Yoav Di-Capua, ‘Arab Existentialism and the Intellectual History of Decolonization’

This talk will focus on the homegrown tradition of Arab existentialism as an intellectual tool in the service of decolonization. A close examination of the Arab project of Decolonization during the 1950s and 1960s suggests that far from being a local business, decolonization was a global intellectual affair that could be properly understood only by means of a global investigation of its properties. In this talk, Di-Capua will trace the intellectual network and the exchange and reformulations of ideas which conditioned decolonization in the Arab world and beyond it.

Di-Capua is an associate professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of No Exit: Arab Existentialism, Jean-Paul Sartre & Decolonization. This event is free and open to the public. A light dinner will be served. Please contact Griffin Orlando with questions.