After petitioner Fogerty's successful defense of a copyright infringement action filed against him by respondent Fantasy, Inc., the District Court denied his motion for attorney's fees pursuant to 17 U.S.C. § 505, which provides in relevant part that in such an action "the court may… award a reasonable attorney's fee to the prevailing party as part of the costs." The Court of Appeals affirmed, declining to abandon its "dual" standard for awarding § 505 fees  under which prevailing plaintiffs are generally awarded attorney's fees as a matter of course, while defendants must show that the original suit was frivolous or brought in bad faith  in favor of the so-called "evenhanded" approach, in which no distinction is made between prevailing plaintiffs and prevailing defendants.
Prevailing plaintiffs and prevailing defendants must be treated alike under § 505; attorney's fees are to be awarded to prevailing parties only as a matter of the court's discretion. Pp. 522535.
(a) Fantasy's arguments in favor of a dual standard are rejected. Section 505's language gives no hint that successful plaintiffs are to be treated differently than successful defendants. Nor does this Court's decision in Christiansburg Garment Co. v. EEOC, 434 U. S. 412, which construed virtually identical language from Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, support different treatment. The normal indication that fee-shifting statutes with similar language should be interpreted alike is overborne by factors relied upon in Christiansburg and the Civil Rights Act which are noticeably absent in the context of the Copyright Act. The legislative history of § 505 provides no support for different treatment. In addition, the two Acts' goals and objectives are not completely similar. The Civil Rights Act provides incentives for the bringing of meritorious lawsuits by impecunious "private attorney general" plaintiffs who can ill afford to litigate their claims against defendants with more resources. However, the Copyright Act's primary objective is to encourage the production of original literary, artistic, and musical expression for the public good; and plaintiffs, as well as defendants, can run the gamut from corporate behemoths to starving artists. Fantasy's argument that the dual approach to § 505 best serves the Copyright Act's policy of encouraging litigation of meritorious infringement claims expresses a one-sided view of the Copyright Act's purposes. Because copyright law ultimately serves the purpose of enriching the general [510 U.S. 517, ] public through access to creative works, it is peculiarly important that the law's boundaries be demarcated as clearly as possible. Thus, a defendant seeking to advance meritorious copyright defenses should be encouraged to litigate them to the same extent that plaintiffs are encouraged to litigate meritorious infringement claims. Fantasy also errs in urging that the legislative history supports the dual standard based on the principle of ratification. Neither the two studies submitted to Congress while it considered revisions to the Act, nor the cases referred to in those studies, support the view that there was a settled construction in favor of the dual standard under the virtually identical provision in the 1909 Copyright Act. Pp. 522533.
(b) Also rejected is Fogerty's argument that § 505 enacted the "British Rule," which allows for automatic recovery of attorney's fees by prevailing plaintiffs and defendants, absent exceptional circumstances. The word "may" in § 505 clearly connotes discretion in awarding such fees, and an automatic award would pretermit the exercise of that discretion. In addition, since Congress legislates against the strong background of the American Rule  which requires parties to bear their own attorney's fees unless Congress provides otherwise  it would have surely drawn more explicit statutory language and legislative comment had it intended to adopt the British Rule in § 505. While there is no precise rule or formula for making fee determinations under § 505, equitable discretion should be exercised "in light of the considerations [this Court] has identified." Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U. S. 424, 436437. Pp. 533535.
984 F.2d 1524, reversed and remanded.
Rehnquist, C. J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Blackmun, Stevens, O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, Souter, and Ginsburg, JJ., joined. Thomas, J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment, post, p. 535.
Kenneth I. Sidle argued the cause for petitioner. With him on the briefs were Vincent H. Chieffo and Julia L. Ross.
Lawrence S. Robbins argued the cause for respondent. With him on the brief were Carlos T. Angulo, Malcolm Burnstein, and Norman G. Rudman.
Jonathan A. Marshall, William G. Pecau, Jon R. Stark, Stephen P. Fox, and Roland I. Griffin filed a brief for Hewlett-Packard Co. as amicus curiae urging reversal.
Jack E. Brown, Chris R. Ottenweller, and Charles A. Blanchard filed a brief for Apple Computer, Inc., as amicus curiae urging affirmance.
