[IMCnetwork] Fwd: IMC Seminar | Making al-Qa’ida legible: Interpretive methods, secrets, and mess by Sarah Phillips | Friday 3 May 2024

[Nick Cheesman]

Dear IMCers

See below a reminder of our next seminar

best wishes
Nick


Begin forwarded message:

From: RSSS - Admin <admin.rsss at anu.edu.au>
Subject: IMC Seminar | Making al-Qa’ida legible: Interpretive methods, secrets, and mess by Sarah Phillips | Friday 3 May 2024
Date: April 22, 2024 at 12:18:36 PM AEST

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School of Politics and International Relations
Making al-Qa’ida legible:
Interpretive methods, secrets, and mess

Sarah Phillips (University of Sydney)

Friday 3 May 2024,
12.00 pm AEST
Level 3 Room 3.72, RSSS building and via Zoom
ZOOM LINK<https://anu.zoom.us/j/3364169330?pwd=ZStOdm4vTWpwS1RMbmFYUisxWVB2UT09%20>

This seminar will explore two broad, but ultimately unreconcilable, understandings of what al-Qa’ida in Yemen ‘really is’: one legible, organisationally rational and thus governable; and one not entirely so. I’ll argue that the divergence between these two ontologies matters—and is even part of the group survives and reproduces. That’s because Western counter-terrorism practices target a stripped-down, synoptic version of al-Qa’ida while missing, and even empowering, the shadowy appendage of state or hegemonic power that animates popular Yemeni discourses.

 In part, this seminar is about researching the opaque, the ghostly, and the fleeting. It is about rumour, the unsubstantiated and, more importantly, the unsubstantiable. It is an attempt to work with, rather than against, research findings that are difficult, if not impossible, to rigorously triangulate, seeking instead to understand the impact of empirical details that cannot be definitively proven or disproven.

Seminars are 1 hour in duration, 12-1pm.

 All seminars and other IMC events are announced via the listserv. To get on the list go to: https://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/imcnetwork

 For more information on the talks or the IMC, write to the convenors.

Presenter Bio
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Sarah G. Phillips is Professor of Global Conflict and Development at The University of Sydney, an award winning author, and an Australian Research Council Future Fellow. Her research draws from years of in-depth fieldwork, and focuses on international intervention in the global south, knowledge production about conflict-affected states, and non-state governance, with a geographic focus on the Middle East and Africa.
Contact
april.biccum at anu.edu.au<mailto:mailto:april.biccum at anu.edu.au>
politicsir.cass.anu.edu.au<https://politicsir.cass.anu.edu.au/events/series/imc-seminar-series>
[image004.png]<https://www.facebook.com/politicsANU/>
[image005.png]<https://twitter.com/politicsanu?lang=en>
The Australian National University,
Canberra

TEQSA Provider ID: PRV12002 (Australian University) | CRICOS Provider Code: 00120C
ABN : 52 234 063 906

If you do not wish to receive future seminar emails from us, please email admin.rsss at anu.edu.au<mailto:admin.rsss at anu.edu.au>
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