Vie Héroïque

On 28 January 2017, the field of Middle East studies lost one of its strongest and most vocal advocates—Barbara Harlow. Barbara led a heroic life: writing, resisting, drinking, and smoking, to the end! With the heart of a warrior, she practiced muqāwama at every level and in every possible way. Her power of the “No” confronted structures of power, normativity of all kind, and fluff. She was solid, engaged, wise, and infinitely supportive of her students, colleagues, and causes. She was the first to arrive at every demonstration and the last to leave, making sure that the pro-bono lawyers were ready at police stations to work on releasing those arrested. Barbara was real, genuine, and fun to be around. She loved to hear the latest news—and gossip—from Cairo and Beirut as we sat at her kitchen table, sipping white wine and smoking. She read everything, from mystery novels set in Cairo or London to the most recent study on Arabic literature and culture. Browsing her library one finds graphic novels from the Ghassan Kanafani Foundation that she used to learn Arabic; all of Lacan, Blanchot, Artaud, and Derrida from her poststructuralist days; legal and political theory books dealing with South Africa and Palestine; and complete series of journals such as al-Hadaf and al-Karmel

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