iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Noam Leshem @noamleshem.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

Excited to be heading to the East Coast this week for this lecture at @sasn.rutgers.edu November 7, 12:30, at the Art Library, Rutgers University. If you're around, do come along:

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Noam Leshem @noamleshem.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

Really lovely to read this. You never know how a book will land and @dannymcnally.bsky.social makes some vital observations here that go well beyond my book, touching on questions of method and ethics that I've been grappling with as well.

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Noam Leshem @noamleshem.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

…it was a great (unrecorded) “episode” where we covered the future of university teaching in an AI age, the trials and tribulations of foreign policy writing, and got insights into what it’s like being the only sober person on the night of Newcastle’s cup celebrations. Brews: IPA & Amber Ale

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Noam Leshem @noamleshem.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

Friend: Remind me, are you going to Detroit next week for the big American geographers conference? Me: Have you lost your mind?! I'm a German passport holder with a digital record of working in Palestine. That's a one-way ticket to El Salvador these days. It made him laugh. I wasn't joking.

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Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

"... we are united in denouncing, without equivocation, anyone who invokes our name – and cynical claims of antisemitism – to harass, expel, arrest, or deport members of our campus communities." Strong letter from US Jewish academics. docs.google.com/document/u/1...

docs.google.com

Not In Our Name

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Noam Leshem @noamleshem.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

Hey colleagues heading to spring conferences in the US:

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Noam Leshem @noamleshem.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

There is a sense, among many, that Israel is so broken, its leadership so cynical, that it is truly a hopeless political experiment best left to the messianic settler-supremacist clan that runs it. I struggle to offer a counterpoint.

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Noam Leshem @noamleshem.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

Spot on. “What’s left of the state of Israel besides bombings, destruction, abandonment and murder? Nothing. Nada.”

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Noam Leshem @noamleshem.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

5/ For the past 10 years, this political logic of *uncaring* is what I've been seeing in Sudan, Syria, Palestine, Colombia, Cyprus and elsewhere. The entirety of my latest book is exactly about this. Documenting abandonment as a logic of governance.

press.uchicago.edu

Edges of Care

A firsthand look at the lives of those who reside in no man’s land—the violence they endure and their immense resilience. “No man’s land” invokes stretches of barren landscape, twisted barbed wire, ...

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Noam Leshem @noamleshem.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

4/ Quick observations: Abandonment is no longer a failure of sovereignty but inherent to it. Abandonment isn't wielded as punishment. It isn't biopolitical per se. Abandonment is not wielded for profit. It's not privatised. This isn't neoliberalism. Take them seriously: They truly don't care.

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Noam Leshem @noamleshem.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

3/ Later, Gawande notes that a foreign health minister told him recently "I never imagined America could be indifferent, could simply abandon people." Of course, America has always abandoned people, at home and abroad. This this isn't new at all. But abandonment is now becoming brazen and blunt.

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Noam Leshem @noamleshem.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

2/ When Gawande says hundreds of thousands will die, Remnick is rattled: "I'm sorry, Atul, [...] this is nothing short of outrageous. And how is it possible that this is happening? Obviously these facts are filtering up to [...] the administration at large, and they don't care." Bingo. They don't.

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Noam Leshem @noamleshem.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

This is an eye-opening conversation between David Remnik and Atul Gawande, but not only for addressing the destruction of ASIAD and the catastrophe that it is causing. It reveals in a blunt way how the Trump regime embraces abandonment as a system of rule. 🧵

podcasts.apple.com

Atul Gawande on Elon Musk’s “Surgery with a Chainsaw”

Podcast Episode · The New Yorker Radio Hour · 14/03/2025 · 27m

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Noam Leshem @noamleshem.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

Living in the northeast of England, you don’t need a report to know this. You see it in the derelict streets, in cities and towns suffering from endemic underinvestment. Regional discrepancy is critical here- we are simply not living in the same socioeconomic universe as London and the southeast.

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Noam Leshem @noamleshem.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

My friend and colleague Ben Anderson has written about joy and right wing politics. Affect Theory in general has lots to say about this, though I have to admit I’m probably not best placed to expand on this.

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Judah Grunstein @judah-grunstein.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

Rule No. 6: "A good tactic is one your people enjoy." For the Trumpists, the cruelty is the point. They enjoy it. What is "the point" for the anti-Trump coalition broadly imagined? What kind of tactic would manifest an enjoyable expression of that point?

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Judah Grunstein @judah-grunstein.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

The Tesla protests work because they are a physical and geographical embodiment of Saul Alinsky's Rule No. 13: "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it." What are other ways to do so? (The far right has coopted Alinsky for a decade now. It's time to reclaim him.)

