Rabab Abdulhadi

Last updated
Rabab Ibrahim Abdulhadi
Born1955 (age 69–70)
Nablus, Jordanian-occupied West Bank
Education Hunter College (BA),
Yale University (MA, MPhil, PhD)
Known for Palestinian diaspora, Palestinian activism, Palestinian women's studies, Sociology
AwardsGeorgina M. Smith Award (American Association of University Professors),
Jere L. Bacharach Service Award (Middle East Studies Association),
Angela Y. Davis Award for Outstanding Public Scholarship (American Studies Association),
Scientific career
FieldsSociology
Institutions University of Michigan–Dearborn,
San Francisco State University
Thesis "Palestinianness in Comparative Perspective: Inclusionary Resistance, Exclusionary Citizenship"  (2000)
Doctoral advisor Michele Dillon
Other academic advisorsKai Erikson, Debra Minkof

Rabab Ibrahim Abdulhadi (born 1955) [1] is a Palestinian-born American scholar, activist, educator, editor, and an academic director. She is an Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies, Race and Resistance Studies, and the founding Director of Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies (AMED) at San Francisco State University (SFSU). [2] [3] Colleen Flaherty of Inside Higher Education described her as "a controversial figure in an already controversial field". [4]

Contents

Early life and education

Rabab Ibrahim Abdulhadi was born in 1955 in Nablus, Jordanian-occupied West Bank, into a Muslim family. [1] [4] [5] [6]

She received a B.A. degree (1994) in women's studies from Hunter College. [7] She then completed a M.A. degree (1995), a M. Phil. degree (1998), and a Ph.D. (2000) in sociology, all from Yale University. [8] Abdulhadi's dissertation, under advisor Michele Dillon, was titled, "Palestinianness in Comparative Perspective: Inclusionary Resistance, Exclusionary Citizenship" (2000). [9] [10]

Career

From 2004 to 2006, she served as the founding Director of the Center for Arab American Studies, and as an associate professor of sociology at University of Michigan–Dearborn. [5] [6] [11]

In January 2007, she joined the faculty at San Francisco State University. [5] Since her hire in 2007, Abdulhadi has been the only faculty within her department, much of which has been supplemented by student research assistants, visiting scholars, and lecturers over the years. [5] In 2018, Abdulhadi formally filed a lawsuit and complaints, and has stated she was promised two faculty positions, at her time of hire. [4] [5] [12]

Abdulhadi has routinely come under fire by Zionist and pro-Israel groups such as the David Horowitz Freedom Center, the AMCHA Initiative, Campus Watch, and the Lawfare Project. [13] Posters at SFSU have circulated multiple times, featuring caricatures of Abdulhadi's likeness in derogatory manner, as well as implying Abdulhadi was involved in terrorist organizations. [5] [14] In 2017, the SFSU Associated Students, Inc. (ASI), the General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS), and the Black Student Union (BSU) have stood with Abdulhadi and expressed disappointment in how then-university President Leslie E. Wong, and the on-campus police handled the hate speech. [14]

In 2017, the mayor of Jerusalem was to give a speech on the SFSU campus, and was met with student protests. [2] A group of Jewish students accused the school of encouraging antisemitism, led by Abdulhadi and her "anti-Zionist statements". [2] [15] Speaking in support of Abdulhadi, former San Francisco Supervisor Eric Mar stated that such "well-funded campaigns are really harmful to the careers of great community activists and professors like Abdulhadi" and that these actions have a "chilling effect". [16] The issue went to court and 2018, a federal judge found no evidence of discrimination. [17] This event was covered by US national media. [18]

In 2019, Abdulhadi was co-hosting an online talk using SFSU's instance of Zoom by Palestinian political activist and member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Leila Khaled. The night before the event, the university informed Abdulhadi that Zoom would not allow SFSU to use Zoom for the talk, stating that the talk contravened the Zoom terms of service. [19] Though the event was shifted on the scheduled day to YouTube, that shift only lasted for 23 minutes before YouTube shut down the stream, similarly stating it went against YouTube's terms of service. [20] Facebook also shut down the event page, claiming violations of its policies. [19] The United States government considers The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine to be a terrorist organization. [3] The Leila Khaled event added to the tense national news debate on the "boundaries and consequences of freedom of expression", [19] and had SFSU President Lynn Mahoney fielding questions about her support and/or lack of support for the Middle Eastern studies program. [21] [22]

