CFP: Panel on Israeli homonationalism at the 2016 NAPH conference

I am looking for participants in a panel about Israeli homonationalism for the 2016 National Association of Professors of Hebrew conference (Providence, RI, June-21-23).

Please contact me at segalo@cofc.edu 

Oren Segal, College of Charleston 

Homonationalism in Hebrew: Representations in Literature, Drama, and Cinema

Following Jasbir Puar’s 2007 conceptualization of homonationalism, it became fashionable in Queer Studies to explore the various ways in which mainstream gays foster patriotism in order to assimilate into Western societies. Only a few scholars address this issue in the Israeli context, prominently among them Aeyal Gross, but, except of Raz Yosef, who examines this phenomenon in Israeli cinema, the conversations about the Israeli configuration of homonationalism are limited to the Social Studies perspective. Aiming to widen the scope of the discussion, this panel intends to explore cultural representations in literature, drama, and cinema of the unique Israeli fusion of nationalism and homonormativity. Since homonormativity supports and maintains the national structures that discriminate against individuals that fail to achieve or intentionally reject the narrow terms of acceptability, this panel also wishes to pay close attention to representations of non-normative sexualities and non-binary identities. This panel will provide another dimension to the current debate about homonationalism and offer the possibility to enrich it with questions about the cultural backgrounds of the Israeli manifestation of gay patriotism.