City University’s Olive Tree Forum at
the Inside Out Festival:
7pm to 8.30pm, Thursday 24 October 2013, The Chapel,
King’s College London
Please register here:
How do we disentangle ‘news’ from media reports which are
framed in terms of one or other of the competing ‘narratives’ about what’s
happening in the Middle East? How do we decide whether the Syrian regime, the
rebels or the Americans can be believed? Whose ‘narrative’ is the more
compelling – the Israeli one or the Palestinian one, if we are to understand
what drives their conflict?
Time was, we did
not even talk in terms of ‘narratives’ at all. But since the 1990s it has
become common parlance. Academics use the term to describe the mental maps that
we all absorb as we grow up (from history lessons, literature, politics and
family stories) that frame our understanding of who we are and our place in the
world. Politicians talk about competing with each other and the media to ‘frame
the national narrative’ so that it reinforces their view of the world and
serves their interests.
We invite you to
come and discuss what’s at stake in understanding the contemporary Middle East.
On the Panel:
Prof. Rosemary
Hollis – Professor of Middle East Policy Studies and Director of the Olive
Tree Programme, City University London. Her book on Britain and the Middle East
in the 9/11 Era was published in 2010, RIIA and Wiley Blackwell.
James Rodgers,
academic (City University) and journalist. During his BBC career (1995-2010),
his postings included Moscow, Brussels, and Gaza where, from 2002-04, he was
the only international journalist based in the territory. He is the author of
No Road Home: Fighting for Land and Faith in Gaza (Abramis, 2013), and
Reporting Conflict (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).
Yoav Galai,
PhD candidate St Andrews; Olive Tree scholar at City University (2008-11) and
prior to that Jerusalem-based photojournalist.
Bahaa Milhem
– Palestinian journalist and TV presenter, Olive Tree scholar at City
University (2010-13).
ALL welcome.
For
queries, write olivetree@city.ac.uk