Segregation, Collective Emotions, and Social Change within the Settler-Colonial Context in Palestine: From Intergroup Contact to Colonial Infrastructures

Abstract

This talk examines how intergroup contact and the spatial infrastructures of segregation and repression shape Palestinian attitudes toward social change within the settler-colonial context. Bringing together research on normalization, intergroup contact, collective emotions, and checkpoints, it asks how relations with Israelis and everyday exposure to structures of military control influence Palestinians’ attitudes toward resistance and social change. 

Drawing on mixed-method research, including representative survey data, geo-coded measures of proximity to checkpoints, and critical discourse analysis, the talk traces normalization as a historically and politically contested concept and examines how positive and negative contact with Israelis relate to Palestinians’ attitudes toward normalization and resistance. It then turns to checkpoints as material structures of segregation, examining how proximity to these structures relates to collective emotions and support for different forms of collective action, including peaceful and revolutionary resistance. The findings highlight the particular role of humiliation in linking everyday exposure to repressive infrastructures with support for resistance. 

Taken together, these studies challenge approaches to intergroup relations that treat contact independently of the structural and political conditions in which it occurs. They highlight the importance of situating contact, emotions, and collective action within broader relations of power, segregation, and settler-colonial domination. 

Places are limited and so any academic colleagues or students interested in attending in person must register here for a place.


More about Dr Mai Albzour