[510 U.S. 517, 519] The Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. § 505, provides in relevant part that in any copyright infringement action "the court may… award a reasonable attorney's fee to the prevailing party as part of the costs." [note 1] The question presented in this case is what standards should inform a court's decision to award attorney's fees to a prevailing defendant in a copyright infringement action  a question that has produced conflicting views in the Courts of Appeals.
Petitioner John Fogerty is a successful musician, who, in the late 1960's, was the lead singer and songwriter of a popular music group known as "Creedence Clearwater Revival." [note 2] In 1970, he wrote a song entitled "Run Through the Jungle" and sold the exclusive publishing rights to predecessors-in-interest of respondent Fantasy, Inc., who later obtained the copyright by assignment. The music group disbanded in 1972 and Fogerty subsequently published under another recording label. In 1985, he published and registered a copyright to a song entitled "The Old Man Down the Road," which was released on an album distributed by Warner Brothers Records, Inc. Respondent Fantasy, Inc., [510 U.S. 517, 520] sued Fogerty, Warner Brothers, and affiliated companies [note 3] in District Court, alleging that "The Old Man Down the Road" was merely "Run Through the Jungle" with new words. [note 4] The copyright infringement claim went to trial and a jury returned a verdict in favor of Fogerty.
After his successful defense of the action, Fogerty moved for reasonable attorney's fees pursuant to 17 U. S. C. § 505. The District Court denied the motion, finding that Fantasy's infringement suit was not brought frivolously or in bad faith as required by Circuit precedent for an award of attorney's fees to a successful defendant. [note 5] The Court of Appeals affirmed, 984 F.2d 1524 (CA9 1993), and declined to abandon the existing Ninth Circuit standard for awarding attorney's fees which treats successful plaintiffs and successful defendants differently. Under that standard, commonly termed the "dual" standard, prevailing plaintiffs are generally awarded attorney's fees as a matter of course, while prevailing defendants must show that the original suit was frivolous [510 U.S. 517, 521] or brought in bad faith. [note 6] In contrast, some Courts of Appeals follow the so-called "evenhanded" approach in which no distinction is made between prevailing plaintiffs and prevailing defendants. [note 7] The Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, for example, has ruled that "we do not require bad faith, nor do we mandate an allowance of fees as a concomitant of prevailing in every case, but we do favor an even-handed approach." Lieb v. Topstone Industries, Inc., 788 F.2d 151, 156 (1986).
We granted certiorari, 509 U. S. 903 (1993), to address an important area of federal law and to resolve the conflict between the Ninth Circuit's "dual" standard for awarding attorney's fees under § 505, and the so-called "evenhanded" approach exemplified by the Third Circuit. [note 8] We reverse.
[510 U.S. 517, 522] Respondent advances three arguments in support of the dual standard followed by the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in this case. First, it contends that the language of § 505, when read in the light of our decisions construing similar fee-shifting language, supports the rule. Second, it asserts that treating prevailing plaintiffs and defendants differently comports with the "objectives" and "equitable considerations" underlying the Copyright Act as a whole. Finally, respondent contends that the legislative history of § 505 indicates that Congress ratified the dual standard which it claims was "uniformly" followed by the lower courts under identical language in the 1909 Copyright Act. We address each of these arguments in turn.
The statutory language  "the court may also award a reasonable attorney's fee to the prevailing party as part of the costs"  gives no hint that successful plaintiffs are to be treated differently from successful defendants. But respondent contends that our decision in Christiansburg Garment Co. v. EEOC, 434 U. S. 412 (1978), in which we construed virtually identical language, supports a differentiation in treatment between plaintiffs and defendants. Christiansburg construed the language of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which in relevant part provided that the court, "in its discretion, may allow the prevailing party … a reasonable attorney's fee as part of the costs…." 42 U.S.C. § 2000e5(k). We had earlier held, interpreting the cognate provision of Title II of that Act, 42 U.S.C. § 2000a3(b), that a prevailing plaintiff "should ordinarily [510 U.S. 517, 523] recover an attorney's fee unless some special circumstances would render such an award unjust." Newman v. Piggie Park Enterprises, Inc., 390 U. S. 400, 402 (1968). This decision was based on what we found to be the important policy objectives of the Civil Rights statutes, and the intent of Congress to achieve such objectives through the use of plaintiffs as "'private attorney[s] general.'" Ibid. In Christiansburg, supra, we determined that the same policy considerations were not at work in the case of a prevailing civil rights defendant. We noted that a Title VII plaintiff, like a Title II plaintiff in Piggie Park, is "the chosen instrument of Congress to vindicate 'a policy that Congress considered of the highest priority.'" 434 U. S., at 418. We also relied on the admittedly sparse legislative history to indicate that different standards were to be applied to successful plaintiffs than to successful defendants.
