Hello all,
Foremost I wish to express my sympathy to Giulio Regeni's family and the Cambridge community - but agree that we must "reaffirm publicly the need to think critically" as previously mentioned.
I also wanted to share the following New York Times piece that addresses Giulio's death.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/05/world/middleeast/italian-student-egypt-torture.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=0
Kindly,
Jake
__
Jacob Robert Wolff
Department of Geography
& Environmental Studies
University of New Mexico
________________________________
From: A forum for critical and radical geographers <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of simone tulumello <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, February 5, 2016 9:37 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: In memory of Giulio Regeni
Dear all,
thank you Ugo for bringing this up to debate here and thanks Bhaskar for sharing the open letter.
I am deeply shocked, as an "academician", as an Italian, as an European, as a human being.
Let me add something.
This is the second time in few months that we mourn the death of a fellow. In my drafts folder, there was a reflection I had written after the Paris attacks in November and the death of Matthieu Giroud, which I finally did not send - I copy it below.
Maybe it's time for this group to take a step further, to "reaffirm publicly the need to think critically", even more today as we experience more violence produced by the vicious circle that different forms of terror have been reinforcing in the last few years.
Are we ready for this endeavour?
Best wishes
Simone
Dear critters,
this is sad news, and thanks Myriam for sharing with us.
I feel the absurdity of this violence. At the same time, I firmly believe that "critical thinking" is the worst enemy of terror and war; and that's why the main political goal of terror is polarising the public ("us" and "them") against any free thinking.
Dark times are ahead, times with less freedom, more war, less open debate.
I am not sure this forum is some kind of community or not - for sure it's a place where we share some ideas about the world.
Should we try and think a way to reaffirm publicly the need to think critically, to question the status quo, to tackle structural issues at the grounds of violence and terrorism?
I don't know how (an open letter in many languages signed by those who wish may be a point of departure?), but I believe we should try.
It's the best way we can honour the memory of a fellow of us.
Bes wishes,
Simone
2016-02-05 10:11 GMT-06:00 Bhaskar Vira <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>:
Dear colleagues
An open letter has been started by Giulio's PhD supervisor, and is available to sign at this link:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1fulZt-YNrsvK6hn7hEU7AC-A2yoTEJzoodFRXyjA_OY/viewform?fbzx=-1880109545737946681
I have just signed, using the link above, so I hope this works.
Best wishes.
Bhaskar
On 05/02/2016 13:10, Judith Watson wrote:
Dear all
Yes, of course there should be an academic petition. I do think it should be addressed to the Egyptian government, or to al-Sisi, as the Middle East Studies Association one is.
Are there members here from the University of Cambridge who can check out what the university is doing about it? Maybe they would like to head the petition?
In the UK, the University and College Union (trade union for academics) will definitely want to be involved. I would guess that Giulio was a member.
Then there is a balance between doing it very quickly and getting it into the newspapers or taking a little more time and getting some big-name signatories at the top. I would imagine, for example, that Noam Chomsky would sign if asked.
Thanks
Judith Watson
University of Brighton
________________________________
From: A forum for critical and radical geographers [[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>] on behalf of NAHRAIN AL-MOUSAWI [[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>]
Sent: 05 February 2016 12:45
To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: In memory of Giulio Regeni
The Middle East Studies Association sent a letter urging investigation into Regeni's murder. Here it is:
http://mesana.org/pdf/Egypt20160204.pdf
On Fri, Feb 5, 2016 at 12:48 AM, Davide Cirillo <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
Thank you, Ugo.
This is sad. Too much.
I think we as academics must take a stand in all this. What do you think critters to write a letter as in the case of the Erdogan's black list? Unfortunately in this case we cannot address the letter neither to the Egiptian government (which is also trying to deny the omicide) nor to the Italian one. Any suggestions?
--
Kind Regards
Davide Cirillo
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Joint PhD Candidate
Human Geography (University of Padova)
Social & Cultural Anthropology (VU Amsterdam)
M.Ita +393488842549<tel:%2B393488842549>
M.Neth +31649998852<tel:%2B31649998852>
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https://unipd.academia.edu/DavideCirillo
Il 05/feb/2016 00:20, "Ugo Rossi" <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> ha scritto:
Yesterday, Giulio Regeni, a PhD student at the University of Cambridge and an Italian national, has been found dead in Cairo, after having disappeared for eight days since January 25. His body had been clearly tortured.
Giulio was conducting fieldwork on the local economy and the trade unions in Egypt where he was a visiting researcher at the American University in Cairo.
A journalist of the Il Manifesto - an Italian leftwing newspaper - today has revealed that Giulio occasionally contributed articles to the newspaper using a pseudonym fearing persecutions by the authoritarian Egyptian government led by el-Sisi.
It is sad to notice that the University of Cambridge doesn't report anything about Giulio's death/assassination in the home page of its official website.
Both the Italian and the UK governments like other western governments have entertained good relationships - economic and political - with the government led by General Sisi since the coupe d'etat in 2013 and they are therefore morally responsible for the loss of Giulio.
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Bhaskar Vira
Department of Geography
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Cambridge CB2 3EN
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http://www.geog.cam.ac.uk/people/vira
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Simone Tulumello
Post-doc research fellow, ULisboa, Instituto de Ciências Sociais
Visiting research scholar, University of Memphis, Department City and Regional Planning
latest publications:
Tulumello S. (2015), Fear and Urban Planning in Ordinary Cities: From Theory to Practice, Planning Practice & Research, 30(5), 477-496. Doi: 10.1080/02697459.2015.1025677<http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02697459.2015.1025677>
Seixas J., Tulumello S., Corvelo S., Drago A. (2015). Dinâmicas sociogeográficas e políticas na Área Metropolitana de LIsboa em tempos de crise e austeridade. Cadernos Metrópole, 17(34), 371-399. Doi 10.1590/2236-9996.2015-3404<http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/2236-9996.2015-3404>
webpage<http://www.ics.ulisboa.pt/pessoas/simone.tulumello> / blog<http://simonetulumello.wordpress.com/> / academia.edu<http://unipa.academia.edu/SimoneTulumello> / flickr<http://www.flickr.com/photos/simotulu/> / twitter<http://twitter.com/SimTulum>
