Dartmouth Events

The Palestine-Israel conflict is one predicated on land: who controls it, what they do with it, if they have a right to it etc. The Place that is Ours; Maps of Palestine-Israel is a project that seeks to visualise how the territory has been imagined, mapped and curated since the early twentieth century. The project seeks to demonstrates the fractured cartography of the region: from place names to border delineations, through historical and GIS maps. After all, while the landscape cannot lie, the process of mapping can and The Place that is Ours demonstrates many of the ways we have imagined and reimagined the land over the past 100 years, culminating (or perhaps beginning) with the partition of Palestine in 1948. The presentation will offer a historical and academic analysis of colonising spatial practices as well as a personal account of the return to a forgotten place, fundamentally examining the politics of mapping in the Palestine-Israel conflict. 

Zena has previously worked at the Iraqi Embassy in Paris, the Palestinian delegation at UNESCO and the Houses of Parliament. Media credits include the BBC World Service, The Independent, The Nation and she has freelanced for The Economist. Zena graduated with a first in history and politics from Warwick University and was awarded the Kennedy Scholarship to study at Harvard University, completing her Master’s in Middle Eastern Studies. In 2017, she was a summer fellow at the Library Innovation Lab at the Harvard Law School. Zena is currently the US Policy Fellow for Al-Shabaka; The Palestinian Policy Network and lives in New York City.