Welcome to OPIRG Kingston

In Dunning Hall Room 12 from 6:30-8:30pm, Dana Olwan and Wail Qattan present “Critical Readings of Palestine in Media and Film”

This lecture examines representations of Palestine in North American popular media and film. We will discuss how Palestine has been constructed, as well as why there is a pervasive silence surrounding who the Palestinians are culturally and politically. The aim of this lecture is to facilitate a discussion of why Palestine is typically represented in a negative manner and to question how international stories are developed in the news.

Dana’s Biography: Dana Olwan is a PhD Candidate in the Department of English. She is working on a dissertation that examines the marketing and reception of Arab women’s novels in North America. She is active in groups with social justice agendas like Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights and the Ontario Public Interest Research Group.

Wail’s Biography: Wail Qattan is a PhD student in the Department of English. He has studied at many universities in Egypt, the USA and Canada, but has primarily learned his theoretical and critical thinking skills from people decidedly outside the academy. Some of Wail’s more fortunate employment opportunities have been in guerilla theatre, with artists’ cooperatives, NGO’s that promote a one-state solution in Israel/Palestine, and as a voice for radio documentaries. Wail’s current research, and planned dissertation, is on the making of the border that divides México and the USA.