Dance till the Empire Falls: Poetics and Politics of Afghan Lives and Desires with Dr. Ahmad Qais Munhazim   Friday, November 21st, 2024, 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm

 Opening night Friday, November 21st, 2024, 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm

 Pulse Lab TSH 719, 1280 Main St W, Hamilton, ON L8S 4L8 (Also available virtually)

 Presented by Dr. Ahmad Qais Munhazim

 Lecture, followed by interactive Q&A

 Refreshments will be served

Speaker Bio

Ahmad Qais Munhazim (They/Them) is an interdisciplinary scholar of migration, war, gender, and sexuality studies. Currently, Munhazim is a Member at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton University where they are working on their book project titled Intimate Revolutions.

Event Description

There is more to war and displacement than suffering. From loving to sexing, friending, singing, writing poetry and dancing, people construct intimate lives around and in war and during times of displacement that are revolutionary, defying war and border and their violence. This workshop captures what I conceptualize as ‘dance worlding.’ From Kabul to Dublin dance worlding is creating tender possibilities of survival, resistance and desires through the movement of the body, flirtatious expressions, collective dance, forming community and living in the present moment, hoping for freedom and desiring for more than the bare life. Through reading and analysis of poetry and an in-depth ethnography of dance spaces and parties, I argue that Afghans create possibilities of life in spaces of war and exile that are revolutionary against the architecture, structure and violence of war and displacement.

Sponsors and Support

This event is sponsored by the Pulse Lab (Located in Communications Studies and Media Arts, Faculty of Humanities) and the Indigenous Studies Department