Yarden Stern
Performance Studies Ph.D. candidate Yarden Stern was awarded a Dean's Dissertation Fellowship for the 2022-23 academic year.
Dissertation Abstract: Bodies Without Borders: Queerly Performing Israeli Citizenship
Across distinctive genres of contemporary art and performance in Israel/Palestine, “Bodies without Borders: Queerly Performing Israeli Citizenship,” asks: How are queer Israeli subjects performing the entanglements of Israeli identity with Israeli settler-colonial violence? And how is this contemporary generation of queer Israelis making possible alternative conceptions and ethics of national belonging? A growing body of scholarship and critique explores how the Israeli state, a self-branded democratic haven for LGBT citizens, uses queer rights as a smokescreen for the ongoing occupation of Palestine while suppressing meaningful political participation by queer Israelis. This dissertation builds on these critiques by analyzing and amplifying the perspectives of an emerging generation of queer subjects -- Israeli, Palestinian, Bedouin, and Arab-Israeli citizens of Israel -- who mobilize their citizenship against statesanctioned violence, generally, and Palestinian dispossession, in particular.
Congratulations Yarden!