raicovich

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Cultural boycott is an essential tool for activists around the world, including those advocating Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against the State of Israel, a campaign inspired by the international movement to end apartheid in South Africa. Today, across a range of political causes and contexts, artists and writers are leveraging cultural production—and challenging its institutional supports—to transform situations in the name of social justice. Assuming Boycott: Resistance, Agency, and Cultural Production (OR Books, 2017) is the essential reader for creative leaders and cultural practitioners, featuring original contributions by artists, scholars, activists, critics, curators, and writers who examine the historical precedent of South Africa; the current cultural boycott of Israel; freedom of speech and self-censorship; and long-distance activism.

To mark the publication of Assuming Boycott, this conversation will focus on the BDS movement and the cultural boycott of Israel, the lessons that BDS activists can learn from the anti-apartheid struggle and other, contemporary boycott campaigns, and the challenges that activists face in the form of anti-BDS legislation, censorship, and the rise of the far Right in Israel, the United States, and elsewhere. The discussion will feature Kareem Estefan, co-editor (with Carin Kuoni and Laura Raicovich) of Assuming Boycott; Sean Jacobs, editor and founder of Africa Is A Country and a contributor to Assuming Boycott; and Radhika Sainath, a staff attorney for Palestine Legal. Helga Tawil-Souri, director of the Hagop Kevorkian Center, will moderate.


Kareem Estefan is co-editor, with Carin Kuoni and Laura Raicovich, of Assuming Boycott: Resistance, Agency, and Cultural Production (OR Books, 2017). His writing has appeared in publications including Art in America, BOMB, Frieze, Ibraaz, and The New Inquiry, among others. He is presently a PhD student in Modern Culture and Media at Brown University, researching contemporary art, speculative fiction, and experimental documentary films that engage histories of conflict, displacement, and dispossession in the Levant.

 

Sean Jacobs is an associate professor of International Affairs at The New School and editor and founder of Africa Is a Country. He was born and grew up in apartheid South Africa. He co-edited, with Jon Soske, the book Apartheid Israel: The Politics of an Analogy.

 

Radhika Sainath is a staff attorney at Palestine Legal, where she defends the civil and constitutional rights of students, professors, and grassroots activists advocating for Palestinian freedom. Together with the Center for Constitutional Rights, she brought a landmark lawsuit against Fordham University after it refused to grant club status to Students for Justice in Palestine. She has published articles in The Nation, Huffington Post, Haaretz, Jacobin, Mondoweiss, and Electronic Intifada, and has appeared on or in Al Jazeera English, Democracy Now!, Los Angeles Times, MSNBC, New York Times, Univision and other outlets discussing Israel/Palestine, workers' rights, and the crackdown on democracy protests in Bahrain.

Cultural boycott is an essential tool for activists around the world, including those advocating Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against the State of Israel, a campaign inspired by the international movement to end apartheid in South Africa. Today, across a range of political causes and contexts, artists and writers are leveraging cultural production—and challenging its institutional supports—to transform situations in the name of social justice. Assuming Boycott: Resistance, Agency, and Cultural Production (OR Books, 2017) is the essential reader for creative leaders and cultural practitioners, featuring original contributions by artists, scholars, activists, critics, curators, and writers who examine the historical precedent of South Africa; the current cultural boycott of Israel; freedom of speech and self-censorship; and long-distance activism. 
 
To mark the publication of Assuming Boycott, this conversation will focus on the BDS movement and the cultural boycott of Israel, the lessons that BDS activists can learn from the anti-apartheid struggle and other, contemporary boycott campaigns, and the challenges that activists face in the form of anti-BDS legislation, censorship, and the rise of the far Right in Israel, the United States, and elsewhere. The discussion will feature Kareem Estefan, co-editor (with Carin Kuoni and Laura Raicovich) of Assuming Boycott; Sean Jacobs, editor and founder of Africa Is A Country and a contributor to Assuming Boycott; and Radhika Sainath, a staff attorney for Palestine Legal. Helga Tawil-Souri, director of the Hagop Kevorkian Center, will moderate.
 
 
Kareem Estefan is co-editor, with Carin Kuoni and Laura Raicovich, of Assuming Boycott: Resistance, Agency, and Cultural Production (OR Books, 2017). His writing has appeared in publications including Art in America, BOMB, Frieze, Ibraaz, and The New Inquiry, among others. He is presently a PhD student in Modern Culture and Media at Brown University, researching contemporary art, speculative fiction, and experimental documentary films that engage histories of conflict, displacement, and dispossession in the Levant.
 
Sean Jacobs is an associate professor of International Affairs at The New School and editor and founder of Africa Is a Country. He was born and grew up in apartheid South Africa. He co-edited, with Jon Soske, the book Apartheid Israel: The Politics of an Analogy.
 
Radhika Sainath is a staff attorney at Palestine Legal, where she defends the civil and constitutional rights of students, professors, and grassroots activists advocating for Palestinian freedom. Together with the Center for Constitutional Rights, she brought a landmark lawsuit against Fordham University after it refused to grant club status to Students for Justice in Palestine. She has published articles in The Nation, Huffington Post, Haaretz, Jacobin, Mondoweiss, and Electronic Intifada, and has appeared on or in Al Jazeera English, Democracy Now!, Los Angeles Times, MSNBC, New York Times, Univision and other outlets discussing Israel/Palestine, workers' rights, and the crackdown on democracy protests in Bahrain. 
Cultural boycott is an essential tool for activists around the world, including those advocating Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against the State of Israel, a campaign inspired by the international movement to end apartheid in South Africa. Today, across a range of political causes and contexts, artists and writers are leveraging cultural production—and challenging its institutional supports—to transform situations in the name of social justice. Assuming Boycott: Resistance, Agency, and Cultural Production (OR Books, 2017) is the essential reader for creative leaders and cultural practitioners, featuring original contributions by artists, scholars, activists, critics, curators, and writers who examine the historical precedent of South Africa; the current cultural boycott of Israel; freedom of speech and self-censorship; and long-distance activism. 
 
