Abstract
In this research-creation project, we use typographic illustrations as a visual method to portray how universities in Canada enable genocide in Gaza and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians while suppressing their rights to protest these injustices on campuses over the past three years. We conceptualize institutional policies as weapons, especially those covering codes of conduct, discrimination, harassment, and freedom of speech. The goal is first to show how universities are directly invested in the manufacturing and selling of weapons currently used in Palestine and Lebanon, and second, to argue that the strategic wording of institutional policies on diversity and inclusion has been weaponized to dehumanize Palestinians and their allies on university campuses. Consequently, whether they invest directly in weapons and technologies of wars and genocides, or they punish Palestinian professors, students, and their allies through the (lack of inclusive) wording of these policies, universities contribute to shaping a violent and unjust world. Universities and their policies fail to reflect the values of fairness and justice they claim to uphold. Their persistent dehumanization of Palestinians and those fighting with them for liberation is a loud reminder of how universities are still in the service of colonial states and those in society who hold power the most. Through this approach, we aim to bring attention back to the material and lived dimensions that are often erased through abstraction.
Recommended Citation
Shuman, Layal and Rastgar, Nina
(2026)
"University Policies in an Unjust World: Typographic Illustrations,"
Gatherings: Vol. 3:
Iss.
2, Article 10.
Available at:
https://fisherpub.sjf.edu/gatherings/vol3/iss2/10