"No matter how great the pain, nobody wins at Oppression Olympics. Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Egypt, we can compare how long it's been going on somewhere, how many have died, how many disappeared, how the world responded... In the end, it is one struggle: human rights against an oppressive state apparatus. Down with militarism, and down with nationalism too, if it pits one oppressed people against another."
Epsilon Alpha Sigma is honored to announce our first Empowered Arab Woman of the month, Nada Elia. Nada Elia is a diaspora Palestinian, born in Baghdad, Iraq, and raised in Beirut, Lebanon, where she grew up and worked as a journalist during the Civil War, before coming to the US for her PhD. Nada currently teaches Global and Gender Studies at Antioch University in Seattle, where she coordinates the Global Studies area of concentration. Nada is a member of the Organizing Committee of the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, and has spoken around the country about academic boycott as a means to achieve the currently non-existent academic freedom in the US, Israel, and Palestine.
A scholar-activist, Elia is past president of AMEWS, the Association of Middle East Women’s Studies, and currently serves on the steering collective of The Critical Ethnic Studies Association. She also serves, or has served, on a number of local grassroots activist organizations. She is a founding member of RAWAN (the Radical Arab Women’s Activist Network); a former representative to the United Nations of AWSA (the Arab Women’s Solidarity Association); a member of the Defense of Civil Rights in Academia; and a former member of the steering collective of INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, where she co-chaired of the Anti-Militarism, and Anti-Occupation task force.
Nada’s publications on grassroots resistance, gender dynamics, and transnational solidarity have appeared in various progressive alternative media venues, from the Electronic Intifada to Left Turn and Make/Shift magazine, as well as some of the most prestigious academic journals (World Literature Today, Callaloo, Journal of the National Women’s Studies Association, and others).
Her intellectual prowess and academic contributions inspire those who come into contact with her work and her energetic persona. Elia has made a mark in her profession and every space she becomes involved in. Elias strong female voice epitomizes what it means to be an empowered Arab woman and ΕΑΣ is excited to present Elia with this title.
A scholar-activist, Elia is past president of AMEWS, the Association of Middle East Women’s Studies, and currently serves on the steering collective of The Critical Ethnic Studies Association. She also serves, or has served, on a number of local grassroots activist organizations. She is a founding member of RAWAN (the Radical Arab Women’s Activist Network); a former representative to the United Nations of AWSA (the Arab Women’s Solidarity Association); a member of the Defense of Civil Rights in Academia; and a former member of the steering collective of INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, where she co-chaired of the Anti-Militarism, and Anti-Occupation task force.
Nada’s publications on grassroots resistance, gender dynamics, and transnational solidarity have appeared in various progressive alternative media venues, from the Electronic Intifada to Left Turn and Make/Shift magazine, as well as some of the most prestigious academic journals (World Literature Today, Callaloo, Journal of the National Women’s Studies Association, and others).
Her intellectual prowess and academic contributions inspire those who come into contact with her work and her energetic persona. Elia has made a mark in her profession and every space she becomes involved in. Elias strong female voice epitomizes what it means to be an empowered Arab woman and ΕΑΣ is excited to present Elia with this title.