I am compiling an edited volume that will explore declassified documents from the State Department in Lebanon from 1930-1962, which will be realized as an edited volume or interactive website in Spring 2019. I will work with 30 (+/-) documents, of particular importance and oddity, which will be reproduced in their entirety (3/4 pages) and paired with commissioned contributions from academics and artists whose work aligns with aspect of this document, historical moment, or series of issues. This marriage of document + “open-ended contextualization" by scholars/artists is a chance to start conversations, view what was once hidden through classified material (then buried in archives), and think through the craft of various eras of state-making. I am keenly interested in forming a larger conversation with colleagues beyond the confines of peer-review, in a more playful and open-ended manner. I am currently assembling the documents and will soon reach out to proposed contributors.
Below are sample documents that would each be paired with an essay/intervention (4/5 pages). These documents serve as provocations to the contributor in which she might choose to contextualize, historicize, or draw connections to contemporary issues in the Levant.
Concerns of Hash (1945)
Jewish (American) Entry into Lebanon (1946)