In 2024, a guest speech from Abdulhadi at Wake Forest University was cancelled after the planned event received backlash from pro-Israel Jewish students and others. A petition to cancel her speech received over 8000 signatures, accusing Abdulhadi of supporting antisemitism and Hamas in the wake of the Gaza genocide. She delivered her lecture at a local church in Winston-Salem. [23]

She is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. [24]

Awards

Abdulhadi has received several awards from national and international academic, civic, and professional organizations in recognition for her work and community service. Notable awards include:

Publications

Books

Articles and chapters

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Francisco State University</span> Public university in San Francisco, California

San Francisco State University is a public research university in San Francisco. It was established in 1899 as the San Francisco State Normal School and is part of the California State University system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leila Khaled</span> Palestinian militant and activist (born 1944)

Leila Khaled is a former Palestinian militant and member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). She is famous as the first woman to hijack an airplane.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Birzeit University</span> University in Palestine

Birzeit University is a public university in the West Bank, Palestine, registered by the Palestinian Ministry of Social Affairs as a charitable organization. It is accredited by the Ministry of Higher Education and located in the outskirts of Birzeit, West Bank, near Ramallah. Established in 1924, as an elementary school for girls, Birzeit became a university in 1975.

The Palestine Solidarity Movement (PSM) is a student organization in the United States which was established in 2000 after the start of the Al-Aqsa Intifada in Israel. The organization aims to use "divestment as a tactic to non-violently influence a just resolution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict." Aside from divestment from Israel, the group focuses on ending U.S. aid to Israel and a Right of return. PSM tactics include: education; public demonstrations and rallies; and civil disobedience or direct action.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rashid Khalidi</span> Palestinian-American historian (born 1948)

Rashid Ismail Khalidi is a Palestinian-American historian of the Middle East and the Edward Said Professor Emeritus of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University. He served as editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies from 2002 until 2020, when he became co-editor with Sherene Seikaly.

<i>Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid</i> 2006 book by Jimmy Carter

Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid is a book written by 39th President of the United States Jimmy Carter. It was published by Simon & Schuster in November 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">General Union of Palestinian Students</span> Student organization

The General Union of Palestine Students is a Palestinian student organization. Created in the 1920's, it is generally considered one of the first Palestinian institutions. It was officially launched in Cairo in 1959 with chapters formed in universities all over the Arab world. Considered "the first Palestinian sectoral organization to re-emerge after the 1948 dispersal," the General Union of Palestine Students "came to play a leading role in Palestinian organizational life" and helped form a cohort of leaders that would play prominent roles later on in the Palestine Liberation Organization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Israeli Apartheid Week</span> Annual series of university activities

Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is an annual series of university lectures and rallies held in February or March. According to the organization, "the aim of IAW is to educate people about the nature of Israel as an apartheid system and to build Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns as part of a growing global BDS movement." Since IAW began in Toronto in 2005, it has spread to at least 55 cities, including locations in Australia, Austria, Brazil, Botswana, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Jordan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Norway, Palestine, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rupa Marya</span> Doctor in California, US

Rupa Marya is a doctor, activist, musician and writer based in San Francisco. She is a professor of medicine at the UCSF School of Medicine and co-author of the book Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice. She is currently suspended from teaching and banned from the UCSF campus after challenging the presence of an Israeli medical student at the school on social media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AMCHA Initiative</span> US non-partisan organization

The AMCHA Initiative is a non-partisan organization aiming to combat antisemitism on campuses through investigation, documentation, and education in order to protect Jewish students from assault and fear. AMCHA was founded in 2012 by University of California Santa Cruz lecturer Tammi Rossman-Benjamin and University of California Los Angeles Professor Emeritus Leila Beckwith. The term Amcha is Hebrew for "your people" or "your nation."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Students for Justice in Palestine</span> Pro-Palestinian student activist organization

Students for Justice in Palestine is a pro-Palestinian college student activism organization in the United States, Canada and New Zealand. Founded at the University of California in 2001, it has campaigned for boycott and divestment against corporations that deal with Israel and organized events about Israel's human rights violations. In 2011, The New York Times called it "the leading pro-Palestinian voice on campus". As of 2024, National SJP has over 350 chapters in North America.