See also S. Rep. No. 94473, p. 145 (1975) (same). Other courts and commentators have noted the paucity of legislative history of § 505. See, e. g., Cohen v. Virginia Electric & Power Co., 617 F. Supp. 619, 621 (ED Va. 1985), aff 'd on other grounds, 788 F.2d 247 (CA4 1986). See also Jaszi, 505 And All That  The Defendant's Dilemma, 55 Law & Contemp. Prob. 107, 107108, and nn. 1, 2 (1992).
Respondent next argues that the policies and objectives of § 505 and of the Copyright Act in general are best served by the "dual approach" to the award of attorney's fees. [note 13] The most common reason advanced in support of the dual approach is that, by awarding attorney's fees to prevailing plaintiffs as a matter of course, it encourages litigation of meritorious claims of copyright infringement. See, e. g., McCulloch v. Albert E. Price, Inc., 823 F.2d 316, 323 (CA9 1987) ("Because section 505 is intended in part to encourage the assertion of colorable copyright claims, to deter infringement, and to make the plaintiff whole, fees are generally awarded to a prevailing plaintiff ") (citations omitted); Diamond v. Am-Law Publishing Corp., 745 F.2d 142, 148 (CA2 [510 U.S. 517, 526] 1984) (same). Indeed, respondent relies heavily on this argument. We think the argument is flawed because it expresses a one-sided view of the purposes of the Copyright Act. While it is true that one of the goals of the Copyright Act is to discourage infringement, it is by no means the only goal of that Act. In the first place, it is by no means always the case that the plaintiff in an infringement action is the only holder of a copyright; often times, defendants hold copyrights too, as exemplified in the case at hand. See Lieb v. Topstone Industries, Inc., 788 F.2d, at 155 (noting that "in many cases the defendants are the [copyright] holders").
Respondent finally urges that the legislative history supports the dual standard, relying on the principle of ratification. See Lorillard v. Pons, 434 U. S. 575, 580 (1978) ("Congress is presumed to be aware of an administrative or judicial interpretation of a statute and to adopt that interpretation when it re-enacts a statute without change ..."). Respondent surveys the great number of lower court cases interpreting the identical provision in the 1909 Act, 17 [510 U.S. 517, 528] U.S.C. § 116 (1976 ed.), and asserts that "it was firmly established" that prevailing defendants should be awarded attorney's fees only where the plaintiff 's claim was frivolous or brought with a vexatious purpose. Brief for Respondent 4045. Furthermore, respondent claims that Congress was aware of this construction of former § 116 because of two copyright studies submitted to Congress when it was studying revisions to the Act. W. Strauss, Damage Provisions of the Copyright Law, Study No. 22 (hereinafter Strauss Study), and R. Brown, Operation of the Damage Provisions of the Copyright Law: An Exploratory Study, Study No. 23 (hereinafter Brown Study), Studies Prepared for Subcommittee on Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights, 86th Cong., 2d Sess. (H. Judiciary Comm. Print 1960).
Before turning to the import of the two studies and the cases decided under the 1909 Act, we summarize briefly the factual background of Lorillard, whence comes the statement upon which respondent relies. There the question was whether there was a right to jury trial in an action for lost wages under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA). In enacting that statute, Congress provided, inter alia, that the provisions of the ADEA were to be "enforced in accordance with the 'powers, remedies and procedures'" of specified sections of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), 81 Stat. 604, 29 U.S.C. § 626(b). Lorillard, 434 U. S., at 580. In the three decided cases which had treated the right to jury trial under the FLSA, each court had decided that there was such a right. In enacting the ADEA, "Congress exhibited both a detailed knowledge of the FLSA provisions and their judicial interpretation and a willingness to depart from those provisions regarded as undesirable or inappropriate for incorporation." Id., at 581.
