St Mary’s Professor Invited to Lecture at University of Malta

Prof Nur Masalha, of the School of Arts and Humanities at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, has been invited to share his expertise on modern Palestinian history at the University of Malta. Prof Masalha, Programme Director for St Mary’s MA in Religion, Politics and Conflict Resolution, will visit the institution from Tuesday 27th to Friday 30th May. His visit will include lectures at the university’s inter-disciplinary seminar Work in Progress in Social Studies, and at the Mariam Al-Batool Primary and Secondary Schools at the Islamic Centre in Paola. The only Muslim school in Malta, Mariam Al-Batool, which means the Virgin Mary in Arabic, is dedicated to Mary of the Quran and New Testament and the name signifies the common heritage of the two religions. Prof Masalha explores religion and politics in Theologies of Liberation in Palestine-Israel: Indigenous, Contextual, and Postcolonial Perspectives, a book he recently co-edited. The book, which is a collection of essays, explores the Palestinian people’s struggles for justice and liberation. About the lectures Prof Nur said, “The lectures at Malta University will focus on Michel Foucault's nexus of power and knowledge, and the themes of professional historiography, social memory and ethical engagement. It will explore new ways of remembering and commemorating traumatic events from the past and deal with these issues within the context of social memory theory and Palestinian oral history, 'history from below' and the formation of civil collective identity.”