A discussion of Olivia C. Harrison's new book, Natives against Nativism: Antiracism and Indigenous Critique in Postcolonial France (University of Minnesota Press, 2023). The author will be joined in conversation by Abdellali Hajjat (Université libre de Bruxelles) and Cécile Alduy (Stanford University), moderated by Hajar Yazdiha (USC). Co-organized by the USC Equity Research Institute,  USC Francophone Research and Resource Center, and USC Max Kade Institute for Austrian-German-Swiss Studies. 

Registration is required. REGISTER HERE

About the Book: For the past fifty years, the Palestinian question has served as a rallying cry in the struggle for migrant rights in postcolonial France, from the immigrant labor associations of the 1970s and Beur movements of the 1980s to the militant decolonial groups of the 2000s. In Natives against Nativism, Olivia C. Harrison explores the intersection of anticolonial solidarity and antiracist activism from the 1970s to the present. 

Natives against Nativism analyzes a wide range of texts—novels, memoirs, plays, films, and militant archives—that mobilize the twin figures of the Palestinian and the American Indian in a crossed critique of Eurocolonial modernity. Harrison argues that anticolonial solidarity with Palestinians and Indigenous Americans has been instrumental in developing a sophisticated critique of racism across imperial formations—in this case, France, the United States, and Israel. 

Serving as the first relational study of antiracism in France, Natives against Nativism observes how claims to Indigeneity have been deployed in multiple directions, both in the ongoing struggle for migrant rights and racial justice, and in white nativist claims in France today.

About the Author: Olivia C. Harrison is Associate Professor of French and Italian, Comparative Literature, Middle East Studies, and American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. She is author of Transcolonial Maghreb: Imagining Palestine in the Era of Decolonization and coeditor of Souffles-Anfas: A Critical Anthology from the Moroccan Journal of Culture and Politics.

Open to attendants outside of USC. An excerpt of the book will be made available to registered attendants. Registration before the event is required. 

Levan Institute for the Humanities Book Chats—Olivia C. Harrison, Natives Against Nativism: Antiracism and Indigenous Critique in Postcolonial France

This event is part of the Levan Institute for the Humanities' “Book Chats” series, conversations about new books published by USC scholars in the humanities and humanistic social sciences. To see more events in this series, including recordings of past events, visit https://dornsife.usc.edu/levan-institute/book-chats/.