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School of Law

Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, PhD in Criminology and a licensed social worker

Nadera

Chair in Global law

Email: ltw802@qmul.ac.uk
Room Number: Mile End

Profile

State criminality and its effect on human suffering is my primary focus when planning research endeavours.  I spent last year working closely with my colleagues at Queen Mary preparing a European Research Council (ERC) proposal entitled, “State Political Violence and the Governance of Hope.”  I am also working with Professor Sheehi Stephan on putting together a special issue of the State Crime Journal on “Abolitionism and State Crime.”  As a part of a joint project, Professors Lila Abu-Lughod (Columbia University), Rema Hammami (Birzeit University), and I are completing a special issue on the canning of gender-based violence (GBV), with three main analytical pillars: securitisation and GBV, state crime and GBV, and humanitarianism and GBV.  Furthermore, Professor Nadim Rouhana (Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy) and I submitted an edited volume to Cambridge University Press, entitled When Politics Are Sacralized: International Comparative Perspectives on Religious Claims and Nationalism.

My research focuses on trauma, state crimes and criminology, surveillance, gender violence, law and society, and genocide studies.  I study gender-based violence, violence against children in conflict-ridden areas, crimes of abuse of power in settler-colonial contexts, surveillance, securitisation, and social control. 

I have authored numerous books, including Militarization and Violence Against Women in Conflict Zones in the Middle East: The Palestinian Case Study (2010) and Security Theology, Surveillance and the Politics of Fear (Cambridge University Press, 2015).  I recently published a book examining Palestinian childhood, entitled Incarcerated Childhood and the Politics of Unchilding, and an edited volume, Understanding Campus-Community Partnerships in Conflict Zones. Currently, I am co-editing a book on Islam and gender-based violence.

View Professor Shalhoub-Kevorkian's CV [PDF 466KB].

Undergraduate Teaching

  • 2020: State Racism and Crime, Faculty of Law––Institute of Criminology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
  • 2013: Gender and Human Rights, School of Social Work and Social Welfare, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Postgraduate Teaching

  • 2010: Advanced Theories in Criminology, Master’s and Doctoral Level, Faculty of Law – Faculty of Law–Institute of Criminology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
  • 2018: Law, Society and Racism, Faculty of Law–Institute of Criminology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
  • 2018: The Politics of Childhood: A Critical Perspective, School of Social Work and Social Welfare, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Research

My writings connect the disciplines of criminology, social work, feminist critical theory, psycho-social intervention, and law and society. My research is based primarily on a bottom-up analysis of structural oppression to assess the effects of militarism, securitisation, racism, settler colonialism, and gender-based discrimination on “otherization” and collective trauma. Given the significant dangers that totalising theories pose to social workers, criminologists, and socio-legal scholars, my theoretical approach stresses the importance of advancing de-colonial theorisation,and liberatory interventions as well as civic and social engagement.  

Over the past 10 years, I have endeavoured to study the effects of securitisation, military occupation, and settler colonialism. This key area of interest is reflected in my recent book, Security Theology, Surveillance and the Politics of Fear (Cambridge University Press, 2015). In the book’s final three chapters, I examine the ways in which colonised populations are trapped within overlapping technologies of violence. These technologies enable intensified securitisation, surveillance, and criminalities affected by bio-political and geopolitical regimes of surveillance and control. I have also pursued this line of analysis in recent publications for local and international professional journals in both Arabic (Journal of Palestine Studies, 2011; Bahithat, 2012) and English (British Journal of Criminology, 2013, 2015, 2017; International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies, 2015, 2020). Pursuant to this line of research, I recently published a book manuscript examining childhood in the context of settler colonialism, putting forth the concept of “unchilding” (2019). To better understand this topic prior to publication, I investigated the manner in which childhood is stolen from children surviving the criminality, surveillance, and fear resulting from settler colonialism in a number of recent publications (Borderlands, 2014; British Journal of Criminology, 2015, 2018; International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies, 2015; Settler Colonial Studies, 2015; Canadian Journal of Women and Law, 2019).

Finally, in addition to producing wide-ranging scholarship, throughout my career I have strived to create research-based policy interventions and direct major academic programs. I have served as the director of a gender studies program, co-director of a project entitled “The Fusion between Religious Claims and Nationalism,” which looked at the case-studies of South Africa, India, Sri Lanka, Israel/Palestine, Ireland, and the former Yugoslavia; and co-director of a newly founded project at Columbia University (New York) on religion and framing of gender-based violence. As a professor and mentor, I supported the development and training of the next generation of young scholars and leaders in academic and community settings.

