Jasmin Habib

Areas of specialization

• Refugees, Diasporas and Exiles
• Settler-Colonialism, Postcolonialism, Anti-Racism
• Nonviolence, Peace, Feminist and Social Justice Movements
• Ethnography and Autoethnography
• Israel/Palestine Culture and Politics
• US Culture and Politics
• Human Rights and Humanitarianism
• Indigenous Practices and Relations

Background

BA (Trent); MA (Notre Dame); PhD (McMaster)

Jasmin Habib holds a PhD in Anthropology and an MA in International Peace Studies. Her research publications focus on the politics of empire and the practices of decolonization with primary interest in the experiences of war-affected refugees now living in Israel, Palestine, Canada and the United States; indigenous practices and relations of autonomy in North America; and the architecture of consent for contemporary state violence (systemic and direct).

Dr. Habib’s work is primarily ethnographic and collaborative. Her research methodologies and practices are informed by postcolonial, diaspora, indigenous and feminist theories of the state; and the theories of spatial and visual cultures of violence/non-violence.

Dr. Habib is past-Editor-in-Chief and Anglophone Editor of Anthropologica, the flagship journal of the Canadian Anthropology Society, and General Editor of the Cultural Spaces series at the University of Toronto Press.

She is completing her book manuscript entitled Transnational Palestine: History, Memory, Identity as well as co-editing a book on Arab Canadians with Rachad Antonius; and a book on the US-Canada border with Jane Desmond.

Academic Awards (selected)

Research

• SSHRC, Partnership Grant, Migration and Food (co-applicant, with J. Crush)
• BSIA Seed Grant, Securitising Emotions, Emotionalising Security
• SSHRC Partnership Development Grant, A Socio-Cultural Mapping of the Canadian Arab Community (PI)
• Waswanipi First Nation, Waswanipi Community-Building History Project: A First Peoples’ History of the Waswanipi First Nation (book, website, documentation) (co-PI with S. Gull and H. Feit)
• UW-SSHRC/Robert Harding Award. Critical Distance: Israeli Emigrants and the Israel/Palestine Conflict
• UW-SSHRC Research Grant, Diaspora Dissidents: Crossing the Israel-Palestine Divide
• SSHRC, Standard Research Grant, Ethnography and Indigenous Co-Authorship: Multi-Vocal Texts and a Monograph on James Bay Crees Visions and Practices of Relational Co-Governance (co-PI with H. Feit)
• Initiatory Research Grant, What’s Left of the Jewish Left? Research Office, Laurier University
• SSHRC - Northern Development Research Program. Ethnographic Writing and Indigenous Co-Authorship: Dialogues Among Anthropologists and James Bay Crees (co-PI, with H. Feit)

Knowledge Mobilization and Workshop Grants

• BSIA Workshop Grant, Women’s International Mentorship Network
• SSHRC / CRSH. Les Possedes et leurs mondes 2.0 (collaborator with F. Laugrand)
• BSIA Workshop Grant, Mass Extinction: Indigenous Perspectives (co-PI, A. Mitchell)
• SSHRC/CRSH. Research and Film Production, The Preservation, Promotion and Dissemination of Canadian Anthropology (collaborator with F. Laugrand)
• BSIA Workshop Grant, Critical Distance: Israeli Emigres and the Israel-Palestine Divide, Balsillie School of International Affairs
• UW-SSHRC, Clandestine Migration Routes and Human Insecurity, (with support from Watson Institute, Brown University and Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research, University of Amsterdam) (co-PI, C. Mainwaring)

Professional Awards (selected)

2022 Weaver Tremblay Award, Canadian Anthropology Society

2021 Outstanding Performance Award, University of Waterloo

2018 Outstanding Performance Award, University of Waterloo

2017 Faculty of Arts Service Award, University of Waterloo

2009 Outstanding Performance, University of Waterloo

2007 Merit Award, Office of the Vice-President and Provost, Wilfrid Laurier University

Select Publications

Books and edited volumes

• 2019. Israel, Diaspora and the National Routes of Belonging, 2nd Ed. University of Toronto Press.
• 2017. With V. Dominguez America Observed: On an International Anthropology of the United States.
• 2018 Special Issue: Who Shares the Land: Algonquian Territoriality and Land Governance. Editors, Melanie Chaplier, Jasmin Habib and Colin Scott, Anthropologica. 60(1):1-166.

