4th March 2025 6.30-8.30pm
Café in 58-67 Grand Parade, City Campus, University of Brighton, Brighton BN2 0JY and online
Ms Teams Link:
An evening with Ahmed Masoud and Sophie Chamas, as they explore the politics of fiction and writing as resistance and survival in times of genocide, dispossession and occupation.
Ahmed Masoud is the author of the acclaimed novels Vanished – The Mysterious Disappearance of Mustafa Ouda and Come What May. Ahmed is a writer, poet and director who grew up in Palestine and moved to the UK in 2002. Ahmed’s Theatre and Radio Drama credits include: The Florist of Rafah (2024), Passports, Jinn, Mo Salah and Other Complicated Things (2023), Application 39 (WDR Radio, Germany 2018) Camouflage (London 2017), The Shroud Maker (London 2015 – still touring), Walaa, Loyalty (London 2014, funded by the Arts Council England), Escape from Gaza (BBC Radio 4 2011). Ahmed is the founder of Al Zaytouna Dance Theatre (2005 – 2013) where wrote and directed many productions with subsequent tours in the UK and Europe, including Unto the Breach (London and Vienna 2012) Between the Fleeting Words (London, Zurich, Freiburg, Ljubljana, Madrid 2010 – 2012). Ila Haif (London, Freiburg 2008-2010) Hassad (London 2007-2008). After finishing his PhD research, Ahmed published many journals and articles including a chapter in the Britain and Muslim World: A Historical Perspective (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011). Most recently, Ahmed launched his new artistic initiative called PalArt Collective. For more information, please see www.ahmedmasoud.co.uk
Sophie Chamas’s research sits at the intersection of feminist and queer political theory, Middle East studies, social movement studies, and cultural studies. Overall, their work explores the life, death, and afterlife of the radical political imagination in the Middle East and its diaspora. They have written about the evolving nature of queerphobia as a means of authorising state power in the Middle East; queer Arab re-imaginings of both queerness and Arabness and the potentiality of their dialectical relationship; the effects of ghosts and hauntings from bygone moments of political possibility on the present and future of Middle East-related social movements; and the role that affect and sociality play in the reproduction of social movements in the region and its diaspora. All of their research is informed by what anthropologist Hirokazu Miyazaki calls ‘hope as method’ (2004) – a dedication to exploring what is not yet rather than what has already become.
This is a FREE event, but if you would like to attend please register here as spaces are limited
There will be wine and finger food available
This event is part of the the Horizon Europe/UKRI Innovate Horizon Europe Guarantee – funded project Cartography of the Political Novel in Europe (CAPONEU) and has been organised in partnership with New Writing South https://newwritingsouth.com/. CAPONEU sets out to examine how people in different national and cultural contexts engage with contemporary political issues and thereby have their share in shaping European societies and politics in the 21st century. CAPONEU brings together an interdisciplinary research team that seeks not only to unpack the rich literary heritage of the 20th century but also to make the political novel experiences relevant to our present. For further details about the project see https://www.caponeu.eu/about. The University of Brighton team includes Prof Mark Devennney (project lead), Dr Vedrana Velickovic, Dr Joanna Kellond, Dr German Primera Villamizar, Dr Liam Connell and Dr Craig Jordan-Baker.
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