Selected Conferences and Workshop Organization

  • Policing and Empire-Webinar, University of California–Los Angeles, November 2020
  • Unchilding in the Middle East and North Africa, MESA, October 2020
  • Palestinian Women’s Activism, Online Book Discussion, September 2020
  • Concerning Palestine/Israel: Thinking with Achille Mbemba, Online Symposium, September 2020
  • Home and Homeland, Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences, June 2020
  • UK Mental Health, Corona and State Criminology in Occupied East Jerusalem, UK Mental Health Network, April 2020
  • State Crime and Gender-Based Violence, Queen Mary University of London–ISCI, February 2020
  • State Crime and Combat Proven Politics, Queen Mary University of London–ISCI, March 2019
  • Global Governance of the Intimate, Luce Foundation, Columbia University, New York, September 2018
  • Palestinian Women’s Access to Justice, Gender Studies Program, Mada al-Carmel, Haifa, July 2016
  • Religious Claims, Nationalism, and Human Suffering, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, April 2016
  • Colonization and the Law, Law and Society Association Program Committee, June 2012
  • Feminist Thought as a Tool for Resistance, Gender Studies Program, Mada al-Carmel, Haifa, June 2007
  • Victimology between the Local and the Global, Institute of Criminology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, May 2007

Examples of research funding:

  • 2016-20: Israeli Science Foundation, “Child Arrest and Juvenile Justice”
  • 2016-19: Luce Foundation, “Religion and the Framing of Gender Violence” with Professors Lila Abu-Lughod, Rema Hammami, and Janet Jakobsen
  • 2015-17: UN Women, “In the Absence of Justice”
  • 2013-14: UN Women, “Palestinian Women Access to Justice in the West Bank”
  • 2012-15: Luce Foundation, “The Fusion between Religious Claims and Nationalism” with Professor Nadim Rouhana
  • 2010-12: YWCA–Jerusalem, “The Politics of Birth in Occupied Jerusalem”
  • 2009-12: International Conflict Research Institute (INCOR), University of Ulster, “Death and Dying in Occupied Jerusalem”
  • 2009-11: United States Institute of Peace (USIP), “Community Engaged Courses as a Vehicle for Peacebuilding” with Professor Daphna Golan
  • 2008-10: Israel Internet Association, “Child Sexual Solicitation and the Internet”
  • 2007-2008: Women for Women’s Human Rights (WWHR), “Femicide, Body-politics and Multi-bureaucratic Systems: The Palestinian Case”
  • 2006-2007: Pince Foundation, “Women and Children and the Attack on the Home in Conflict Zones”
  • 2006-2007: Ford Foundation, “Gender and Human Rights: Criminology, Victimology and Social Activism”
  • 2006: Word Vision International, “Children and Trauma: A Critical Race Perspective”
  • 2006: Minerva Center for Human Rights, “The Safe Home: Attacking the Home in Conflict Zones”
  • 2005-2006: Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, “Law and House Demolitions in East Jerusalem”, Jerusalem Center for Women
  • 2005-2006: World University Service–Britain, “Gender, Occupation and Education: Law, Gender and Militarization of Spaces in the Palestinian Authority”, Women’s Studies Center (Jerusalem)
  • 2004-2005: Women’s Studies Center, “Women and Political Conflict: The Case of Palestinian Women in Jerusalem”
  • 2002-2003: EEU through Kvina Tel Kvina, “Women and Political Conflict: The Case of Palestinian Women in Jerusalem”
  • 2002: World Health Organization, Department of Injuries and Violence Prevention in collaboration with the Department of Women’s Health, “Criminalization of Sexual Violence: The Case-study of Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine”
  • 2001-2002: Spanish Agency of International Development Cooperation, “Dialoging with the Muted: Women Empowerment and Silencing”
  • 2001-2002: Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, “Trauma and War: The Palestinian Case-study”
  • 2000-2002: UNIFEM, “The Perception and Attitudes of Victims and Criminal Justice Professionals towards Femicide: A Case-study of Jordanian and Palestinian Society”
  • 1999-2000: Warburg Foundation, “Disclosure of Sexual Abuse amongst Girls and Its Concomitant Threat of Femicide: The Case of Palestinian Society”
  • 1998-99: UNIFEM, “Mapping and Analyzing the Landscape of Femicide: The Palestinian Case-study”
  • 1998-99: Silvert Center, “Policing Women Battering in the Arab Community in Israel” with Edna Erez
  • 1997-98: Brookdale Center, “Examining Intervention Programs Addressing Female Child Sexual Abuse: The Case-study of Palestinians and Israelis”
  • 1994-96: Israeli Ministry of Science and Technology, “The Applicability of the Law against Family Violence (1991) among Palestinians Living in Israel”
  • 1992-93: Truman Institute of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, “Perception, Attitude, and Social Reaction toward Wife Abuse among Palestinian Women in East Jerusalem” (for completing doctoral dissertation research)

Publications

Books:

Edited Books:

Monographs:

