Ilana  Feldman

Title — Associate Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs

Office — 2112 G St., NW, 101

Phone — (202) 994-7728

E-mail — ifeldman@email.gwu.edu

Areas of Expertise —

Sociocultural Anthropology
Historical anthropology, government and bureaucracy, humanitarianism, citizenship, colonialism, policing and security. Regional focus: Middle East.

Current Research

On leave, 2011-2012

Professor Feldman has done ethnographic and archival research on the civil service in Gaza during the British Mandate and Egyptian Administration, exploring how everyday bureaucracy and ordinary governing practices contributed to shaping people and place in the often extraordinary circumstances prevailing in Gaza.

Ongoing Projects

• Research on humanitarianism and the post-1948 Palestinian experience, with particular interest in how humanitarian practice defines populations and shapes political community. Research conducted thus far has explored the work of the American Friends Service Committee, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, and CARE in Gaza.
• Investigation of policing and security practices in Gaza during the Mandate and Administration. This project links local security concerns to broader dynamics, examining colonial policing, international peacekeeping, and local police forces. It investigates police practices of broad surveillance and the encouragement of informing among the population. An aim of the research is to understand the role of policing in shaping ideas about citizenship in Gaza.

   

Education

Ph.D. 2002, University of Michigan
M.A. 1994, New York University
B.A. 1991, Wesleyan University

Background

Professor Feldman is a cultural and historical anthropologist who works in the Middle East. Her primary research has been in Gaza, examining practices of government, humanitarianism, policing, and citizenship.

Publications

To see all of Dr. Feldman's publications, click here.

Books

2010  Feldman, I., and M. Ticktin, eds. In the Name of Humanity: The Government of Threat and Care. Durham: Duke University Press.

2008  Feldman, I. Governing Gaza: Bureaucracy, Authority, and the Work of Rule (1917-1967). Durham: Duke University Press.

Selected Articles and Book Chapters

2010  Feldman, I. "Ad hoc humanity: Peacekeeping and the limits of international community in Gaza," American Anthropologist 112(3): 416-29. DOI: 10.1111/j.1548-1433.2010.01249.x

2009  Feldman, I. "Gaza's humanitarianism problem," Journal of Palestine Studies 38(3): 22-37.

2008  Feldman, I. "Refusing invisibility: Documentation and memorialization in Palestinian refugee claims" in "Invisible Displacements," special issue of Journal of Refugee Studies 21 (4): 498-516; doi:10.1093/jrs/fen044.

2008  Feldman, I. "Waiting for Palestine: Refracted citizenship and latent sovereignty in Gaza," Citizenship Studies 12(5): 447-63.

2008  Feldman, I. "Mercy trains and ration rolls: Between government and humanitarianism in Gaza." In I.M. Okkenhaug and N. Naguib, eds., Interpreting Welfare and Relief in the Middle East, 175-194. Leiden: Brill Press.

20077nbsp; Feldman, I. "The Quaker way: Ethical labor and humanitarian relief," American Ethnologist 34(4): 689-705.

2007  Feldman, I. "Observing the everyday: Policing and the conditions of possibility in Gaza (1948-67)," Interventions: Journal of Postcolonial Studies 9(3): 414-433.

2007  Feldman, I. "Difficult distinctions: Refugee law, humanitarian practice, and political identification in Gaza," Cultural Anthropology 22(1): 129-69.

2006  Feldman, I. "Home as a refrain: Remembering and living displacement in Gaza," History and Memory 18(2): 10-47.

Classes Taught

Anth 3513 (old 150): Human Rights and Ethics
Anth 3707 (177): Cultures of the Middle East
Anth 6102 (202): Proseminar in Sociocultural Anthropology
Anth 6302 (222): Anthropology of Intervention: Development, Human Rights, and Humanitarianism
Anth 6302 (222): Anthropology of Citizenship and Displacement: Belonging and Exclusion in the Middle East
Anth 6591 (251): Anthropology of Security
Anth 6707 (277): Anthropology of the State and Government in the Middle East