On Hope, Care, Solidarity and Shared Humanity: The Role of the Artist/Academic in Engaging with Urgent Social and Political Questions and Decolonising Knowledge Production

Drawing on my ethnographic and photographic practice, the paper will focus on the role of the artist/academic in engaging with urgent social and political questions, hope, care and solidarity, and decolonising knowledge production. Using my latest project: Marching for Humanity & Hope: Voices from London Marches for Palestine, the paper will relate to my experience of turning to solidarity, care and art as a way of dealing with collective grief and finding hope in the face of the latest iteration of bloodshed, Israel's genocidal campaign, loss of life and unimaginable suffering of Palestinians and Israelis, the apocalyptic destruction of Gaza, the brutality of colonial violence and injustice, ethnic absolutism, racial supremacy and religious righteousness, the double standards and attempts to delegitimise the rule of law and human rights. The resort to a divisive, binary, and tribal discourse of us vs. them, when there is only one, that is our shared humanity.