Social media and Political Horizons: Israel/Palestine, the Middle East and Beyond 14 June 2013 1-5pm Venue TBC Organised by: Adi Kuntsman, The University of Manchester and Rebecca L. Stein, Duke University At the core of this workshop is a rethinking of the so-called ‘digital democracy’ proposition – that is, an argument about the ways that digital technologies, chiefly social media, can advance pro-democracy politics. In the last few years, this popular proposition has come under increasing criticism from scholars who have reminded us of the flexible nature of digital technologies, including the ways they have been employed by dictators and police states as public relations platforms, tools for tracking and monitoring political dissidents, and means of counter-insurgency more generally. What has emerged in the scholarly literature is something of a dichotomy – digital democracy posited against digital dictatorship. The event takes a more complex approach to the politics of digital technology, through a discussion of the ways that social media can be employed on both sides of this political divide. More specifically, the discussion will approach social media both as tools of warfare, military occupation, and authoritarian rule, and as means to subvert and resist such political regimes. Contra most of the literature on digital democracy and digital dictatorship alike, our discussion will focus on questions of everyday culture and language as they emerge where politics and social media meet. Programme 9.30 -10.00 Registration 10.00-12.00 Roundtable discussion Simon Faulkner, Manchester Metropolitan University Adi Kuntsman, The University of Manchester and Rebecca L. Stein, Duke U Miriyam Aouragh, Oxford University Yasmin Ibrahim, Queen Mary Farida Vis, Sheffield University 12.00-1.00 Lunch 1.00-2.30 Public lecture Theresa Senft, NYU ‘My Body Belongs to Me? On Global Spheres, Networked Nudity and Feminist Activism’ Attendance is free but registration is required. Please email naveeda.raoufi@student.manchester.ac.uk to register Registration deadline: 1 June 2013 --- Dr Adi Kuntsman https://sites.google.com/site/adikuntsman/