Assistant Professor of English & Communications Dr. Caren Beilin is moderating the discussion.
“I would say that the secret is hiding right there in the title, ‘How to Speak About Peace,’" she told WAMC. "It's in the speaking, it's in the talking. So, this is a moment to continue speaking with each other, guided by a diverse group of scholars who are deeply informed on this issue. We have to talk to one another. Talking is better than a lot of the other things that we're seeing happening right now.”
The panel includes Jewish, Arab, and Muslim scholars with an array of expertise.
“I'm really looking forward to hearing from is Dr. [Carter] Carter, who is actually a newer faculty member at MCLA in psychology," said Beilin. "He's a psychologist whose work is specifically in how colonial ideologies become grafted into our individual psychologies, and the ways in which these psychological investments shape our actions. Professor Mariana Bolivar will be on the panel. She's a scholar of Latin American culture who looks particularly toward indigenous culture and diaspora- Somebody who's really thinking about indigeneity and also kind of moves toward decolonization that are going to be really thought provoking in this moment. We have our anthropologist on the panel, Professor [Mohamad Junaid]. He works very specifically on state violence and occupation.”
Beilin says she expects themes around occupation to loom large in the conversation.
“What does it mean that the Palestinian people have been living under an occupation?" she asked. "How has that affected and how is that part of how we conceive of the violence that is now currently happening? And I think that Professor Junaid will be really an amazing voice in that.”
Beilin says the difficulty in discussing Israel, Palestine, and the current humanitarian crisis in Gaza is evident among the students she engages with at MCLA. The panel is structured to break through that fear.
“It's a mix of intimidation, silence, a kind of quietness about it, which comes with just also maybe being young, not knowing exactly how to be respectful, or wanting to know how to speak but not sure exactly where to join in on the conversation," she said. "And then I see students who are deeply passionate it about this issue deeply hurt, deeply concerned, deeply sad. I absolutely have talked with students who are really calling for ceasefire, wanting to find ways to call for that ceasefire with more vigor, with more information, with more friends around them, maybe.”
While Beilin hopes the panel will find its own consensus on the permanent ceasefire question, she knows how she feels about the situation that has left thousands of innocents dead.
“There has been so much violence in this region, and none of it has worked," she told WAMC. "None of it. It's not working.”
In the meantime, the assistant professor hopes that communal discussions like the panel will work.
“I want to manifest peace wherever we can," said Beilin. "Constantly speaking and talking is a big part of that. I wish I could manifest it everywhere or where it matters, it seems, most right now. But let's manifest it at MCLA.”
The panel begins at 7 in Murdock Hall, Room 218 on the MCLA campus.
