This talk interrogates no man’s land as a site of radical uncaring: abandoned by a sovereign power in a relinquishment of responsibility for the space and anyone inside it.
It documents the short history of Rukban, an encampment on the border of Syria and Jordan, and how it sheds light on our contemporary moment of systemic political abandonment. The talk grapples with the possibility that Rukban may not be an exception or a failure of the sovereign state. Instead, it is abandoned by design. Rukban’s present, I argue, may also be a harbinger of bleak political futures.
Noam Leshem is an Associate Professor of Political Geography at Durham university and a Fellow of the Institute for Middle East and Islamic Studies. His first book, Life After Ruin: The Struggles over Israel’s Depopulated Arab Spaces, was published in 2017 by Cambridge University Press. His latest book, Edges of Care: Living and Dying in No Man’s Land, is based on a decade of research around the world, and is published by Chicago University Press in January 2025. He has lead major research grants and creative collaborations with the likes of Google Arts and Culture, TATE Britain, and the Royal Geographical Society.
