Noam Leshem
@noamleshem.bsky.social
880 followers 530 following 200 posts
Professor of Political Geography, Durham Uni. Violent conflict, political resurgence, colonial history. Author of: 'Edges of Care: Living and Dying in No Man's Land' (Chicago 2025); 'Life After Ruin' (Cambridge 2017) https://tinyurl.com/mtyd9m
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noamleshem.bsky.social
At long last, my new book, Edges of Care: Living and Dying in No Man's Land, is now out!

Based on a decade of research, it documents the realities of sovereign abandonment and the many forms of political liveliness that persist in abandonment’s wake.

Published by @uchicagopress.bsky.social
Edges of Care
A firsthand look at the lives of those who reside in no man’s land—the violence they endure and their immense resilience.   “No man’s land” invokes stretches of barren landscape, twisted barbed wire, ...
press.uchicago.edu
noamleshem.bsky.social
Really lovely to read this.

You never know how a book will land and @dannymcnally.bsky.social makes some vital observations here that go well beyond my book, touching on questions of method and ethics that I've been grappling with as well.
noamleshem.bsky.social
…it was a great (unrecorded) “episode” where we covered the future of university teaching in an AI age, the trials and tribulations of foreign policy writing, and got insights into what it’s like being the only sober person on the night of Newcastle’s cup celebrations.

Brews: IPA & Amber Ale
noamleshem.bsky.social
Friend: Remind me, are you going to Detroit next week for the big American geographers conference?

Me: Have you lost your mind?! I'm a German passport holder with a digital record of working in Palestine. That's a one-way ticket to El Salvador these days.

It made him laugh.

I wasn't joking.
Reposted by Noam Leshem
yairwallach.bsky.social
"... we are united in denouncing, without equivocation, anyone who invokes our name – and cynical claims of antisemitism – to harass, expel, arrest, or deport members of our campus communities."
Strong letter from US Jewish academics.

docs.google.com/document/u/1...
Not In Our Name
docs.google.com
noamleshem.bsky.social
sad and true.
matthewjkuiper.bsky.social
Bibi’s back in his happy place, and Gazans’ dreadful hell continues.
reuters.com
Reuters @reuters.com · Mar 18
'It was a night of hell. It felt like the first days of the war,' said Rabiha Jamal, 65, a mother of five from Gaza City. Follow Reuters live coverage: reut.rs/3DK1ewn
noamleshem.bsky.social
There is a sense, among many, that Israel is so broken, its leadership so cynical, that it is truly a hopeless political experiment best left to the messianic settler-supremacist clan that runs it.

I struggle to offer a counterpoint.
noamleshem.bsky.social
Spot on.

“What’s left of the state of Israel besides bombings, destruction, abandonment and murder?

Nothing. Nada.”
mauriciolapchik.bsky.social
מה נשאר ממדינת ישראל חוץ מהפצצות, השמדה, הפקרה ורצח?

‏כלום. נאדה.
noamleshem.bsky.social
5/ For the past 10 years, this political logic of *uncaring* is what I've been seeing in Sudan, Syria, Palestine, Colombia, Cyprus and elsewhere.

The entirety of my latest book is exactly about this. Documenting abandonment as a logic of governance.
Edges of Care
A firsthand look at the lives of those who reside in no man’s land—the violence they endure and their immense resilience.   “No man’s land” invokes stretches of barren landscape, twisted barbed wire, ...
press.uchicago.edu
noamleshem.bsky.social
4/ Quick observations:

Abandonment is no longer a failure of sovereignty but inherent to it.

Abandonment isn't wielded as punishment. It isn't biopolitical per se.

Abandonment is not wielded for profit. It's not privatised. This isn't neoliberalism.

Take them seriously: They truly don't care.
noamleshem.bsky.social
3/ Later, Gawande notes that a foreign health minister told him recently "I never imagined America could be indifferent, could simply abandon people."

Of course, America has always abandoned people, at home and abroad. This this isn't new at all.

But abandonment is now becoming brazen and blunt.
noamleshem.bsky.social
2/ When Gawande says hundreds of thousands will die, Remnick is rattled: "I'm sorry, Atul, [...] this is nothing short of outrageous. And how is it possible that this is happening? Obviously these facts are filtering up to [...] the administration at large, and they don't care."

Bingo. They don't.
noamleshem.bsky.social
This is an eye-opening conversation between David Remnik and Atul Gawande, but not only for addressing the destruction of ASIAD and the catastrophe that it is causing.

It reveals in a blunt way how the Trump regime embraces abandonment as a system of rule.

🧵
Atul Gawande on Elon Musk’s “Surgery with a Chainsaw”
Podcast Episode · The New Yorker Radio Hour · 14/03/2025 · 27m
podcasts.apple.com
noamleshem.bsky.social
Living in the northeast of England, you don’t need a report to know this. You see it in the derelict streets, in cities and towns suffering from endemic underinvestment.

Regional discrepancy is critical here- we are simply not living in the same socioeconomic universe as London and the southeast.
noamleshem.bsky.social
My friend and colleague Ben Anderson has written about joy and right wing politics. Affect Theory in general has lots to say about this, though I have to admit I’m probably not best placed to expand on this.
Reposted by Noam Leshem
judah-grunstein.bsky.social
Rule No. 6: "A good tactic is one your people enjoy."

For the Trumpists, the cruelty is the point. They enjoy it.

What is "the point" for the anti-Trump coalition broadly imagined?

What kind of tactic would manifest an enjoyable expression of that point?
Reposted by Noam Leshem
judah-grunstein.bsky.social
The Tesla protests work because they are a physical and geographical embodiment of Saul Alinsky's Rule No. 13:

"Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it."

What are other ways to do so?

(The far right has coopted Alinsky for a decade now. It's time to reclaim him.)
noamleshem.bsky.social
Just heading back from “The Game” project workshop in Bologna- superb work on the refugee route in the Balkans site.unibo.it/thegame/en

If you’re organising a workshop, having 17th century frescoes is a great start!

#unibo
Large hall with ornate frescoes
noamleshem.bsky.social
And a big shout-out to Judith Koch who helped record, edit and sort out all the technical aspects that made this happen!
noamleshem.bsky.social
I had such a great conversation with @pollypw.bsky.social on the Voices podcast of the @europeanisa.bsky.social, which is just out. We covered a lot, but it's a really fun exchange!
noamleshem.bsky.social
This. 👇🏼

Yes, yes, yes.
heymrsbond.com
I say this to myself every single day. 💛
Teaching has the potential to be an act of
radical hope
Reposted by Noam Leshem
merip.bsky.social
OUT NOW: The first major update to our Primer on Palestine, Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, by Joel Beinin and Lisa Hajjar, in over a decade is now live! Read, teach, share!
Palestine-Israel Primer - MERIP
Middle East Research and Information Project: Critical Coverage of the Middle East Since 1971
buff.ly