Raja Shehadeh’s lecture on the tenth anniversary of Edward Saïd’s death will reflect on the cages of categorization that imprison Palestinians in contemporary Palestine perhaps more than even the physical matrix of borders, checkpoints, and the Wall.  Shehadeh will explore how Palestinians themselves deploy these categories in a language of despair in our post-Oslo landscape, as well as a search for a new language, remembering as Edward Saïd noted in one of his most moving and lyrical texts, After the Last Sky, that “We are more than someone else’s object.”

The Edward W. Said Memorial Lecture is given once a year in honor of the public intellectual and literary critic, Edward W. Said, who taught in the English & Comparative Literature Department at Columbia from 1963 until 2003. Professor Said was perhaps best known for his books Orientalism, published in 1978, and Cultural Imperialism, published in 1993, both of which made major contributions to the field of cultural and postcolonial studies.  Over the course of his intellectual career, Professor Said became one of the most influential voices on the Arab-Israeli conflict as a spokesperson for the Palestinian people in the West. Along with Daniel Barenboim in 1999, he founded the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, which brings together musicians from Palestine and Israel and surrounding Arab countries. Professor Said was awarded the Bowdoin Prize by Harvard University, the Lannan Literary Award for Lifetime Achievement, and the Prince of Asturias Award for Concord, among other awards. He was the first person to be awarded the Lionel Trilling Book Award two times. The Annual Edward W. Said Memorial Lecture pays tribute to Professor Said by bringing to Columbia speakers who embody his beliefs and the legacy of his work.

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