Helga Tawil-Souri
Helga Tawil-Souri's scholarship is on globalization, media technologies, cultural expressions and their relationship to economic and political change in the Middle East. She has published work on Arab and Palestinian broadcasting industries and cinema, internet development, videogames, ID cards, checkpoints, and cultural/political spaces of resistance. Her forthcoming book, Digital Occupation, analyzes communication infrastructures as bordering mechanisms in Palestine/Israel. Her interest in media is generally in the cultural, political, and economic significance of what happens behind the screens and under the streets.
In her life before academia, Helga worked as a researcher at a multi-national media conglomerate, and ran her own internet consulting firm. She is also most comfortable behind the camera, so when not in class or in the office, she's busy as a photographer and documentary filmmaker.
Associated Faculty, Department of Middle East and Islamic Studies
Research Interests
- Globalization, development
- Critical geography, borders
- Media and hi-tech infrastructure
- Arab media and culture
- Contemporary Palestinian politics and culture
- Ethnographic film-making
Publications
BOOKS
Tawil-Souri, H. (forthcoming). Digital Occupation: Infrastructures as Borders in Palestine/Israel
SELECTED ARTICLES, BOOK CHAPTERS, ETC.
Tawil-Souri, H. (2012). It's Still About the Power of Place. Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication 5(1): 88-97. Special Issue: Arab Uprisings, One Year On. (link)
Tawil-Souri, H. (2012). Egypt's Uprising and the Shifting Spatiality of Politics. Cinema Journal.
Tawil-Souri, H. (2012). Uneven Borders, Colored (Im)mobilities: ID Cards in Palestine/Israel. Geopolitics 17(2): 1-24. (link)
Tawil-Souri, H. (2012). Digital Occupation: The High-Tech Enclosure of Gaza. Journal of Palestine Studies 42(2): 27-43. (link)
Tawil-Souri, H. (2011). Review Essay: Mapping Israel-Palestine. Political Geography 30(8) (link)
Tawil-Souri, H. (2011). A Palestinian Take on Occupy Wall Street. In Media Res. (link)
Tawil-Souri, H. (2011). Where is the Political in Cultural Studies? In Palestine. International Journal of Cultural Studies 16(1), 1-16. (link)
Tawil-Souri, H. (2011). Colored Identity: The Politics and Materiality of ID Cards in Palestine/Israel. Social Text 107, 67-97 (link)
Tawil-Souri, H. (2011). Qalandia: An Autopsy. Jerusalem Quarterly 45, 73-81 (link)
Tawil-Souri, H. (2011). Qalandia Checkpoint as Space and Non-Place. Space and Culture 14(1), 4-26 (link)
Tawil-Souri, H. (2011). The 'War on Terror' in Arab Media. In Daya Thussu and Des Freedman (eds.), Media and Terrorism: Global Perspectives. Thousand Oaks: SAGE.
Tawil-Souri, H. (2011). The Necessary Politics of Palestinian Cultural Studies. In Tarik Sabry (ed.), Conceptualising Cultural Studies and Media Studies in the Arab World: Mapping the Field. London: I.B. Tauris. (link )
Tawil-Souri, H. (2011). A Space Exodus: A Truly Palestinian Film (Larissa Sansour, Dir.). Jadaliyya (link)
Tawil-Souri, H. (2011). Orange, Green, and Blue: Colour-Coded Paperwork for Palestinian Population Control. In Elia Zureik, David Lyon, and Yasmeen Abu-Laban (eds.), Surveillance and Control in Israel/Palestine: Population, Territory, and Power (219-238). London: Routledge. (link)
Tawil-Souri, H. (2010). Walking Nicosia, Imagining Jerusalem. Re-Public 4 (link)
Tawil-Souri, H. (2010). Qalandia Checkpoint: The Historical Geography of a Non-Place. Jerusalem Quarterly 42, 27-48 (view) (Interview for Palestine Studies TV / Institute for Palestine Studies link)
Tawil-Souri, H. (2009). Towards a Palestinian Cultural Studies. Middle East Journal of Communication and Culture 2(2), 181-185 (view)
Tawil-Souri, H. (2009). New Palestinian Centers: An Ethnography of the 'Checkpoint Economy.' International Journal of Cultural Studies 12(3), 217-235 (view)
Tawil-Souri, H. (2009). Israeli Air Power: Bombs on YouTube. In Media Res, Media and Conflict Theme (link )
Tawil-Souri, H. (2008). Arab Television in Academic Scholarship. Sociology COMPASS 2(5), 1400-1415 (view)
Tawil-Souri, H. (2008). Americanizing Palestine through Internet Development. In Gerard Goggin and Mark McLelland (eds.), Internationalizing Internet Studies (32-47). London: Routledge.
Tawil-Souri, H. (2007). The Political Battlefield of Pro-Arab Videogames on Palestinian Streets. Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East 27(3), 536-551 (view)
Tawil Souri, H. (2007). Move Over Bangalore. Here Comes... Palestine? Western Funding and 'Internet Development' in the Shrinking Palestinian State. In Paula Chakravartty and Yuezhi Zhao (eds.), Global Communications: Toward a Transcultural Political Economy (263-284). Boulder: Rowman & Littlefield.
Tawil-Souri, H. (2007). Global and National Forces for a Nation-State Yet to Be Born: The Paradoxes of Palestinian Television Policies. Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture 4(3), 4-25 (view)
Souri, H.T. (2006). Marginalizing Palestinian Development: Lessons Against Peace. Development 49(2), 75-80 (view)
Tawil, H. (2005). Coming Into Being and Flowing Into Exile: History and Trends in Palestinian Film-Making. Nebula 2(2), 113-140 (view)
OP-EDS
Tawil-Souri, H. (November 11, 2011). Hacking Palestine: A Digital Occupation. Al Jazeera English (link)
Tawil-Souri, H. (October 10, 2011). Occupy Wall Street to Global Intifada? Al Jazeera English (link)
Courses
- Introduction to Media Studies
- Media and Globalization
- Communication and International Development
- Islam, Media, and the West
- Mediating Israel/Palestine
- Middle East Media and Cultural Politics (grad)
- Middle East Media and Cultural Politics: Israel/Palestine (grad)
- Topics in Globalization: International Development (grad)
- Media, Culture, and Communication Core Seminar (grad)
- Dissertation Proposal Seminar (grad)
- Media and Globalization: The European Experience (Amsterdam)
Spring 2012 Courses:
- MCC-UE 1305 001 - Communication and International Development: Coffee (UG)
- MCC-GE 2275 001 - Middle East Media and Cultural Politics: Israel/Palestine(Grad)