PATH+: Jad Kiadan: Decolonization without Desoulment: Reconsidering Iḥsān within the Palestinian Condition

Please join the upcoming PATH+ talk entitled, "Decolonization without Desoulment: Reconsidering Iḥsān within the Palestinian Condition" by Jad Kiadan (Comparative Literature, Stanford University).

Over the past two years, Palestine has witnessed some of the most extreme manifestations of colonial violence and oppression—culminating in what can only be described as a full-scale genocide in Gaza. During this time, even those of us observing from afar have, in a sense, been gazing into the abyss: waking each day to images and testimonies of almost unimaginable brutality. The question that arises, then, is how we might keep our souls intact while the abyss gazes back into us. Is there a moral and spiritual compass that can orient us, as witnesses, amid such chaos and despair?

This talk proposes a path of return to tradition by engaging with the Arab-Islamic concept of iḥsān (excellence, or spiritual perfection). By revisiting this central ethical and spiritual concept, the talk explores how iḥsān may illuminate contemporary questions of decolonization, morality, and the act of bearing witness, inviting reflection on the possibilities of ethical resistance and the preservation of humanity in the face of inhumanity.

PATH+ is a DLCL focal group that is considering new directions for Persian, Arabic, Turkish, and Hebrew languages, literatures, and cultures.

RSVP here.

More details to follow.