"'The amount of money frequently involved in copyright letigation [sic], especially on the part of the defendant is trifling. The expense of any letigation [sic] is considerable. Unless, therefore, some provision is made for financial protection to a litigant, if successful, it may not pay a party to defend rights, even if valid, a situation opposed to justice .... It is increasingly recognized that the person who forces another to engage counsel to vindicate, or defend, a right should bear the expense of such engagement and not his successful opponent….'" Strauss Study 31.
Our review of the prior case law itself leads us to conclude that there was no settled "dual standard" interpretation of former § 116 about which Congress could have been aware. We note initially that at least one reported case stated no reason in awarding attorney's fees to successful defendants. See, e. g., Marks v. Leo Feist, Inc., 8 F.2d 460, 461 (CA2 1925) (noting that the Copyright Act gave courts "absolute discretion," the court awarded attorney's fees to prevailing defendant after plaintiff voluntarily dismissed suit). More importantly, while it appears that the majority of lower courts exercised their discretion in awarding attorney's fees [510 U.S. 517, 532] to prevailing defendants based on a finding of frivolousness or bad faith, not all courts expressly described the test in those terms. [note 17] In fact, only one pre-1976 case expressly endorsed a dual standard. Breffort v. I Had a Ball Co., 271 F. Supp. 623 (SDNY 1967). [note 18] This is hardly the sort of uniform construction that Congress might have endorsed. [510 U.S. 517, 533] In summary, neither of the two studies presented to Congress, nor the cases referred to by the studies, support respondent's view that there was a settled construction in favor of the "dual standard" under § 116 of the 1909 Copyright Act.
Second, we are mindful that Congress legislates against the strong background of the American Rule. Unlike Britain where counsel fees are regularly awarded to the prevailing party, it is the general rule in this country that unless Congress provides otherwise, parties are to bear their own attorney's fees. Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. v. Wilderness Society, 421 U. S. 240, 247262 (1975) (tracing the origins and development of the American Rule); Flight Attendants v. Zipes, 491 U. S., at 758. While § 505 is one situation in which [510 U.S. 517, 534] Congress has modified the American Rule to allow an award of attorney's fees in the court's discretion, we find it impossible to believe that Congress, without more, intended to adopt the British Rule. Such a bold departure from traditional practice would have surely drawn more explicit statutory language and legislative comment. Cf. Isbrandtsen Co. v. Johnson, 343 U. S. 779, 783 (1952) ("Statutes which invade the common law… are to be read with a presumption favoring the retention of long-established and familiar principles, except when a statutory purpose to the contrary is evident"). Not surprisingly, no court has held that § 505 (or its predecessor statute) adopted the British Rule.
Thus we reject both the "dual standard" adopted by several of the Courts of Appeals and petitioner's claim that § 505 enacted the British Rule for automatic recovery of attorney's fees by the prevailing party. Prevailing plaintiffs and prevailing defendants are to be treated alike, but attorney's fees are to be awarded to prevailing parties only as a matter of the court's discretion. "There is no precise rule or formula for making these determinations," but instead equitable discretion should be exercised "in light of the considerations we have identified." Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U. S. 424, 436437 (1983). [note 19] Because the Court of Appeals erroneously held petitioner, the prevailing defendant, to a more stringent standard than that applicable to a prevailing [510 U.S. 517, 535] plaintiff, its judgment is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
The section provides in full: "In any civil action under this title, the court in its discretion may allow the recovery of full costs by or against any party other than the United States or an officer thereof. Except as otherwise provided by this title, the court may also award a reasonable attorney's fee to the prevailing party as part of the costs." 17 U.S.C. § 505.
Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR), recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, has been recognized as one of the greatest American rock and roll groups of all time. With Fogerty as its leader, CCR developed a distinctive style of music, dubbed "swamp rock" by the media due to its southern country and blues feel. Brief for Petitioner 45; see also Questions and Answers with John Fogerty, Los Angeles Times, Jan. 12, 1993, section F, p. 1, col. 2.
Pursuant to an agreement between Fogerty and the Warner defendants, Fogerty indemnified and reimbursed the Warner defendants for their attorney's fees and costs incurred in defending the copyright infringement action. Brief for Petitioner 4, n. 3.
