'Palestine is our working condition': Border pedagogy, materiality, and the corporate university

Abstract

What does it mean to teach and work in a corporate university with colonial roots, today? The on-going events in Palestine - what have been described by many specialists and international organizations as a genocidal campaign - have brought to the surface the historical undercurrents, the tensions and the contradictions of such an institution as a nested sensorial assemblage of actors, memories, affects and interests. Starting from the events that happened in the context of teaching an archaeology course on social justice while a student encampment was in place on campus, in the spring of 2024, I reflect on the materiality of protest, on teaching as a transgressive undertaking and on the retooling of colonial and decolonial structures to advance emancipation. In the midst of a rather dark moment, this is ultimately a hopeful reflection.