MESA Graduate Student Paper Prize
Jenna Barhoush
Columbia University, Department of Anthropology
2025 Honorable Mention
Jenna Barhoush
The Palestinian Sunbird: Analyzing the Bodily, Environmental, and Metaphysical Mobility of Resistance and Oppression in Palestine
"The Palestinian Sunbird" makes a valuable contribution to Palestinian studies and settler colonial theory through its innovative analysis of mobility/immobility dialectics and the metaphor of the sunbird. The study shines by bringing together a focus on indigenous studies, issues of the environment, and technology. The multi-prong focus on the Gaza Sunbird paracycling team, the migratory patterns of the Palestinian sunbird, and the mobility of the Palestinian sunbird stamp highlight the important connection between anti-colonial resistance, (im)mobility, and the environment. In this way, the paper takes seriously how settler colonialism operates across species boundaries and extends to entire ecosystems.