Welcome to this seminar, where PhD research fellow Khalid Dader (Tampere University) will present his research on shifting gender roles and identities in Gaza.
The ongoing genocidal violence in Gaza has transformed the very fabric of gender roles and identities, creating ‘death-spaces’ where survival is the only goal. In these spaces, traditional masculine roles of breadwinner, protector, and decision-maker have been shattered, leaving men grappling with feelings of helplessness as the destruction exceeds their ability to fulfill these responsibilities. At the same time, women are forced to confront unimaginable hardships, including navigating pregnancy and childbirth in dangerous, unsanitary conditions with no access to medical care.
This talk will explore the profound reconfigurations of gender roles, highlighting how both men and women in Gaza are forced to renegotiate their identities in the face of devastation. Further, I will reflect on the limits of language, scholarship, and theory in capturing the full scope of these lived experiences and consider new frameworks for understanding gender in spaces of mass violence and annihilation.
Khalid Dader is a literary translator and an academic researcher. Currently, he is a PhD fellow researcher at Tampere University, part of the project «Dwelling with Crisis: Home at Spaces of Chronic Violence» (HOMCRI). In June 2023, he obtained a two-year master’s degree in Human Rights and Multiculturalism with a focus on masculinities and human dignity in the Gaza Strip. In May 2020, Dader finished his BA in English Language and Literature. His research interests as an emerging scholar are interdisciplinary such as poetic justice, political ‘literary’ translation, human dignity and/or Karamah, masculinities, and homemaking within crisis-ridden spaces.
«Stort møterom» is on the second floor of the Georg Sverdrup building, along from the café and the canteen.
We will serve coffee and light refreshments at this seminar.