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(Mar)Chella Ward

@luxmea.bsky.social

1.2K followers 520 following 460 posts

Open University Classical Studies lecturer. Recovering Oxford don. Critical Ancient World Studies person. Podcast host @ Radio ReOrient. Children’s author by night.🌙 🍉She/her. Writing a 📗 on the Islamophobia of Classicism.

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(Mar)Chella Ward @luxmea.bsky.social · Sep 4

I have a new article out today in Public Humanities, where I try to find some words for how historicide is (and has always been) a project of European colonialism - and I try to find some words for the historians who continue to support it. 🇵🇸✊🏻

Open access: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

How the Past Became a Weapon of Genocide in Palestine | Public Humanities | Cambridge Core

How the Past Became a Weapon of Genocide in Palestine - Volume 1

www.cambridge.org

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Parti des Indigènes de la République @partiindigenes.bsky.social · 2d

#PhotoDuJour

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(Mar)Chella Ward @luxmea.bsky.social · 1h

Resharing this open access article I wrote, since it’s two years since Operation Al Aqsa Flood and the escalation of genocide against the Palestinians, on how the past became a weapon in that genocide while historians stood by and watched it happen.

www.cambridge.org/core/service...

www.cambridge.org

(Mar)Chella Ward @luxmea.bsky.social · 5d

Inspired by @archaeodeathprof.bsky.social to get back on TikTok, and back to talking about imagining the ancient world beyond Eurocentrism! 🤓

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Insurgent Thought @insurgentthought.bsky.social · 5d

Trump's 20-point Gaza “peace” plan is nothing more than an imperial power portraying anti-colonial resistance as savagery, barbarism, and terrorism, but the global majority already knows that these terms more accurately reflect the West’s actions for over five centuries.

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Shane Darcy @shanedarcy.bsky.social · 8d

The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights expresses concern over the Netherlands' arms exports to Israel

Calls on the Netherlands to "take all necessary and urgent measures to ensure a complete ban ... on the export and transit of weapons, weapons parts, and dual-use item to Israel"

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(Mar)Chella Ward @luxmea.bsky.social · 8d

Very excited for this next week! 🥳

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Matt Cameron @mattcameron.bsky.social · 8d

hey @nytimes.com: there is no counterpoint here. There are no credible legal experts who would EVER say that the US military has any right or authority to blow civilian craft out of the Caribbean and kill their crews from afar without any provocation. There is no other side to this question.

"Some legal experts have called it a crime to summarily kill civilians not directly taking part in hostilities, even if they are believed to be smuggling drugs."

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Dan Hicks @profdanhicks.bsky.social · 11d

it’s time for all the academics still describing the present as “postcolonial” to open a newspaper

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(Mar)Chella Ward @luxmea.bsky.social · 10d

… and, of course, some reflection on my very own expo marker: the ancient world. 🍉🏺 (Head to insta or TikTok for the whole video.)

(Mar)Chella Ward @luxmea.bsky.social · 10d

Also managed to squeeze in a little history lesson about the problem of recognition without liberation…

(Mar)Chella Ward @luxmea.bsky.social · 10d

Back on my grind today at the Leeds Palestine demonstration 🇵🇸✊🏻talking about our colleague Refaat Alareer who was murdered by the IOF, and what his expo marker should have taught academics about liberation.

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Leigh Alexander @leighalexander.bsky.social · 11d

Assata Shakur. Glory for ever.

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disaster joy (mostly not on here atm) @joyfulcarla.bsky.social · 11d

“Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them.”
― Assata Shakur, Assata: An Autobiography

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Blake Rogers Wilson @bodyindc.bsky.social · 12d

Never forget obama raising the bounty on Assata Shakur.

A screenshot of an article from 2013 on the U.S. government raising the bounty on Assata Shakur.

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(Mar)Chella Ward @luxmea.bsky.social · 12d

You can watch the recordings of the seminars we organised with our brave Palestinian colleagues here: everydayorientalism.wordpress.com/2024/01/12/i... and here: everydayorientalism.wordpress.com/2025/02/04/i...

In Solidarity with Palestine: A Roundtable with the Critical Ancient World Studies Collective and Everyday Orientalism

Cover picture: Detail from a rendering of the Madaba Mosaic Map (Jordan, 6th c. CE), with “GAZA” partially written on the top lefthand side, above a fragmentary representation of the ci…

everydayorientalism.wordpress.com

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(Mar)Chella Ward @luxmea.bsky.social · 12d

Nearly 2 yrs ago we ran an event standing against the Zionist weaponising of ancient history in Palestine. We worked so hard to make that knowledge mainstream - classicists called me a Nazi, an antisemite, a terrorist for doing so.

Today it’s in the Guardian: www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

‘Tunnel vision’: how Israel is using archaeology to win US support for goals

Scientists say Netanyahu government and its US backers are trying to construct a history shorn of all complexity

www.theguardian.com

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Parti des Indigènes de la République @partiindigenes.bsky.social · 16d

C’est le colonialisme israélien et les puissances occidentales qui le soutiennent qui sont responsables de la Nakba continue des Palestiniens – et non pas ceux qui luttent contre cette catastrophe.

www.contretemps.eu/responsabili...

(Mar)Chella Ward @luxmea.bsky.social · 13d

Thanks @sarahebond.bsky.social and the Pasts Imperfect team for recommending this little article I wrote (open access) for Public Humanities: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

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(Mar)Chella Ward @luxmea.bsky.social · 14d

More Nijmegen plans 👇🏻🤓 Ik kijk er al naar uit om weer terug in jullie buurt te zijn! 🥳

Info: racereligionresearch.org/events/count...

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Parti des Indigènes de la République @partiindigenes.bsky.social · 15d

🇮🇹 Partout en Italie, dans 90 villes, un souffle de révolte contre le génocide palestinien a envahi les rues : Grève générale, rassemblements et manifestations massives en soutien à liberté palestinienne 🇵🇸

STOP au génocide, STOP à l’oppression coloniale, VIVE la lutte de libération palestinienne ! 🇵🇸

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(Mar)Chella Ward @luxmea.bsky.social · 14d

And here’s those same words again in my attempt to remind academics (including myself) that we should all be looking for the Expo markers we can throw against occupations and injustices. 🍉 🖊️

(Mar)Chella Ward @luxmea.bsky.social · 14d

Thinking about all the places I still keep his words - and his Expo marker: my protest placard, my bookshelf, the acknowledgments in my recent publications…

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(Mar)Chella Ward @luxmea.bsky.social · 15d

Nijmegenaars! Ik kom eraan 😊 Doing a couple of lectures in October in one of my favourite cities including this one about my least favourite thing: the Zionist weaponisation of history. Come and say hi! 🍉🧡

Reposted by (Mar)Chella Ward

Parti des Indigènes de la République @partiindigenes.bsky.social · 15d

#PhotoDuJour

« Liberation is the answer »

Extrait de « Tell me lies »

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(Mar)Chella Ward @luxmea.bsky.social · 15d

Thank you for reading @thomascauvin.bsky.social! 😊

Thomas Cauvin @thomascauvin.bsky.social · 28d

A very powerful article from Marchella Ward in the Public Humanities journal (open access)

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

How the Past Became a Weapon of Genocide in Palestine | Public Humanities | Cambridge Core

How the Past Became a Weapon of Genocide in Palestine - Volume 1