In addition to the copyright infringement claim, Fantasy asserted state law and Lanham Act claims. These claims were voluntarily dismissed before trial. Petitioner also asserted various counterclaims against Fantasy, which were ultimately dismissed on Fantasy's motion for summary judgment. These related claims and counterclaims are not before this Court.
In making its findings, the District Court stated: "Although the facts of this case did not present the textbook scenario of copyright infringement, the Court has held that Fogerty could indeed be held liable for copyright infringement even where he also wrote the song allegedly infringed…. Nor does Fantasy's 'knowledge of Fogerty's creativity' mean that this suit was brought in bad faith, where a finding of subconscious copying would have supported Fantasy's infringement claim." App. to Pet. for Cert. A31 (citation omitted).
By predicating an award of attorney's fees to prevailing defendants on a showing of bad faith or frivolousness on the part of plaintiffs, the "dual" standard makes it more difficult for prevailing defendants to secure awards of attorney's fees than prevailing plaintiffs. The Ninth Circuit has explained that prevailing plaintiffs, on the other hand, should generally receive such awards absent special circumstances such as "the presence of a complex or novel issue of law that the defendant litigates vigorously and in good faith…." McCulloch v. Albert E. Price, Inc., 823 F.2d 316, 323 (1987). In the instant case, the Court of Appeals explained: "The purpose of [the dual standard] rule is to avoid chilling a copyright holder's incentive to sue on colorable claims, and thereby to give full effect to the broad protection for copyrights intended by the Copyright Act." 984 F.2d, at 1532.
At oral argument, counsel for respondent voiced his dissatisfaction with the terms "dual" and "evenhanded" used to describe the differing rules in the Circuits. Tr. of Oral Arg. 31. Counsel objected to the implication from the terms  that the Ninth Circuit's dual standard was somehow not evenhanded or fair. While this point may be well taken in a rhetorical sense, we will continue to use the terms as commonly used by the lower courts for the sake of convenience.
In addition to the Ninth Circuit, the Second, Seventh, and District of Columbia Circuits have adopted a "dual" standard of awarding attorney's fees whereby a greater burden is placed upon prevailing defendants than prevailing plaintiffs. See, e. g., Diamond v. Am-Law Publishing Corp., [510 U.S. 517, 522] 745 F.2d 142, 148149 (CA2 1984); Video Views, Inc. v. Studio 21, Ltd., 925 F.2d 1010, 1022 (CA7), cert. denied, 502 U. S. 861 (1991); Reader's Digest Assn., Inc. v. Conservative Digest, Inc., 821 F.2d 800, 809 (CADC 1987). On the other hand, the Fourth and Eleventh Circuits have been identified as following an "evenhanded" approach similar to that of the Third Circuit. See, e. g., Sherry Manufacturing Co. v. Towel King of Florida, Inc., 822 F.2d 1031, 10341035, n. 3 (CA11 1987); Cohen v. Virginia Electric & Power Co., 617 F. Supp. 619, 620623 (ED Va. 1985), aff 'd on other grounds, 788 F.2d 247 (CA4 1986).
Additionally, we note that Congress, in enacting § 505 of the 1976 Copyright Act, could not have been aware of the Christiansburg dual standard as Christiansburg was not decided until 1978.
For the former provision under the Copyright Act of 1909, see 17 U. S. C. § 116 (1976 ed.).
The 1976 Copyright Act did change, however, the standard for awarding costs to the prevailing party. The 1909 Act provided a mandatory rule that "full costs shall be allowed." 17 U. S. C. § 116 (1976 ed.) (emphasis added). The 1976 Act changed the rule from a mandatory one to one of discretion. As the 1909 Act indicates, Congress clearly knows how to use mandatory language when it so desires. That Congress did not amend the neutral language of the 1909 rule respecting attorney's fees lends further support to the plain language of § 505  district courts are to use their discretion in awarding attorney's fees and costs to the prevailing party.