Articles and chapters

• Forthcoming. with Amir Locker-Biletzki, Ḳomunist omed Veshar: On Israel’s Ron Workers’ Choir. Journal of Israeli History.
• 2018. “Wall Art and the Presence of Absence,” Review of International American Studies.
• 2018. “Documenting Presence” In Who Shares the Land: Algonquian Territoriality and Land Governance” edited by Melanie Chaplier, Jasmin Habib, and Colin Scott. Anthropologica. 60.1
• 2018, with Michael C. Howard, The Political Economy of Donald J. Trump in Reading Donald Trump: A Parallax View of the Campaign and Early Presidency, Evolving American Presidency Series, Ed. Jeremy Kowalski. Palgrave MacMillan
• 2018, with Amir Locker-Biletzki. “Ḥama venehederet (Hot and Wonderful): Home, Belonging and the Image of the yored in Israeli Pop Music.” In Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies. 36 (1):1–28.
• 2017. “On the Production of Knowledge and the Anthropology of Tourism.” American Anthropologist. December, 119: 741–744.
• 2017, with V. Dominguez. “Introduction: Can the US Be “Othered” Usefully? On an International Anthropology of the United States.” Berghahn Books.
• 2017. “Is it un-American to be critical of Israel: Criticism and Fear in the US Context.” In V. Dominguez and Jasmin Habib (eds.). America Observed: On an International Anthropology of the United States. Berghahn Books.
• 2017. Northern Affairs and Relations: An Interview with Gunther Abrahamson, conducted by Jasmin Habib with commentary by Harvey Feit, Anthropologica, 59.1, Pp 89-100.
• 2017. Review of Amalia Saʾar, Economic Citizenship: Neoliberal Paradoxes of Empowerment. New York: Berghahn Books, 2016. In Review of Middle East Studies, August, 51 (2). Pp. 309-312.
• 2014. Encounters and the Diasporic Arts of Africa. Anthropologica. 56:2, Pp. 229-237.
• 2013. On the Matter of Return: Autoethnographic Reflections. In Ethnographic Encounters in Israel. Fran Markowitz (ed). University of Indiana Press.
• 2013. Boyce Richardson: Reflections on Activism and Filmmaking Among the Cree. Anthropologica, 55: 211-218.
• 2012. An Accidental Editor: An interview with Andrew P. Lyons. Anthropologica, 53(2):335-48.
• 2012. Some Remarks on a New Series and on Bruner’s ‘Remembering My Jewish Father’. Anthropologica. 52:189-90.
• 2011. Property Rites: Narrating Palestinian Presence. In Property Rights Contestation and Autonomy. William Coleman and Scott Prudham (eds). Pp, 217-238. University of British Columbia Press.
• 2010. B’Tselem: A Human Rights Non-governmental Organization. In Oxford Encyclopedia of Human Rights. David P. Forysthe (ed). 198-202. Oxford University Press.
• 2008. Transnational Transformation: Cyberactivism and the Palestinian Right of Return. In Renegotiating Community: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Global Contexts. Diana Brydon and William Coleman (eds). Pp. 183-200. University of British Columbia Press.
• 2007. Both Sides Now: Reflections on the Israel-Palestine Conflict. Human Rights Quarterly. 29 (4). Pp, 1098-1118.
• 2007. We were living in a different country: Palestinian Nostalgia and the Future Past. In Mixed Towns, Trapped Communities: Historical Narratives, Spatial Dynamics, Gender Relations and Cultural Encounters in Palestinian-Israeli Towns. Dan Rabinowitz and Daniel Monterescu (eds). Routledge.
• 2007. Memorialising the Holocaust in Israel: Ethnographic Encounters. Anthropologica. 49:245-56.

Additional links and information

Experiential Research

Dr. Jasmin Habib always been keen to demystify the scholarly research and writing process for our students. In her role as Editor in Chief and Editor of English Manuscripts for Anthropologica (the journal of the Canadian Anthropology Society), she has introduced students to the practices and responsibilities associated with editing an academic journal, from a paper’s submission, through review, to its production. In SSHRC funded projects, including “A Socio-Cultural Mapping of the Canadian Arab Community: Migration, Settlement and Integration”, Jasmin has shared everything from grant proposal-writing strategies, to careful completion of the research ethics review, as well as engaging students in the project itself. Research assistance involved library and media searches for relevant sources; annotating selected sources for scholars, policy makers and the wider community; finding ways to build on a students’ own research interests in meaningful ways; and discussing opportunities for and working towards collaboration and co-authorship. Given Jasmin’s research is ethnographic and draws on postcolonial and postmodern critique, primarily of empire and its violent logics, research topics ranged from the theoretical to the empirical and included, for example, the experiences of war- affected refugees and transnational relationships among and between displaced communities; understanding the links between oil politics, regimes of terror and Canada’s interventionist as well as (though less evident) peacebuilding policies abroad, especially in the Middle East; and theories and practices of frontline diplomacy.  Allowing students to draw on their own experiences and insights – as well as their engagement in their own and overseas communities -- has enriched Jasmin’s research. Their contributions have been invaluable.

"How do you know that you have met a Professor who not only has a magic way with words, but also has the key to unlock hidden pieces of knowledge you may already have? You go in for a short interview, and come out hours later having learned so much not only about the professor, but also about yourself!  Dr. Jasmin Habib is the embodiment of such a thought-provoking and insightful instructor. She wears many hats: she is a story-teller, a nurturer of curiosity, a supportive mentor, and a facilitator of self-reflective knowledge acquisition."  

"My greatest hope is that we have piqued our students' curiosity and that we have inspired them to want to learn more" - Jasmin Habib

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