Writing History in a Time of War: Israel’s 1982 Invasion of Lebanon and its Afterlives

Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon was a formative moment in Middle Eastern and international history, transforming the fate of Palestinian self-determination; Lebanese and Israeli politics, society, and culture; regional relationships with the United States; Jewish perceptions of Zionism; and geopolitics across the Arab world. Yet this war has often been elided in public discourse and historical scholarship - a result of selective amnesia, political convenience, and the difficulty of obtaining sources across national divides. In a contemporary moment of profound rupture for Palestine, Lebanon, and the wider region - given Israel’s ongoing destruction of Gaza and invasion of Lebanon - how can the historian give narrative form to events that unfolded in a place being eviscerated once more?

Seth's presentation explores the challenges and discoveries of cross-border research over several years, with shifting attention towards visual materials. While photographers, artists, and filmmakers first paved the way for greater public and scholarly inquiry into 1982, the form and meaning of their materials seems transformed between past invasions and present-day destruction. How does the temporal mismatch between slow historical thinking and the accelerated pace of contemporary violence shape writing about war, and how do new technologies of seeing upend our ability to absorb images or imagine alternative futures?

A response to Seth's talk will be given by Stephanie Schwartz, Associate Professor in the History of American Art at UCL. Her research and teaching address photography and its histories, with a particular emphasis on American documentary. Stephanie is the author of Walker Evans: No Politics (University of Texas Press, 2020). She is currently writing Allan Sekula’s War Work for MACK Books Discourse series. 

Tamar Garb, Durning Professor in the History of Art at UCL, will chair the ensuing discussion. 

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