Catherine Charrett’s project ‘Performing Technologies in EU, Israeli and Palestinian Security Cooperation’ running from February 2018 until December 2018 has been awarded an Early Career Research Fellowship grant worth £50,000, provided by the Independent Social Research Foundation.The research will explore the networks that form around state security technologies in the European Union’s engagement with Israel and Palestine, and utilize performance art to critique these relationships. Using a gendered based critique, it will observe how the circulation and joint development of different technologies are performative of different orders of masculinity and sovereignty.
As Catherine highlights,“The project uses a feminist methodology to observe how different technologies produce political relationships, which I argue impact on how the EU regards Israeli versus Palestinian sovereignty. In the project I will conduct fieldwork to map EU-Israeli and EU-Palestinian cooperation and joint ventures in the development of different security technologies. The research will address how masculinity performed through techno-scientific practices constitutes Israel a strong sovereign actor, and how the EU’s state building “assistance” to Palestinian actors works to weaken ideas of Palestinian sovereignty. A gendered focus prevents taking these diplomatic relations for granted, and it encourages a critique of how the reproduction of certain masculinities maintains the status quo.”
The project will engage in cross-disciplinary activities between politics and performance to address the complexity of EU relations with Israel and Palestine. It will construct and deliver a performance piece on the differing technological networks. The performance piece aims to offer a critical perspective on EU policy in an inviting way, encouraging action rather than antagonising or excluding key players.
Furthermore, as Catherine adds,“In translating academic research into performance art, I am able to disseminate my research to a wider audience, within and beyond academia. This offers the public the opportunity to view research on state diplomatic practices in a way that is straightforward and inclusive. The performance fosters bonds between the public and government over a topic that is central to international security concerns. The performance invokes an emotional response from its viewers, which I argue encourages active participation in politics.”
To learn more about Catherine’s project, visit the project page on the Independent Social Research Foundation website.