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This talk traces the idea of humanitarianism through time, the emergence of its liberal formations, its bureaucratic rituals of care, and its uneasy relationship with power. It then asks what remains of this humanitarian vocation in the ruins of Gaza.
Gaza, Dr Proudfoot will argue, is not simply a failure of aid delivery or, euphemistically, an ‘access challenge’, but an inflection point at which the grammar of ‘humanitarian reason’ has collapsed. In Palestine, the language of protection has been turned inside out, used to rationalise starvation, displacement, and genocide. In this destruction, we see not a crisis within the humanitarian system, but the end of its credibility as a global moral project.
Yet this need not mark the end of aid altogether. The Sumud Flotilla offers a glimpse of another tradition, one rooted in defiance, in breaking sieges, in a willingness to take risks for shared humanity. Philip will conclude that it is to this older and more insurgent vision of humanitarian aid that we must now return.
6th November 16:00-17:30
Jubilee G32
Or watch online: https://universityofsussex.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_YG053TblQu62zcn9FfnxBw
All welcome
The Palestine Interdisciplinary Dialogues is an interdisciplinary research network organised by colleagues from across Sussex, including the Business School, Life Sciences, and Global Studies.