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Noam Leshem @noamleshem.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

Just heading back from “The Game” project workshop in Bologna- superb work on the refugee route in the Balkans site.unibo.it/thegame/en If you’re organising a workshop, having 17th century frescoes is a great start! #unibo

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Noam Leshem @noamleshem.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

And a big shout-out to Judith Koch who helped record, edit and sort out all the technical aspects that made this happen!

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Noam Leshem @noamleshem.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

I had such a great conversation with @pollypw.bsky.social on the Voices podcast of the @europeanisa.bsky.social, which is just out. We covered a lot, but it's a really fun exchange!

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Polly Pallister-Wilkins @pollypw.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

For our latest Voices @europeanisa.bsky.social podcast I talked with @noamleshem.bsky.social about his amazing new book Edges of Care: Living and Dying in No Man’s Land podcasts.apple.com/nl/podcast/v...

podcasts.apple.com

What is...No Man’s Land?

Podcastaflevering · Voices: The EISA Podcast · 14-03-2025 · 1u 16m

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Middle East Research and Information Project @merip.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

OUT NOW: The first major update to our Primer on Palestine, Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, by Joel Beinin and Lisa Hajjar, in over a decade is now live! Read, teach, share!

buff.ly

Palestine-Israel Primer - MERIP

Middle East Research and Information Project: Critical Coverage of the Middle East Since 1971

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Bonnie Honig @bonniehonig.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

Hey political theory and first century peeps! Susan Buck-Morss is here!! bsky.app/profile/buck...

bsky.app

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Noam Leshem @noamleshem.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

We’re running an advanced workshop for political geography students on the geographies of settler colonialism and this is definitely top of the list to screen.

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Democracy Now! @democracynow.org · 03/03/2025

The Palestinian-Israeli film "No Other Land" has won the Oscar for best documentary feature at this year's Academy Awards. Watch our interviews with two of the co-directors. Basel Adra: www.democracynow.org/2025/2/18/ba... Yuval Abraham: www.democracynow.org/2024/4/5/no_...

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Dr Roberto Mazza @robbyref.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

My latest podcast for the @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social is now out. I had the pleasure to interview @noamleshem.bsky.social discussing his book Edges of Care newbooksnetwork.com/edges-of-care

newbooksnetwork.com

Noam Leshem, "Edges of Care: Living and Dying in No Man's Land" (U Chicago Press, 2025) - New Books Network

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Noam Leshem @noamleshem.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

Sigh. I've seen a few of these recently...

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Noam Leshem @noamleshem.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

Had a wonderful couple of days at @aberuni.bsky.social in Wales, talking to colleagues and students about the new book. Great discussion and getting to hang out with the brilliant Dr Mitch Rose was an extra treat. Somehow, it's always sunny in Aberystwyth when I visit...

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Leftbobgolfer🇨🇦 @leftbobgolfer.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

Canada in fact HAS agreed with the US, to rename the Gulf of Mexico!!!

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Gerard Toal @critgeopolitics.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

Really tired of the “Moscow talking points” framing. No, this is what they choose to say, what they believe. This is our illiberal culture talking.

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Noam Leshem @noamleshem.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

… and what a surprise to find a 2014 poster for a conference where I presented initial thinking on no-man’s land! It’s still one of the best academic gatherings I’ve attended.

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Noam Leshem @noamleshem.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

Great to back at Queens University Belfast to speak about my book. Great discussion about political indifference, abandonment and the rather bleak political moment we live in. The clear skies this evening were an extra treat!

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Noam Leshem @noamleshem.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

Belfast friends- I’ll be speaking at Queen’s University about my new book, about disposable lives, state abandonment & the uncaring sovereign. This Thursday, 20 Feb, 2pm. More details in the poster 👇🏼

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Noam Leshem @noamleshem.bsky.social · 16/02/2025

America, Trump doesn’t care about your children.

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Noam Leshem @noamleshem.bsky.social · 15/02/2025

Thanks Sean, I appreciate you taking the time to offer that thoughtful response.

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Noam Leshem @noamleshem.bsky.social · 15/02/2025

This is an important post, and depressing conversations that follow. A glimpse into the despair and spite that so many in the liberal left feel after the election. I understand the sentiments, yet they are utterly self defeating.

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Noam Leshem @noamleshem.bsky.social · 15/02/2025

You mean the same nonvoters who showed up this year to vote? What’s the logic of this anti-coalition approach? Is it ideological purity for its own sake? I’m asking genuinely.

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Noam Leshem @noamleshem.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

Obvs, a train conference happening on a train immediately made me think of that immortal Seinfeld episode about the coffee table book that is also a coffee table. m.youtube.com/watch?v=yyu_...

m.youtube.com

The Coffee Table Book - Seinfeld

YouTube video by Seinfeld Shorts

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Noam Leshem @noamleshem.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

This is ultimate bait for a Daily Mail hit piece on the decline of academia, but heck, who cares…

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