In the first episode of 'Beginning with Us', https://al-shabaka.org/profiles/yara-hawari/ (Yara Hawari) joins host https://twitter.com/nounihussein (Cherine Hussein) to reflect upon what it means to be a scholar-activist involved in an on-going collective struggle in Palestine today. Weaving in the words of Edward Said, Toni Morrison, Grada Kilomba, Hisham Matar and Ta-Nehisi Coates, this conversation highlights the self-understandings, world-views, lived realities, traumas and struggles of a rising generation of feminist, Palestinian scholar-activists. It also reflects on what the political, empowerment and global solidarity looks like today, both inside and outside the academy.

Yara Hawari is a Senior Analyst at Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network, a writer and frequent political commentator. She completed her PhD in Middle East Politics at the University of Exeter. Her first novel, The Stone House, is forthcoming with https://www.hajarpress.com/ (Hajar Press).

Cherine Hussein is a Senior Researcher at the Institute of International Relations in Prague. She completed her PhD in International Relations at the University of Sussex. She is the author of Thttps://www.routledge.com/The-Re-Emergence-of-the-Single-State-Solution-in-PalestineIsrael-Countering/Hussein/p/book/9780815348900 (he Re-Emergence of the Single State Solution in Palestine/Israel: Countering an Illusion) (London, Routledge: 2015), among other writings.

*This conversation took place at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm on May 24th, 2021 as part of https://www.daas.academy/about/ (DAAS).

Cited Works:Coates, Ta-Nehisi, 2015. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/220290/between-the-world-and-me-by-ta-nehisi-coates/ (Between the World and Me). New York: Spiegel & Grau. Kilomba, Grada, 2015. 'https://castbox.fm/episode/GRADA-KILOMBA%3A-DECOLONIZING-KNOWLEDGE-id1563533-id105586463?country=us (Decolonizing Knowledge)', Lecture-Performance.Matar, Hisham, 2017. 'https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v39/n10/hisham-matar/diary (Diary: Writing with the Horror.')The London Review of Books, 32(10).Morrison, Toni, 1988. 'https://tannerlectures.utah.edu/_documents/a-to-z/m/morrison90.pdf (Unspeakable Things Unspoken: The Afro-American Presence in American Literature: The Tanner Lectures)', University of Michigan.Said, Edward, 1985. http://cup.columbia.edu/book/beginnings/9780231059374 (Beginnings: Intention and Method.) New York: Columbia University Press.Said, Edward, 1996. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/159790/representations-of-the-intellectual-by-edward-w-said/ (Representations of the Intellectual. )New York: Vintage Books.Said, Edward, 1984. 'https://doi.org/10.2307/2536688 (Permission to Narrate'). Journal of Palestine Studies, 13(3), 27-48.