The Third World Liberation Front (TWLF) rose in 1968 as a coalition of ethnic student groups on college campuses in California in response to the Eurocentric education and lack of diversity at San Francisco State College and University of California, Berkeley. The TWLF was instrumental in creating and establishing Ethnic Studies and other identity studies as majors in their respective schools and universities across the United States.

Fatima Mohammed Bernawi was a Palestinian who was involved with Fatah in the mid-1960s, a significant period of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. She was known as the first Palestinian woman to have organized a terror attack in Israel—the attempted bombing of a movie theatre in October 1967.

Anti-Palestinianism or anti-Palestinian racism refers to prejudice, collective hatred, and discrimination directed at the Palestinian people for any variety of reasons. Since the mid-20th century, the phenomenon has largely overlapped with anti-Arab racism and Islamophobia because the overwhelming majority of Palestinians today are Arabs and Muslims. Historically, anti-Palestinianism was more closely identified with European antisemitism, as far-right Europeans detested the Jewish people as undesirable foreigners from Palestine. Modern anti-Palestinianism—that is, xenophobia or racism towards the Arabs of Palestine—is most common in Israel, the United States, Lebanon, and Germany, among other countries.

Lynn Mahoney is an American university president, author, and social historian. Mahoney is the president of San Francisco State University (SFSU) since July 2019, and is the first woman to hold this role. Her scholarly work has focused on United States history, women's history, feminism, race studies, and ethnicity. She is the author of Elizabeth Stoddard and the Boundaries of Bourgeois Culture ; a book about novelist and poet Elizabeth Stoddard.

Sa'ed Atshan is a Palestinian anthropologist and professor at Swarthmore College.

The history of San Francisco State University began in 1857, with a teacher-training program at a high school, which led to the creation of San Francisco State Normal School. It became San Francisco State Teachers College, San Francisco State College, and California State University, San Francisco before becoming San Francisco State University as it's known today.

Lina Abu Akleh is a Palestinian human rights advocate. As the niece of Shireen Abu Akleh, a journalist shot dead by Israeli forces in 2022, Lina Abu Akleh has campaigned for justice for her aunt, and for issues affecting Palestinians more generally. This has included petitioning the United States Government to open its own investigation into the death of her aunt, as well as meeting Secretary of State Antony Blinken. In October 2022 she met with Pope Francis at a memorial Mass for her aunt.