Book Chapters:

  • Speaking Life, Speaking Death: Jerusalemite Children Confronting Israel’s Technologies of Violence (2020), In S. Walklate, K. Fitz-Gibbon, J.M. Maher, and J. McCulloch (eds.), The Emerald Handbook of Feminism, Criminology, and Social Change, 253-70, Emerald Publishing Limited.
  • Violence against Palestinian Women in the West Bank (with A. Wing) (2017), In R. Goel & L. Goodmark (eds.), Comparative Perspectives on Gender Violence, New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Gendered Suffering and the Eviction of the Native: The Politics of Birth in Occupied East Jerusalem (2017), In D. Haynes, F. Ni Aolain, N. Valjii & N. Cahn (eds.), Oxford Handbook on Gender and Conflict, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Settler Colonialism, Surveillance, and Fear (2017), In N.N. Rouhana (ed.), Israel and Its Palestinian Citizens: Ethnic Privileges in the Jewish State, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Death and Dying in My Jerusalem: The Power of Liminality (2015), In B. Hamber & E. Gallagher (eds.), Psychosocial Perspectives on Peacebuilding, 255-87, Springer International Publishing.
  • Terrorism and the Birthing Body in Jerusalem (2014), In S. Perera & S.H. Razack (eds.), At the Limits of Justice: Women of Colour on Terror, 38-56, University of Toronto Press.
  • (En)gendering De-development in East Jerusalem: Thinking through the ‘Everyday’ (with R. Busbridge) (2014), In M. Turner & O. Shweiki (eds.), Decolonizing Palestinian Political Economy: De-development and Beyond, Rethinking Peace and Conflict Studies, 77-94, London: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Counter-narratives of Palestinian Women: The Construction of Her-story and the Politics of Fear (2011), In M. Ennaji & F. Sadiqi (eds.), Gender and Violence in the Middle East, 29-59, New York: Routlege.
  • Palestinians, Education, and the Israeli ‘Industry of Fear’ (2010), In A.E. Mazawi & R.G. Sultana (eds.), Education in the Arab ‘World’: Political Projects, Struggles, and Geometries of Power, World Yearbook of Education, 335-49, New York: Routledge.
  • Palestine (2007), In D.S. Clark (ed.), Encyclopedia of Law & Society: American and Global Perspectives, 1091-92, Los Angeles: Sage.
  • When Laws are Tools of Oppression: Palestinian Women Counter Discourse against the Policy of House Demolition (2007), In D. Barak-Erez, S. Yanisky-Ravid, Y. Bitton & D. Pugach (eds.), Iyuni Mishpat Migdar Ve Feministm, 463-500, Kirvat Uno: Navo (in Hebrew).
  • Politics, Tribal Justice and Gender: Perspectives in the Palestinian Society (2006), In A. Hans-Jorg, J.M. Simon, H. Rezaei, H.C. Rohne & E. Kiza (eds.), Conflicts and Conflict Resolution in Middle Eastern Societies: Between Tradition and Modernity, 535-56, Berlin: Max Planck Institute.
  • Researching Women’s Victimization in Palestine: A Socio-legal Analysis (2005), In L. Welchman & S. Hossain (eds.), Honour’: Crimes, Paradigms, and Violence against Women, 160-80, London: Zed Books.
  • Negotiating the Present and Historicizing the Future: Palestinian Children Speak about the Israeli Separation Wall (2005), In D. Champagne & I. Abu-Saad (eds.), Indigenous and Minority Education: International Perspectives on Empowerment, 178-200, Beer Sheva: Negev Center for Regional Development.
  • Opposing the Ostracism: A Contextually Sensitive Mode of Intervention for Handling Female Abuse (2003), In E. Leshem & D. Roer-Strier (eds.), Cultural Diversity: A Challenge to Human Service, 255-74, Jerusalem: Magnes Press (in Hebrew).
  • Who Are We Protecting: Palestinian Girls in Israel and the Child Protection Policy (2003), In M. Hovay (ed.), Crime and Punishment: A Review of the Criminal Justice System in Israel, 553-83, Jerusalem: Hmachon Lmahkar Hakika Vemishpat [Institute for Comparative Judicial and legal Studies] (in Hebrew).
  • Growing from Within: The De-colonization of the Mind (2002), In N. Abdo & R. Lentin (eds.), Women and the Politics of Military Confrontation: Palestinian and Israeli Gendered Narratives of Dislocation, 176-94, Oxford: Berghahn.
  • Women Victimization in Palestinian Society (1999), In A. Manna (ed.), The Palestinians in the Twentieth Century: A View from Within, 153-204, Jerusalem: Van Leer Institute (in Hebrew).
  • Development of Identity under the Oppression of Occupation: The Palestinian Case (1999), In H. Gordon (ed.), Looking Back at the June 1967 War, 113-22, London: Praeger.
  • Crimes of War, Culture, and Children’s Rights: The Case of Female Palestinian Detainees under Israeli Military Occupation (1998), In G. Douglas & L. Sebba (eds.), Children’s Rights and Traditional Values, 228-48, New York: Routledge.
  • Introduction (1995), In A. Khader (ed.), Towards Equality: An Examination of the Status of Palestinian Women, 4-13, Jerusalem: Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling.
  • Fear of Sexual Harassment: Palestinian Adolescent Girls in the Intifada (1994), In E. Augustin (ed.), Palestinian Women: Identity and Experience, 171-79, London: Zed Books.
  • Community Work within Palestinian Society, 76-93, Jerusalem: Federation of Charitable Societies (in Arabic).

