Book Talk – Recognition Politics in Settler Colonial States
Posted on behalf of: The Palestine Interdisciplinary Dialogues
Last updated: Friday, 3 October 2025

Palestine Interdisciplinary Dialogues
Date: Wednesday 26 November
Time: 15:00 – 16:30
Venue: Jubilee 155, University of Sussex
Contrary to the common view of recognition as an asset sought by Indigenous communities, Dr Emile Badarin demonstrates how settlers and settler-colonial states actively pursue recognition as a strategy to legitimise dispossession and eliminate Indigenous societies.
The book critically examines categories of race, racism and racial hierarchies within Euromodern thought, and explores how anti-Zionism has been strategically equated with anti-Semitism to advance settler-colonialism in Palestine and secure Israel’s recognition internationally.
Central to the discussion is the Palestinian practice of sumud (steadfastness), understood here as a philosophy of liberation and a pathway towards a decolonial future in Palestine and beyond.
Speaker
Dr Emile Badarin – born and raised in Palestine, he holds a PhD in Middle East Politics from the University of Exeter. He is the author of Palestinian Political Discourse (2016) and has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals on international and Middle East politics and the Question of Palestine.
Discussant
Prof Alan Lester – historical geographer, University of Sussex
All are welcome