Performance with Shareef Sarhan and A Reading by Rana Barakat

Moderator: Gina Dent

This performance is organized by Al-Haq FAI Unit as part of the programming for They Are Shooting at Our Shadows, In collaboration with the Visualizing Abolition Program at The Institute of Arts & Science (IAS) at UCSC. For this event, Shareef Sarhan and Rana Barakat were provided with materials from Al-Haq’s documentation of the 2002 attack on the Jenin Refugee Camp and asked to creatively respond, critically considering questions of evidence, memory, and liberation.

Shareef Sarhan was born in Gaza. He is an artist and professional photographer. Sarhan is a founding member of the collective Shababeek for Contemporary Art and a member of the Association of Palestinian Artists. He received his diploma in Arts from the University of ICS in the United States. Sarhan participated in Darat Al Funun academy in Jordan, under the supervision of the artist Marwan Kassab Bachi. He received the Bronze award of the Festival of Arab Photographers in 2008 and the recognition award in 2007. Sarhan produced a picture book “Gaza live”2012. His work was exhibited in 2022 Berlin art and Gaza, Ramallah, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Amman, Britain and the United States.

Rana Barakat is associate professor of history and contemporary Arab studies and Director of the Museum at Birzeit University in Palestine. Her research interests include the history and historiography of colonialism, nationalism, and cultures of resistance. She earned her PhD in history from the University of Chicago and has published in notable venues including the Journal of Palestine Studies, Jerusalem Quarterly, Settler Colonial Studies, and Native American and Indigenous Studies. Her forthcoming book, Lifta and Resisting the Museumification of Palestine: Indigenous History of the Nakba (UNC Press), advances an indigenous understanding of time, space, and memory in Palestine by focusing on the details of the people and place of Lifta village over time. She is currently working on her next book, “The Buraq Revolt: Constructing a History of Resistance in Palestine,” which argues that this 1929 revolt was the first sign in the Mandate period of sustained mass resistance to the settler-colonial project, including direct and rhetorical actions against both political Zionism and British imperialism, planting seeds of mass political mobilization.

For more information on the work of the unit, contact the following email: [email protected]