Silence consoles us during an interruption in the flow of words, while pausing for the right words to approach, and in moments when words are hiding away from us. During blocks in which no words would emerge, silence allows us to shift from speech to writing.  Language, in the end, has no throat. As part of the Fall 2022 IDS Lecture Series, Adania Shibli will reflect on being forced into dysfluency in the context of Palestine/Israel, and learning to write in silence as a counterpoint to speaking and to the dubious treatment of words based on their functionality, therefore freeing language from performing the role of pure expression.

Any guests to campus are required to show proof of a vaccine to enter a Cooper Union Building and the Residence Hall.

Adania Shibli is a writer who was twice awarded the Qattan Young Writer's Award-Palestine: in 2001 for her novel Masaas (translated  into English as Touch), and in 2003 for Kulluna Ba’id bethat al Miqdar aan el-Hub (translated as We Are All Equally Far from Love). Her latest novel, Tafsil Thanawi, was published in English as Minor Detail (New Directions, 2020). Her non-fiction includes the art book Dispositions (2012) and an edited collection of essays titled A Journey of Ideas Across: In Dialog with Edward Said (2014). Shibli is also engaged in academic research, and since 2013 has been teaching part-time in the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Studies, Birzeit University, Palestine.

The IDS public lecture series is part of the Robert Lehman Visiting Artist Program at The Cooper Union. We are grateful for major funding from the Robert Lehman Foundation. The IDS public lecture series is also made possible by generous support from the Open Society Foundations.

Adania Shibli’s lecture is presented in partnership with the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near East Studies at New York University.