Articles in Refereed Journals:

Articles in Non-Refereed Periodicals and Position Papers:

Supervision

I am currently supervising six PhD students, and two MA students, Faculty of Law–Institute of Criminology and School of Social Work and Social Welfare, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Public Engagement

Membership in Editorial and Advisory Boards

  • 2016-: The British Journal of Criminology, International Advisory Board
  • 2016-: International State Crime Initiative, Editorial Board
  • 2016-: Journal of Holy Land and Palestine Studies, International Editorial Board
  • 2016-: Jerusalem Quarterly, Advisory Board
  • 2014-: Journal for Middle East Women’s Studies, Advisory Board

Membership in Scientific Societies

  • 2019-: Association of Middle East Children and Youth Studies (AMECYS)
  • 2015-: Middle East Studies Association Member
  • 2005-: Middle East Studies Seminar Member, Yale Law School
  • 2000-: Law and Society Association Member

Membership of Selected Public Committees

  • 2020-: Palestinian Global Mental Health Network
  • 2016-: Board Chair, Mada al-Carmel
  • 2011-16: Board Member, Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counseling, Jerusalem
  • 2006-: Academic Board Member, Mada al-Carmel
  • 2006-2016: Director–General Studies Program, Mada al-Carmel
  • 2003-11: Board Member, World Vision, Jerusalem
  • 2001-: Board Member, Princess Basma Organization for the Disabled
  • 2005-2009: Board Chair, Gisha, Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, Tel Aviv
  • 2003-2007: Chair, Arab Ad Hoc Committee for Higher Education, Council for Higher Education, Jerusalem
  • 2003-2005: Board Member, Israeli Women’s League Research Committee, Jerusalem
  • 1996-2002: Board Member, Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counseling, Jerusalem

Professional/Community Activities

  • 2013-: Senior Leading Researcher, Greenhouse of Context-Informed Research and Training for Children in Need (NEVET), School of Social Work and Social Welfare, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
  • 2008-13: Member, The Trauma, Peace-building and Development Project, International Development Research Centre (INCOR), University of Ulster, Northern Ireland
  • 2007-2012: Member, Feminist Academic Group, Women in Conflict Zones Network (WICZNET): Studying “Militarized Violence in this New Age of Empire”, York University, Toronto, Canada
  • 2008: Training Israeli Judges, Palestinians in Israel: Challenges Facing the Legal System, Jerusalem, Israel
  • 2008: Training Palestinian Social Workers and Psychologists, Feminist Perspective in Trauma and Recovery, Ramallah, West Bank
  • 2004: Training Judges of the High Criminal Court in Jordan, Victim’s Voice in Criminal Proceedings and Fair Trial for Women and Children in Criminal Proceedings, Amman, Jordan
  • 2001-2014: Founding Member, Women for Women’s Sexuality and Bodily Rights, Istanbul, Turkey
  • 2001: Counseling to the World University Service Project, Researching Women, Larnaka, Cyprus
  • 2000: Training Palestinian Mental Health and Health Workers, Elderly Abuse and the Role of Palestinian Social Control Agents, Jerusalem, Israel
  • 2000: Training Judges in Israeli Family Courts, Violence and the Palestinian-Israeli Families, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
  • 1999: Training Rape Crisis Workers, Helping Victims of Sexual Abuses: A Contextually Sensitive Mode of Intervention, Jerusalem, Israel
  • 1998: Training Palesitnian National Council (PNC) Members, Gender and Violence: The Role of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), Bethlehem, West Bank
  • 1997: Training Women Activists, Women and Law, West Bank and Gaza, Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling, Jerusalem, Israel
  • 1994: Established the First Hotline for Abused Palestinian Women, Al Aman, Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling, Jerusalem, Israel
  • 1994: Training Female Palestinian Police Officers, Domestic Violence, Gaza Strip
  • 1991: Initiated a Hotline during the Gulf War, Provided Information, Guidance and Psychological Support to Palestinians Living in the Occupied Territories, Jerusalem, Israel

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