Unpacking Zionism

Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism

Produced by the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism, this podcast features conversations with scholars, activists, and artists about their insights into Zionism. Unpacking Zionism is a process and a long-term commitment that we at the Institute are making to the Palestinian liberation struggle and the struggles of all people affected by Zionism. To resist the current moment of Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, we must understand Zionism. So join us on this journey as we are Unpacking Zionism one episode at a time. Please subscribe to Unpacking Zionism so you never miss new episodes. To learn more about the Institute and to access episode notes and transcripts, visit our website https://criticalzionismstudies.org

  1. 4D AGO

    Empire’s Laboratory: Zionism is a real estate project

    Taylor Miller is a writer and researcher based between the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts. She earned her Ph.D. in political geography from the University of Arizona. Taylor is a Contributing Editor and writer for Columbia University’s Avery Review, and other recent works are featured with Social Text, Al Mayadeen, Weird Economies, The New Inquiry, Protean, with forthcoming essays in Yale School of Architecture’s Perspecta, Antipode and Kohl Journal. She’s motivated by border abolition and cactus propagation. Resources: https://averyreview.com/issues/70/silicon-wadi-silicon-desert https://proteanmag.com/2024/05/13/against-these-walls-a-unity-of-struggle-from-gaza-to-sonora/ https://socialtextjournal.org/periscope_article/walking-through-walls-and-scaling-the-roof-direct-action-to-end-the-genocide-in-palestine/

    56 min

  2. MAY 7

    In Flames: APA Resolution with Barry Trachtenberg, Lara Sheehi, & Jordan Dunn

    Bios: Lara Sheehi: is a Research Fellow at the University of South Africa’s Institute for Social and Health Sciences, a licensed clinical psychologist, and the host of the Psychic Militancy podcast. Lara’s work focuses on psychoanalysis, the psychic refusals central to liberation struggles and life-making in the Global South, the psychic dimensions of resistance and revolution, and critical Zionism studies. She is author of the forthcoming book, From the Clinic to the Streets Psychoanalysis for Revolutionary Futures (Pluto, 2026) and the co-author, with Stephen Sheehi, of Psychoanalysis Under Occupation: Practicing Resistance in Palestine which won the Middle East Monitor’s 2022 Palestine Book Award for Best Academic Book. Lara is a member of the founding collective for the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism and is on the advisory board for Forensic Architecture. Jordan Dunn: is a licensed clinical psychologist based in New York City. He works as a supervising psychologist and organizer for community action and reflection at the Greene Clinic, a sliding scale, community psychoanalytic, training clinic. He also serves as a council representative at the American Psychological Association representing APA Division 39 the society of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychology. Trained at the New School for Social Research, he has received multiple fellowships, and publishes on psychotherapy and culture. He organizes locally with Jews for Racial and Economic Justice and is part of Jewish Psychologists for Justice, a grassroots organizing group fighting for collective liberation. Barry Trachtenberg: is a historian of modern Jewish history and the Holocaust and author of several books on Jewish history and the Nazi Holocaust. He has published on issues related to American support for Israel, Zionism, anti-Zionism, and antisemitism in venues such as Jewish Currents, the Guardian, Jacobin, the Forward, Electronic Intifada, and Mondoweiss. He is a member of the Academic Advisory Boards of Jewish Voice for Peace and the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism, the steering committee of the Genocide and Holocaust Studies Crisis Network, and is Faculty Affiliate of the Center for Security, Race and Rights at Rutgers Law School. He holds the Rubin Presidential Chair in Jewish History at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC.

    21 min

  3. APR 23

    In Flames: On Anti-Anti-Zionism with Sean Malloy & Emmaia Gelman

    Episode's resources: https://mondoweiss.net/2025/12/stop-calling-right-wing-criticism-of-israel-anti-zionism/