We note that the federal fee-shifting statutes in the patent and trademark fields, which are more closely related to that of copyright, support a party-neutral approach. Those statutes contain language similar to that of § 505, with the added proviso that fees are only to be awarded in "exceptional cases." 35 U.S.C. § 285 (patent) ("The court in exceptional cases may award reasonable attorney fees to the prevailing party"); 15 U.S.C. § 1117 (trademark) (same). Consistent with the party-neutral language, courts have generally awarded attorney's fees in an evenhanded manner based on the same criteria. For patent, see, e. g., Eltech Systems Corp. v. PPG Industries, Inc., 903 F.2d 805, 811 (CA Fed. 1990) ("[T]here is and should be no difference in the standards applicable to patentees and infringers who engage in bad faith litigation"). For trademark, see, e. g., Motown Productions, Inc. v. Cacomm, Inc., 849 F.2d 781, 786 (CA2 1988) (exceptional circumstances include cases in which losing party prosecuted or defended action in bad faith); but see Scotch Whisky Assn. v. Majestic Distilling Co., 958 F.2d 594, 599 (CA4) (finding in the legislative history that prevailing defendants are to be treated more favorably than prevailing plaintiffs), cert. denied, 506 U. S. 862 (1992).
Respondent points to four important interests allegedly advanced by the dual standard: (1) it promotes the vigorous enforcement of the Copyright Act; (2) it distinguishes between the wrongdoers and the blameless; (3) it enhances the predictability and certainty in copyrights by providing a relatively certain benchmark for the award of attorney's fees; and (4) it affords copyright defendants sufficient incentives to litigate their defenses.
In a footnote, the Strauss Study lists several cases exemplifying the courts' use of discretion. None of these cases explicitly require a dual standard of awarding attorney's fees, but instead offer various reasons for awarding or not awarding attorney's fees to the prevailing party. Cases cited by the study involving prevailing defendants: Overman v. Loesser, 205 F.2d 521, 524 (CA9 1953) (denying counsel fees because there was "no indication that the appeal was pursued in bad faith" and "the principal question [was] a complex question of law"); Official Aviation Guide Co. v. American Aviation Associates, 162 F.2d 541, 543 (CA7 1947) (denying attorney's fee where "[t]he instant case was hard fought and prosecuted in good faith, and… presented a complex problem in law"); Rosen v. Lowe's Inc., 162 F.2d 785 (CA2 1947) (defendant prevailed; no discussion of attorney's fees); Advertisers Exchange, Inc. v. Anderson, 144 F.2d 907 (CA8 1944) (denying attorney's fee without comment in case involving defective copyright notice); Lewys v. O'Neill, 49 F.2d 603, 618 (SDNY 1931) (awarding fees where plaintiff 's case was "wholly synthetic"); Metro Associated Services, Inc. v. Webster City Graphic, Inc., 117 F. Supp. 224 (ND Iowa 1953) (denying attorney's fee without explanation where plaintiff filed defective copyright); Lowenfels v. Nathan, 2 F. Supp. 73, 80 (SDNY 1932) (awarding fees where "[t]he most earnest advocate of the plaintiff 's side… could not … possibly find" any plagiarism by the defendant); [510 U.S. 517, 530] Jerome v. Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp., 71 F. Supp. 914, 915 (SDNY 1946) (denying fee where court "[could] very well understand how plaintiff was driven to some litigation, although the theory of [the] action… was not supported by the proof"), 7 F. R. D. 190 (SDNY 1947), aff 'd, 165 F.2d 784 (CA2 1948). Cases cited by the study involving prevailing plaintiffs: Advertisers Exchange, Inc. v. Hinkley, 199 F.2d 313, 316 (CA8 1952) (denying an attorney's fee where plaintiff 's counsel attempted to inflate and exaggerate plaintiff 's claim), cert. denied, 344 U. S. 921 (1953); Ziegelheim v. Flohr, 119 F. Supp. 324, 329 (EDNY 1954) (court denied attorney's fee "since it appears to have… been a fairly common practice for publishers of [prayer books] to copy rather freely from each other, and since much of plaintiff 's book was in the public domain, and defendant honestly, but mistakenly, believed that plaintiff was illegally attempting to copyright and monopolize the printing of ancient prayers"); Edward B. Marks Music Corp. v. Borst Music Pub. Co., 110 F. Supp. 913 (NJ 1953) (court noted only that it would not award attorney's fee because such award is discretionary); Stein v. Rosenthal, 103 F. Supp. 227, 232 (SD Cal. 1952) (awarding attorney's fees of $3,500 as an amount "reasonably necessary to redress the infringement of plaintiffs' copyright"); Northern Music Corp. v. King Record Distributing Co., 105 F. Supp. 393, 401 (SDNY 1952) (noting that prevailing plaintiff entitled to receive a reasonable attorney's fee to be assessed by the court); White v. Kimmell, 94 F. Supp. 502, 511 (SD Cal. 1950) (copyright holder, who was a successful defendant in a declaratory judgment action, was awarded costs but denied attorney's fee award without elaboration); M. Witmark & Sons v. Pastime Amusement Co., 298 F. 470, 482 483 (EDSC 1924) (court awarded a moderate attorney's fee after noting that full allowance "would bear too heavily upon the defendant, in view of the character of the infringement and the circumstances surrounding it; but, if no fee should be allowed at all in such cases, it would probably result in many cases in a practical denial of the rights of copyright owners"). The study also cited to Jewell-LaSalle Realty Co. v. Buck, 283 U. S. 202 (1931), a case that did not involve attorney's fees, but instead addressed the damages provision of § 25 of the 1909 Act, 35 Stat. 1081.
