Sociology Professor Nahla Abdo has been awarded the designation of Chancellor's Professor, effective July 1, 2022.
This designation recognizes scholarship of outstanding merit with substantial international impact, and is awarded to a limited number of scholars across Carleton University. It is the highest honour given by the University for research and scholarship and is made with the expectation that Chancellor’s Professors will continue to promote leadership in further developing research excellence at the University.
Professor Abdo’s research deals with the binary relationship between settler colonialism and indigenousness. Using a historical-comparative analysis, Professor Abdo’s current research focuses on comparing the structure and culture of the state in North America, originally (Turtle Island) and Israel, originally (Palestine) in terms of the role they play in the elimination/genocide of the indigenous peoples of the land. Patrick Wolfe’s “Colonialism Speaks Race” is used to delineate the myriad ways in which the state is racialized and racializing. Genocide, Elimination and Disappearing, on the one hand, and Slavery, Racism, and Incarceration, on the other, are highlighted as primary constituents of the settler-colonial state.
Professor Abdo uses an anti-colonial anti-imperialist feminist approach to highlight the deeply gendered nature of colonialism. With a focus on Palestine and Palestinian women, Professor Abdo’s research underlines the intersectionality of gender, race, class, sexuality, and the state. Anti-colonial feminism, it is argued, is the way to challenge and resist settler colonialism.