Edward W. Said Memorial Lecture

2026 Memorial Lecture

We are thrilled to welcome renowned human rights lawyer, professor, and Noura Erakat, CCMS’ Edward W. Said Memorial Lecturer for an evening of conversation forged for this cataclysmic moment. In a stirring call to “build the world anew,” Erakat draws from her forthcoming co-authored book with John Reynolds to argue that the decolonization of Palestine is not only a struggle for justice in one land, but the very heart of a livable, equitable future for all of humanity. Following her address, Erakat will be in conversation with Dania Majid, Sara Kishawi, and Dr. Adel Iskandar. This is an urgent, unmissable evening of political imagination and moral clarity.

This talk will happen on June 1, 2026.

About the Speaker

Noura Erakat is Professor of Africana Studies and Criminal Justice at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. She is the author of Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine (Stanford University Press, 2019), which received the Palestine Book Award and the Bronze Medal for the Independent Publishers Book Award in Current Events/Foreign Affairs. In 2023, Noura co-chaired an Independent Task Force on the Application of National Security Memorandum-20 to Israel, a report documenting how U.S. arms to Israel have been used in violation of U.S. and international law and which was submitted to the White House. She is co-founding editor of Jadaliyya and an editorial board member of the Journal of Palestine Studies as well as Human Geography. She is a co-founding board member of the DC Palestinian Film and Arts Festival. She has served as Legal Counsel for a Congressional Subcommittee in the US House of Representatives, as Legal Advocate for the Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Refugee and Residency Rights, and as National Organizer and Legal Advocate of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation. Noura has also produced video documentaries, including “Gaza In Context” and “Black Palestinian Solidarity.” Noura completed a non-resident fellowship of the Religious Literacy Project at Harvard Divinity School as well as a Mahmoud Darwish Visiting Professorship at Brown University. In 2022, she was selected as a Freedom Fellow by the Marguerite Casey Foundation. In 2025, the University of Ghent awarded the Amnesty International Chair in recognition of her contribution to human rights and scholarship. In 2026, the University of Antwerp awarded her an honorary doctorate in recognition for her academic scholarship and public contributions. Her forthcoming book, Confronting Zionism: Decolonizing Palestine and Building the World Anew, co-authored with John Reynolds, will be published by Haymarket Press and out in November 2026.

About the Discussants

Adel Iskandar is Director of the Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies and an Associate Professor of Global Communication at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver/Burnaby, Canada. He is the author, co-author, and editor of several works including “Egypt In Flux: Essays on an Unfinished Revolution” (AUCP/OUP); “Al-Jazeera: The Story of the Network that is Rattling Governments and Redefining Modern Journalism” (Basic Books); “Edward Said: A Legacy of Emancipation and Representation” (University of California Press); “Mediating the Arab Uprisings” (Tadween Publishing); and “Media Evolution on the Eve of the Arab Spring” (Palgrave Macmillan). Iskandar’s work deals with media, identity, and politics, and he has lectured extensively on these topics at universities worldwide. His forthcoming publications are two monographs, one addressing the political role of memes and digital satire and the other about contemporary forms of imperial transculturalism. Iskandar’s engaged, participatory research includes supporting knowledge production through scholarly digital publishing such as “Jadaliyya” and academic podcasting such as “Status.” His community research agenda involves showcasing local grassroots, participatory, creative production by communities in the Middle East to confront the rise of extremism. Iskandar’s work also involves the autobiographical documentation and self-representation of Syrian newcomer women in the Lower Mainland illustrating their ingenuity in the face adversity. Prior to his arrival at SFU, Iskandar taught at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies and the Communication, Culture, and Technology Program at Georgetown University, in Washington, DC.

Sara Kishawi is a Palestinian community organizer and Sociology graduate from Vancouver Island University (VIU). Originally from Gaza, she has been a leading voice in campus and community organizing, and served as the spokesperson for the VIU Palestinian Solidarity Encampment; Canada's longest running encampment.

Dania Majid is the co-founder and president of the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association. She is also the co-founder and artistic director of the Toronto Palestine Film Festival. In addition to being a long-time advocate for the Palestinian and Arab community, she is also a human rights lawyer and housing advocate with a legal aid clinic in Ontario. Dania completed her Hon. B.Sc. at the University of Toronto before completing her MES/LLB at York University/Osgoode Hall.

2025 Inaugural Lecture

In this keynote lecture and moderated conversation, the iconic philosopher, civil rights activist, theologian, and public intellectual Dr. Cornel West guided us through the future of freedom and solidarity in these times of rampant injustice and global crises.

This talk happened on April 25, 2025.

About the Speaker

Dr. Cornel West, affectionately known to many as Brother West, is the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair at Union Theological Seminary. Dr. West teaches on the works of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, as well as courses in Philosophy of Religion, African American Critical Thought, and a wide range of subjects – including but by no means limited to, the classics, philosophy, politics, cultural theory, literature, and music. He has a passion to communicate to a vast variety of publics in order to keep alive the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. – a legacy of telling the truth and bearing witness to love and justice.

Dr. West is the former Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University and Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. Cornel West graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton.

He has written 20 books and has edited 13. He is best known for his classics, Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and for his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud. His most recent book, Black Prophetic Fire, offers an unflinching look at nineteenth and twentieth-century African American leaders and their visionary legacies.

Dr. West has partnered with MasterClass.com to provide teachings on several influential courses including a class with Pharrell Williams on Empathy, MasterClass’s first-ever multi-instructor class on Black History, Black Freedom & Black Love, as well as Dr. West’s standalone class on Philosophy. Visit www.cornelwest.com and click the MasterClass banner to learn more.