Digital Occupation:
Hi-Tech Borders in Palestine-Israel
Thursday 07 February, 2013
1:15 - 2:30pm, $0
New York Public Library, Schwarzman Building
Fifth Avenue at 42 Street, South Court Auditorium
What is the digital? What is underground? Does cyberspace have a frontier? By focusing on technology and media infrastructures and highlighting the digital's political geography, this talk argues that globalization and hi-tech have not eradicated the importance of territoriality. The process of 'digital occupation' in Palestine-Israel demonstrates what is true globally: the digital is deeply territorial, new kinds of borders are emerging, and media development and infrastructure continue to be politically charged processes.
Dr. Helga Tawil-Souri, a writer in residence in the Library's Wertheim Study, is Associate Professor in Media, Culture, and Communication, and Associated Faculty in Middle East and Islamic Studies at New York University. Her work focuses on issues of spatiality, technology and politics in the Middle East. The bulk of her scholarship analyzes culture and technology in everyday life in Palestine-Israel, theorizing how media technologies and instrastructures function as bordering mechanisms, and how territorial/physical boundaries function as cultural spaces. Her publications have analyzed different aspect of contemporary cultural politics, including the internet, telecommuncations, television, film, and videogrames, as well as physical markers such as ID cards and checkpoints. Dr. Tawil-Souri also researches and writers about the larger landscape of Arab media, and in particular new technologies and their relationship to political and economic transformations.
Dr. Helga Tawil-Souri, a writer in residence in the Library's Wertheim Study, is Associate Professor in Media, Culture, and Communication, and Associated Faculty in Middle East and Islamic Studies at New York University. Her work focuses on issues of spatiality, technology and politics in the Middle East. The bulk of her scholarship analyzes culture and technology in everyday life in Palestine-Israel, theorizing how media technologies and instrastructures function as bordering mechanisms, and how territorial/physical boundaries function as cultural spaces. Her publications have analyzed different aspect of contemporary cultural politics, including the internet, telecommuncations, television, film, and videogrames, as well as physical markers such as ID cards and checkpoints. Dr. Tawil-Souri also researches and writers about the larger landscape of Arab media, and in particular new technologies and their relationship to political and economic transformations.