Rate My Professor Jamal Nabulsi

Jamal Nabulsi is a diaspora Palestinian writer, researcher, and organizer living as a settler on Jagera and Turrbal land. He serves as a Research Fellow at the Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research within Griffith University's Faculty of Arts, Education and Law. Nabulsi's academic work focuses on the decolonising politics of emotion in Palestine, exploring how affect, resistance, and sovereignty manifest in everyday Palestinian cultural practices such as graffiti and hip-hop music. He conceptualizes these as dynamic sites of theory production rather than static objects, addressing paradoxes of resistance that simultaneously challenge and risk reproducing colonial domination. Central to his scholarship is the notion of affective sovereignty, grounded in embodied feelings of belonging to and longing for Palestinian land—expressed through native elements like olive oil, za’tar, and returns to destroyed villages like Iqrit. This framework asserts Palestinian Indigenous sovereignty persisting against settler colonial fragmentation and violence, forging connections with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander struggles for solidarity.

Nabulsi completed his PhD at the University of Queensland's School of Political Science and International Studies with the thesis 'Affective Resistance: Feeling through everyday Palestinian struggle,' which was awarded the British International Studies Association (BISA) prize for the best doctoral thesis on emotions in politics and international relations. His doctoral research also informed the award-winning paper 'Affective sovereignty: A decolonising politics of emotion in Palestine,' published in Review of International Studies (2025), recipient of the BISA Colonial, Postcolonial / IR Working Group Article Prize. He holds a Master of International Relations (Advanced) from the Australian National University, where his thesis examined ethical models for anticipatory self-defence. Professionally, Nabulsi worked as a Policy Analyst at the General Delegation of Palestine to Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific, tutored foundation courses at ANU's Coral Bell School, and held sessional academic positions at the University of Queensland. Key publications further include '“to stop the earthquake”: Palestine and the Settler Colonial Logic of Fragmentation' in Antipode (2024), analyzing colonial fragmentation tactics, and 'Reclaiming Palestinian Indigenous Sovereignty' in Middle East Critique (2023). At Griffith, he contributes to the Voice and Belonging research theme, advancing understandings of social and cultural dynamics in colonized contexts.