References

  1. 1 2 "Reproductive Rights – Global Feminisms Project". The Institute for Research for Women and Gender (IRWG), University of Michigan. Retrieved 2022-07-29.
  2. 1 2 3 Egelko, Bob (2022-03-15). "Tensions over ethnic studies continue at S.F. State as president vetoes faculty decision siding with professor". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2022-07-29.
  3. 1 2 Lyons, Jenna (2016-10-18). "SFSU officials condemn posters targeting professor". SFGATE. Retrieved 2022-07-29.
  4. 1 2 3 Flaherty, Colleen (March 21, 2022). "Palestinian scholar accuses SFSU of broken contract promise". InsideHighered.com. Retrieved 2023-11-15. Abdulhadi may be an especially easy target, as she's a controversial figure in an already controversial field.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Trent, Paisley (December 1, 2020). "The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict on Campus". Golden Gate Xpress. Retrieved 2022-07-29.
  6. 1 2 Pogrund, Benjamin (2014-07-10). Drawing Fire: Investigating the Accusations of Apartheid in Israel. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 175–176. ISBN   978-1-4422-2684-5.
  7. ↑ Habib, Samar (2009-11-12). Islam and Homosexuality [2 volumes]. ABC-CLIO. p. 485. ISBN   978-0-313-37901-7.
  8. ↑ Meeting of Board of Regents: Agenda. University of Michigan Board of Regents. The Board. May 2004.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  9. ↑ Brown, Nathan J.; Brown, Canada Research Chair in Poetics and Assistant Professor of English Nathan (2003-11-03). Palestinian Politics After the Oslo Accords: Resuming Arab Palestine. University of California Press. p. 305. ISBN   978-0-520-24115-2.
  10. ↑ Leusmann, Harald (2001). "Recent (1999-2001) Doctoral Degrees in Middle East Studies". Middle East Studies Association Bulletin. 35 (2): 279–296. doi:10.1017/S0026318400043960. ISSN   0026-3184. JSTOR   23063529. S2CID   164423046.
  11. ↑ "Yemeni official to address seminar". Detroit Free Press. 2004-06-13. p. 46. Retrieved 2022-07-29.
  12. ↑ Gloster, Rob (2019-01-31). "Palestinian SFSU prof's lawsuit alleges discrimination, JCRC influence". J. Retrieved 2022-07-29.
  13. ↑ Palumbo-Liu, David. "Marc Lamont Hill and the Israeli lobby on US campuses". Aljazeera.com. Retrieved 2022-07-29.
  14. 1 2 Murillo, Kelly Rodriguez (September 28, 2017). "Hate speech posters cover SF State, again". Golden Gate Xpress. Retrieved 2022-07-30.
  15. ↑ Waxmann, Laura (2018-08-09). "Jewish students renew efforts to sue SFSU leadership over alleged anti-semitism". The San Francisco Examiner. pp. A6. Retrieved 2022-07-29.
  16. ↑ Waxmann, Laura (2018-08-09). "Jewish students renew efforts to sue SFSU leadership over alleged anti-semitism". The San Francisco Examiner. pp. A6. Retrieved 2022-07-29.
  17. ↑ Egelko, Bob (2018-10-30). "Judge dismisses suit accusing San Francisco State of anti-Semitism". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2022-07-29.
  18. ↑ "U.S.-Israel Relations and Middle East Policy, Free Speech Panel". C-SPAN.org. March 2, 2018. Retrieved 2022-07-29.
  19. 1 2 3 Allyn, Bobby (November 23, 2020). "All Things Considered: 'Welcome To The Party, Zoom': Video App's Rules Lead To Accusations Of Censorship". NPR. Retrieved 2022-07-30.
  20. ↑ Keating, Joshua (18 December 2020). "Is Zoom More Like the Phone or Facebook?". Slate. Archived from the original on 18 December 2020. Retrieved 2 August 2024.
  21. ↑ Mahoney, Lynn (2020-09-14). "S.F. State president: I condemn hate but cherish a diversity of opinions". J. Retrieved 2022-07-29.
  22. ↑ Hoffer, Shira (2021-07-21). "Safe and Free: Envisioning a New Guide for Speakers on Campus". Harvard Political Review. Retrieved 2022-07-29.
  23. ↑ Klein, Ella. "Rabab Abdulhadi gives lecture at local church after event is canceled by Wake Forest". Old Gold & Black. Retrieved 2024-12-24.
  24. ↑ @ncvdsa (2023-09-10). "We stand in solidarity w/ @DemSocialists member @AbdulhadiRabab in her struggle against SFSU's attacks on her & @AmedStudies. Join us in signing Dr. Abdulhadi's petition & contacting SFSU officials to demand an end to their anti-Palestinian hostility" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  25. 1 2 Ghaddar, Jamila; Ghuloum, Leith; Shehadeh, Saliem (January 5, 2023). "Dr. Rabab won again!". Mondoweiss .
  26. ↑ "Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi Awarded Georgina M. Smith Award | AMED Studies". amed.sfsu.edu.
  27. ↑ "American Studies Association and Rabab Abdulhadi: academics must act now!". BRICUP.
  28. 1 2 3 4 "Rabab Abdulhadi". This Week in Palestine, No. 299. March 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.