Stateless Nations - - Bradford Literature Festival

Many countries across the world were founded on the revolutionary principle of self-determination. However, the process of achieving this can be a bitter, and often violent, ideological struggle.

Some of these revolutions are still underway, creating stateless nations embroiled in long-term territorial disputes such as Palestine, Tibet, Kashmir, and Kurdistan, which are examples of the revolutionary, self-determining spirit in action. The battle for power is played out on a number of levels, from diplomatic rows at the United Nations to violence on the streets, and it is difficult to see how the situation will be resolved.

In this panel event, our speakers will analyse whether revolutionaries in these states will prevail, or whether they are always crushed by established states. Join Professor Dibyesh Anand, Dr Nitasha Kaul, Dr Karen Abi-Ezzi and Dr Sossie Kasbarian for an illuminating discussion.



Chair

Dibyesh Anand

Professor Dibyesh Anand is the Head of the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Westminster in London. He is the author of monographs Geopolitical Exotica: Tibet in Western Imagination and Hindu Nationalism in India and the Politics of Fear and has published on varied topics including Tibet, China-India border dispute, Hindutva and Islamophobia, identity politics in Tanzania, and nationalism.

Speakers

Karen Abi-Ezzi

Karen is a Lecturer and MA Director in Peace Studies and International Development at the University of Bradford.

Nitasha Kaul

Dr Nitasha Kaul is a Kashmiri novelist, academic, poet, economist, and artist. Her novel Residue was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize, deals with themes of Kashmiri identity, nation-state borders, and absence. Currently, she teaches in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Westminster. She continues to write and speak on issues of democracy, political economy, neoliberalism, Kashmir, nationalism in India, and Bhutan.

Sossie Kasbarian

Sossie Kasbarian is Senior Lecturer in Comparative Politics at The University of Stirling. Dr. Kasbarian’s research interests and publications broadly span diaspora studies, contemporary Middle East politics and society, nationalism and ethnicity, transnational political activism, and refugee and migration studies.