Books/edited volumes by Christine Leuenberger
Oxford University Press, 2020
This book traces how the geographical sciences have become entwined with politics, territorial cl... more This book traces how the geographical sciences have become entwined with politics, territorial claim making, and nation-building in Israel/Palestine. In particular, the focus is on the history of geographical sciences before and after the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, and how surveying, mapping, and naming the new territory become a crucial part of its making. With the 1993 Oslo Interim Agreement, Palestinians also surveyed and mapped the territory allocated to a future State of Palestine, with the expectation that they will, within five years, gain full sovereignty. In both cases, maps served to evoke a sense of national identity, facilitated a state’s ability to govern, and helped delineate territory. Besides maps geopolitical functions for nation-state building, they also become weapons in map wars. Before and after the 1967 war between Israel and its Arab neighbors, maps of the region became one of the many battlefields in which political conflicts over land claims and the ethno-national identity of this contested land were being waged. Aided by an increasingly user-defined mapping environment, Israeli and Palestinian governmental and non-governmental organizations increasingly relied on the rhetoric of maps in order to put forth their geopolitical visions. Such struggles over land and its rightful owners in Israel/Palestine exemplify processes underway in other states across the globe, whether in South Africa or Ukraine, which are engaged in disputes over territorial boundaries, national identities, and the territorial integrity of nation-states. Maps, no less, have become crucial tools in these struggles.
Journal of Borderlands Studies, 2016
Selected Papers by Christine Leuenberger
Society for the Social Studies of Science Palestine Forum, 2024
Journal of Borderland Studies, 2023
Maps have historically always been intertwined with politics and the making of nation-states. Map... more Maps have historically always been intertwined with politics and the making of nation-states. Map-making in Israel/Palestine is a particularly powerful example of the politics of maps. This paper draws on critical cartography, Border Studies and Science and Technology Studies to analyze the "Vision for Peace Conceptual Maps" of a future State of Palestine and the State of Israel that were published by the White House in 2020 as part of a proposed peace plan entitled "Peace to Prosperity: A Vision to Improve the Lives of the Palestinian and Israeli People". The focus is on the visual rhetoric, discursive underpinnings, and historical context of these maps. The paper also draws on qualitative indepth interviews as well as academic and policy analyzes of the peace plan's feasibility and potential impact. While the peace plan and its maps have vanished from the political limelight, they will nevertheless have established "facts on the map" that will embody new spatial possibilities that will inevitable shape imagined futures in Israel/Palestine.
The Brown Journal of World Affairs , 2019
Open Borders: In Defense of Free Movement, edited by Reece Jones. Athens: University of Georgia Press., 2019
This project compares two Separation Barriers and their urban landscape, in two very different cu... more This project compares two Separation Barriers and their urban landscape, in two very different cultural contexts: in the cities of Jerusalem and Berlin. The focus is on how different mapmakers from opposite side of the respective divides represent both physical divisions -such as walls and barriers, as well as imaginary divides -such as geopolitical or socio-ethnic This article compares two Separation Barriers and their urban landscape in two very different cultural contexts: in the cities of Jerusalem and Berlin. The focus is on how different mapmakers cartographically represent both physical divisions -such as walls and barriers, as well as imaginary divides -such as geopolitical or socio-ethnic divisions in divided cities. Jerusalem and Berlin are particularly powerful symbols of political partition as the Berlin Wall split the city of Berlin for over 26 years and Jerusalem remains a divided city to this day. In both cases, their walls have become defining feature of their city's urban identity. This article traces the changing politics of the visibility or relative invisibility of walls and the cityscapes they divide at any given time and place.
This article examines how, in the latter part of the twentieth century, the German psychological ... more This article examines how, in the latter part of the twentieth century, the German psychological sciences used the Berlin Wall to interpret and make sense of the psychological make-up of the German people. It focuses on how the wall has been invoked by psychiatrists, applied psychologists, and psychotherapists in their writings at three historical moments: (1) after its initial construction in 1961, (2) immediately after its fall in 1989, and (3) 10 years after its demise. After the wall was erected, it became an interpretive resource to think about a divided society, and to make visible, decipherable, and classifiable, the inner life of a people. Shortly after its fall, it continued to serve as a basis for categorizing human suffering. Ten years later the wall had been rhetorically transformed into a " mental wall " offering a compelling metaphor for modern Germany's apparent psychological and cultural divide. The three case studies exemplify how the psychological sciences use material objects, such as the Berlin Wall, as interpretive resources to reflect on psychological issues, make sense of societal transformations , and create and solve social problems.
This introduction to the special issue sets out to bring some clarity and organization to the div... more This introduction to the special issue sets out to bring some clarity and organization to the diverse bodies of literature on the construction, lived experience, and consequences of the West Bank Wall. We review the literature on the Wall and identify three broad themes: the significance of the Wall in the context of political negotiations, its disruption of daily life in the West Bank, and its role as a symbol in broader debates about sovereignty, territory, and the state in border studies.
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Books/edited volumes by Christine Leuenberger
Selected Papers by Christine Leuenberger