Mohammed El-Kurd Archives - Public Seminar

Genocide

Writing Toward Mercy After Gaza

An interview with Yahia Lababidi on how to keep writing when poets aren’t allowed to say the word “genocide”

November 2, 2026 • by Elizabeth Mirabelle and Yahia Lababidi

If you believe in God, God pardons all sins. If someone thought one way and has now come around to a different way, embrace them. You can be gentle with that person. They probably feel bad about themselves. I would like to be someone who doesn't have closed doors but ...

The Political Perimeter

Francesca Albanese and the limits of international humanitarian law

April 15, 2026 • by Coleson Smith

In the wake of the Gaza War, a place in time that has become its own world-historical moment, the invocation of international law as a means of remedying Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians rings hollow. After all, did bombs not continue to fall on Gaza even after South Africa brought ...

Against Innocence

Unravelling the myth of the depoliticized child

March 4, 2026 • by Alexandra Magearu

1. In my early twenties, I was captivated by the idea that creative processes can return us to the boundless dreamscapes of our childhood. Only back then, I thought, could we afford to experience the world somatically. Not yet captured by social conventions, our bodies had the potential to become everything. ...