To mark the publication of Assuming Boycott, this conversation will focus on the BDS movement and the cultural boycott of Israel, the lessons that BDS activists can learn from the anti-apartheid struggle and other, contemporary boycott campaigns, and the challenges that activists face in the form of anti-BDS legislation, censorship, and the rise of the far Right in Israel, the United States, and elsewhere. The discussion will feature Kareem Estefan, co-editor (with Carin Kuoni and Laura Raicovich) of Assuming Boycott; Sean Jacobs, editor and founder of Africa Is A Country and a contributor to Assuming Boycott; and Radhika Sainath, a staff attorney for Palestine Legal. Helga Tawil-Souri, director of the Hagop Kevorkian Center, will moderate.
 
 
Kareem Estefan is co-editor, with Carin Kuoni and Laura Raicovich, of Assuming Boycott: Resistance, Agency, and Cultural Production (OR Books, 2017). His writing has appeared in publications including Art in America, BOMB, Frieze, Ibraaz, and The New Inquiry, among others. He is presently a PhD student in Modern Culture and Media at Brown University, researching contemporary art, speculative fiction, and experimental documentary films that engage histories of conflict, displacement, and dispossession in the Levant.
 
Sean Jacobs is an associate professor of International Affairs at The New School and editor and founder of Africa Is a Country. He was born and grew up in apartheid South Africa. He co-edited, with Jon Soske, the book Apartheid Israel: The Politics of an Analogy.
 
Radhika Sainath is a staff attorney at Palestine Legal, where she defends the civil and constitutional rights of students, professors, and grassroots activists advocating for Palestinian freedom. Together with the Center for Constitutional Rights, she brought a landmark lawsuit against Fordham University after it refused to grant club status to Students for Justice in Palestine. She has published articles in The Nation, Huffington Post, Haaretz, Jacobin, Mondoweiss, and Electronic Intifada, and has appeared on or in Al Jazeera English, Democracy Now!, Los Angeles Times, MSNBC, New York Times, Univision and other outlets discussing Israel/Palestine, workers' rights, and the crackdown on democracy protests in Bahrain. 
Cultural boycott is an essential tool for activists around the world, including those advocating Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against the State of Israel, a campaign inspired by the international movement to end apartheid in South Africa. Today, across a range of political causes and contexts, artists and writers are leveraging cultural production—and challenging its institutional supports—to transform situations in the name of social justice. Assuming Boycott: Resistance, Agency, and Cultural Production (OR Books, 2017) is the essential reader for creative leaders and cultural practitioners, featuring original contributions by artists, scholars, activists, critics, curators, and writers who examine the historical precedent of South Africa; the current cultural boycott of Israel; freedom of speech and self-censorship; and long-distance activism. 
 
To mark the publication of Assuming Boycott, this conversation will focus on the BDS movement and the cultural boycott of Israel, the lessons that BDS activists can learn from the anti-apartheid struggle and other, contemporary boycott campaigns, and the challenges that activists face in the form of anti-BDS legislation, censorship, and the rise of the far Right in Israel, the United States, and elsewhere. The discussion will feature Kareem Estefan, co-editor (with Carin Kuoni and Laura Raicovich) of Assuming Boycott; Sean Jacobs, editor and founder of Africa Is A Country and a contributor to Assuming Boycott; and Radhika Sainath, a staff attorney for Palestine Legal. Helga Tawil-Souri, director of the Hagop Kevorkian Center, will moderate.
 
 
Kareem Estefan is co-editor, with Carin Kuoni and Laura Raicovich, of Assuming Boycott: Resistance, Agency, and Cultural Production (OR Books, 2017). His writing has appeared in publications including Art in America, BOMB, Frieze, Ibraaz, and The New Inquiry, among others. He is presently a PhD student in Modern Culture and Media at Brown University, researching contemporary art, speculative fiction, and experimental documentary films that engage histories of conflict, displacement, and dispossession in the Levant.
 
Sean Jacobs is an associate professor of International Affairs at The New School and editor and founder of Africa Is a Country. He was born and grew up in apartheid South Africa. He co-edited, with Jon Soske, the book Apartheid Israel: The Politics of an Analogy.
 
Radhika Sainath is a staff attorney at Palestine Legal, where she defends the civil and constitutional rights of students, professors, and grassroots activists advocating for Palestinian freedom. Together with the Center for Constitutional Rights, she brought a landmark lawsuit against Fordham University after it refused to grant club status to Students for Justice in Palestine. She has published articles in The Nation, Huffington Post, Haaretz, Jacobin, Mondoweiss, and Electronic Intifada, and has appeared on or in Al Jazeera English, Democracy Now!, Los Angeles Times, MSNBC, New York Times, Univision and other outlets discussing Israel/Palestine, workers' rights, and the crackdown on democracy protests in Bahrain.