To this extent, the Brown Study focuses more on the effect that the prospect of an award of attorney's fees has on decisions to litigate or to settle cases. Based on its interview sources, the study concluded that the likelihood of getting a fee award is so problematic that "it is not a factor" that goes into the decision to settle or litigate. Brown Study 85. The report also noted that its observations about attorney's fees "are not intended as an exhaustive treatment of the subject" and that "[attorney's fees'] deterrent effect on ill-founded litigation, whether by plaintiffs or defendants, is outside the scope of this inquiry." Id., at 8586.
Citing to Cloth v. Hyman, 146 F. Supp. 185, 193 (SDNY 1956) (it is proper to award fees to prevailing defendant when copyright action is brought in bad faith, with a motive to "vex and harass the defendant," or where plaintiff 's claim utterly lacks merit). The Brown Study also included cites to Eisenschiml v. Fawcett Publications, Inc., 246 F.2d 598, 604 (CA7) (reversing attorney's fee award to prevailing defendant as an abuse of discretion where plaintiff 's claim was not entirely without merit and involved a close question of law), cert. denied, 355 U. S. 907 (1957); Marks v. Leo Feist, Inc., 8 F.2d 460, 461 (CA2 1925) (awarding attorney's fees to prevailing defendant after plaintiff voluntarily dismissed suit).
See, e. g., Shroeder v. William Morrow & Co., 421 F. Supp. 372, 378 (ND Ill. 1976) (refusing to award prevailing defendant an attorney's fee because plaintiff 's action was "prosecuted in good faith and with a reasonable likelihood of success"), rev'd on other grounds, 566 F.2d 3 (CA7 1977); Kinelow Publishing Co. v. Photography In Business, Inc., 270 F. Supp. 851, 855 (SDNY 1967) (denying fee award to prevailing defendant because plaintiff 's claims, while "lacking in merit," were not "unreasonable or capricious"); Burnett v. Lambino, 206 F. Supp. 517, 518519 (SDNY 1962) (granting fee award to prevailing defendant where "asserted claim of infringement was so demonstrably lacking in merit that bringing it was clearly unreasonable"); Cloth v. Hyman, supra, at 193 (noting that it is proper to award fees when a copyright action is brought in bad faith, with a motive to "vex and harass the defendant," or where plaintiff 's claim utterly lacks merit); Loews, Inc. v. Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc., 131 F. Supp. 165, 186 (SD Cal. 1955) (denying prevailing defendant fee award where question presented in the case "was a nice one," and there are "no authorities squarely in point to guide the litigants or their counsel"), aff 'd, 239 F.2d 532 (CA9 1956), aff 'd, 356 U. S. 43 (1958); Krafft v. Cohen, 38 F. Supp. 1022, 1023 (ED Pa. 1941) (denying fee award to prevailing defendant where claim brought "in good faith," and evidence demonstrated appropriation); Lewys v. O'Neill, 49 F.2d, at 618 (awarding fees to prevailing defendant because plaintiff 's case was "wholly synthetic").
