Ilana Feldman

Assistant Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs
E-mail ifeldman@gwu.edu
Office: 2112 G St., NW, 101 / (202) 994-7728

Professor Feldman is a cultural and historical anthropologist who works in the Middle East. Her primary research has been in Gaza, examining practices of government, humanitarianism, policing, and citizenship.

Research

Professor Feldman has done ethnographic and archival research on the civil service in Gaza during the British Mandate and Egyptian Administration, exploring how everyday bureaucracy and ordinary governing practices contributed to shaping people and place in the often extraordinary circumstances prevailing in Gaza.

Current Research Projects

1. Research on humanitarianism and the post-1948 Palestinian experience, with particular interest in how humanitarian practice defines populations and shapes political community. Research conducted thus far has explored the work of the American Friends Service Committee, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, and CARE in Gaza.
   
2. Investigation of policing and security practices in Gaza during the Mandate and Administration. This project links local security concerns to broader dynamics, examining colonial policing, international peacekeeping, and local police forces. It investigates police practices of broad surveillance and the encouragement of informing among the population. An aim of the research is to understand the role of policing in shaping ideas about citizenship in Gaza.

Selected Publications

Books

2008	Feldman, I. Governing Gaza: Bureaucracy, Authority, and the Work of Rule (1917-1967). Durham: Duke University Press.
n.d.	Feldman, I., and M. Ticktin, eds. Government and Humanity. Durham: Duke University Press. (under contract)

Articles and Book Chapters

2008	Feldman, I. "Refusing invisibility: Documentation and memorialization in Palestinian refugee claims" in "Invisible Displacements," special issue of Journal of Refugee Studies 21 (4): 498-516; doi:10.1093/jrs/fen044.
2008	Feldman, I. "Waiting for Palestine: Refracted citizenship and latent sovereignty in Gaza," Citizenship Studies 12, 5: 447-63.
2008	Feldman, I. "Mercy trains and ration rolls: Between government and humanitarianism in Gaza." In I.M. Okkenhaug and N. Naguib, eds., Interpreting Welfare and Relief in the Middle East, 175-194. Leiden: Brill Press.
2007	Feldman, I. "The Quaker way: Ethical labor and humanitarian relief," American Ethnologist 34, 4: 689-705.
2007	Feldman, I. "Observing the everyday: Policing and the conditions of possibility in Gaza (1948-67)," Interventions: Journal of Postcolonial Studies 9, 3: 414-433.
2007	Feldman, I. "Difficult distinctions: Refugee law, humanitarian practice, and political identification in Gaza," Cultural Anthropology 22, 1: 129-69.
2006	Feldman, I. "Home as a refrain: Remembering and living displacement in Gaza," History and Memory 18, 2: 10-47.
2005	Feldman, I. "Government without expertise?: Competence, capacity, and civil service practice in Gaza (1917-1967)," International Journal of Middle East Studies 37, 4: 485-507.
2005	Feldman, I. "Everyday government in extraordinary times: Persistence and authority in Gaza's civil service (1917-1967)," Comparative Studies in Society and History 47, 4: 863-91.

Courses Taught

Anth 150: Human Rights and Ethics
Anth 177: Cultures of the Middle East
Anth 222: Anthropology of Intervention: Development, Human Rights, and Humanitarianism
Anth 222: Anthropology of Citizenship and Displacement: Belonging and Exclusion in the Middle East
Anth 251: Anthropology of Security

Education