RE-MEMBERING TORTURE: A CONVERSATION WITH SHAHLA TALEBI AND DIANA COLEMAN

In this workshop, we will be discussing the work of Darius Rejali ("Torture and Democracy") as well as some of the testimony culled from the North Carolina Commission of Inquiry on Torture (NCCIT). Professor Talebi, herself a former detainee under two separate regimes in Iran, will be discussing some of her writings, and her student, Diana Coleman, will discuss her work on Guantanamo. Readings available here: https://sites.duke.edu/globalsouth/readings/

Shahla Talebi is Associate Professor of Religious Studies in the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies at Arizona State University. Talebi's research interests include questions of self sacrifice and martyrdom, violence, memory, trauma, death, burial, funerary rituals, commemoration and memorialization or their banning, religion, revolution, and nation-state in contemporary Iran. She currently holds a fellowship at the National Humanities Center.

Diana Murtaugh Coleman is a Doctoral Candidate in Religious Studies (Islam in Global Context) at Arizona State University. Her interests, the intersections of religion, militarism, violence, torture, race, and carceral practices, come together in her research on 'how' Guantánamo means within the context of U.S. Empire.