    26 min

  4. APR 14

    Empire’s Laboratory: ‏الأرض اللي بطعمي The land that feeds

    In this episode, Alex and Lara talk with Danya Nadar about the ways Zionism  is implicated in the ongoing destruction and plunder of land and resources in Guatemala, especially  through imported land-based practices and irrigation technologies, and  the ways that Indigenous people continue to resist. Bio: Danya Nadar is an Egyptian-Canadian PhD candidate affiliated with the Institute of Development Policy (IOB) at the University of Antwerp since 2020. From 2009, Danya worked as a documentary film and news producer focusing on social and political economy topics in North Africa and east of the Mediterranean, and where she is also part of the revolutionary media collective mosireen.org. In 2018 she switched careers to pursue her passion, conducting research alongside Indigenous peasant farmers. She was a research fellow (2019-2020) at the International Development Research Centre in Canada which allowed her to continue the research she had started in occupied Palestine (2018-2019) on ancestral knowledges related to seeds, land tenure, gendered social dynamics, and alternative/parallel food networks. Her current research looks at the interconnected ways food is weaponized by relationally comparing the colonization of Palestine (past to present) with that of Ch’orti’ territories in Guatemala’s east, and the ways ancestral knowledges related to land, seeds, and cosmo vision to resist land encroachment and dispossession towards reconstitution of ancestral territories. Show notes: https://agroecologynow.net/agricultural-research-in-times-of-the-eu-race-to-arms/ Antony Loewenstein book: https://antonyloewenstein.com/books/the-palestine-laboratory-how-israel-exports-the-technology-of-occupation-around-the-world/

    40 min

  5. MAR 17

    Empire’s Laboratory: Palestine has always been a global phenomenon

    Nadim Bawalsa is a historian of modern Palestine and the author of Transnational Palestine: Migration and the Right of Return before 1948 (Stanford University Press, 2022), winner of the 2023 Nikki Keddie Book Award and the 2023 Palestine Book Award. He is the associate editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies. Shownotes: Nadim's book: https://www.sup.org/books/middle-east-studies/transnational-palestine Weavers of Revolution: The Yarur Workers and Chile's Road to Socialism by Peter Winn: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/weavers-of-revolution-9780195045581 Between Arab and White: Race and Ethnicity in the Early Syrian American Diaspora by Sarah Gualtieri ucpress.edu/book/9780520255340/between-arab-and-white Extra readings from Nadim: Nadim Bawalsa with the Arab Center Washington DC: https://arabcenterdc.org/resource/transnational-palestine/ On the limits of Palestinian-Chilean solidarity with Palestine today: https://fromtheperiphery.com/2025/09/29/206-the-limits-of-palestinian-ness-w-pablo-abufom/ A special issue in JPS on Palestinian migration before 1948: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rpal20/46/2?nav=tocList

    41 min

  6. MAR 5

    In Flames: On Iran and Intersectional Anti-Imperialism with Manijeh Moradian

    Episode's resources: Iran and the US Anti-War Movement https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/25872/Iran-and-the-US-Anti-War-Movement Iran in Crisis: Seven Essays on the Obstacles to Freedom https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/47192/Iran-in-Crisis-Seven-Essays-on-the-Obstacles-to-Freedom-Introduction Raha Iranian Feminist Collective https://www.rahafeministcollective.org/ Havaar: Iranian Initiative Against War, Sanctions, and State Repression https://web.archive.org/web/20230209153914/http://havaar.org/category/campaign/ https://www.instagram.com/feminists4jina/ https://www.instagram.com/decolonize_anarchism/

    26 min

  7. MAR 5

    Introducing: In Flames

    Introducing a new series of podcast shorts: In Flames. Episodes are anti-Zionist hot takes on what's happening right now. With rotating hosts from the Institute's Collective and Advisory Board. Subscribe so you don't miss new episodes.

    1 min

  8. MAR 3

    Empire’s Laboratory: Walking with Palestinians, Zapatistas, Panthers, and jaguars

    In this episode, Alex and Lara interview Linda Quiquivix about radical histories and traditions of resistance to colonialism, with a focus on Zionism and its instantiations in Latin America. Palestine 1492: A Report Back by Linda Quiquivix, available for free here: https://wildoxbooks.org/books/palestine-1492/ Jimmy Johnson & Linda Quiquivix, "Israel and Mexico Swap Notes on Abusing Rights" found here: https://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-and-mexico-swap-notes-abusing-rights/12475 For Zapatista communiques see: https://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/ Mentioned in the episode: México Profundo: Reclaiming a Civilization, found here: https://utpress.utexas.edu/9780292708433/

    43 min
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About

Produced by the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism, this podcast features conversations with scholars, activists, and artists about their insights into Zionism. Unpacking Zionism is a process and a long-term commitment that we at the Institute are making to the Palestinian liberation struggle and the struggles of all people affected by Zionism. To resist the current moment of Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, we must understand Zionism. So join us on this journey as we are Unpacking Zionism one episode at a time. Please subscribe to Unpacking Zionism so you never miss new episodes. To learn more about the Institute and to access episode notes and transcripts, visit our website https://criticalzionismstudies.org

Information

  • Creator
    Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    63
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Show Website
    Unpacking Zionism

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