That court concluded that "the considerations prompting an award of fees to a successful plaintiff must of necessity differ from those determining whether a prevailing defendant is entitled to such an award." Breffort, 271 F. Supp., at 627. As support, the court stated: "The purpose of an award of counsel fees to a plaintiff is to deter copyright infringement…. In the case of a prevailing defendant, however, prevention of infringement is obviously not a factor; and if an award is to be made at all, it represents a penalty imposed upon the plaintiff for institution of a baseless, frivolous, or unreasonable suit, or one instituted in bad faith." Ibid. As we have already explained, supra, at 527, such is too narrow a view of the purposes of the Copyright Act because it fails to adequately consider the important role played by copyright defendants. See also [510 U.S. 517, 533] Cohen v. Virginia Electric & Power Co., 617 F. Supp., at 621622 (tracing the evolution of the Second Circuit's dual standard rule and concluding that earlier cases upon which it supposedly rests do not require bad faith or frivolousness  "[the dual standard rule] is the culmination of a long line of bootstrapping from nothing to something").
Some courts following the evenhanded standard have suggested several nonexclusive factors to guide courts' discretion. For example, the Third Circuit has listed several nonexclusive factors that courts should consider in making awards of attorney's fees to any prevailing party. These factors include "frivolousness, motivation, objective unreasonableness (both in the factual and in the legal components of the case) and the need in particular circumstances to advance considerations of compensation and deterrence." Lieb v. Topstone Industries, Inc., 788 F.2d 151, 156 (1986). We agree that such factors may be used to guide courts' discretion, so long as such factors are faithful to the purposes of the Copyright Act and are applied to prevailing plaintiffs and defendants in an evenhanded manner.
[510 U.S. 517, 535] In my view, the Court's opinion is flatly inconsistent with our statutory analysis in Christiansburg Garment Co. v. EEOC, 434 U. S. 412 (1978). Because I disagree with that analysis, however, and because I believe the Court adopts the correct interpretation of the statutory language at issue in this case, I concur in the judgment.
In Christiansburg, the Court interpreted the attorney's fee provision of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which states that "the court, in its discretion, may allow the prevailing party… a reasonable attorney's fee… as part of the costs…." 42 U.S.C. § 2000e5(k) (1988 ed., Supp. III). In this case, the Court construes the attorney's fee provision of the Copyright Act of 1976, which states that "the court may… award a reasonable attorney's fee to the prevailing party as part of the costs." 17 U.S.C. § 505. As the Court observes, the two provisions contain "virtually identical language." Ante, at 522. After today's decision, however, they will have vastly different meanings.
Under the Title VII provision, a prevailing plaintiff "ordinarily is to be awarded attorney's fees in all but special circumstances," Christiansburg, 434 U. S., at 417, whereas a prevailing defendant is to be awarded fees only "upon a finding that the plaintiff 's action was frivolous, unreasonable, or without foundation," id., at 421. By contrast, under the Court's decision today, prevailing plaintiffs and defendants in the copyright context "are to be treated alike," and "attorney's fees are to be awarded to prevailing parties only as a matter of the court's discretion." Ante, at 534.
"Relying on what it terms ' the plain meaning of the statute,' [petitioner] argues that the language of [the attorney's fee provision] admits of only one interpretation: 'A prevailing defendant is entitled to an award of attorney's fees on the same basis as a prevailing plaintiff.'" 434 U. S., at 418.
We summarily rejected this contention, stating that "the permissive and discretionary language of the statute does not even invite, let alone require, such a mechanical construction." Ibid. We opined that the language "provide[s] no indication whatever of the circumstances under which either a plaintiff or a defendant should be entitled to attorney's fees." Ibid. (emphasis deleted). Turning to the "equitable considerations" embodied in the statute's policy objectives and legislative history, id., at 418420, we stated that those considerations counseled against petitioner's position  a position we concluded was "untenable," id., at 419.
Today, confronting a provision "virtually identical" to that at issue in Christiansburg, the Court adopts precisely the interpretation that Christiansburg rejected as "mechanical" and "untenable." The Court states that "the plain language of § 505 supports petitioner's claim for disapproving the dual standard," ante, at 533, and that the language "gives no hint that successful plaintiffs are to be treated differently from successful defendants," ante, at 522. Thus, the Court replaces the "dual" standard adopted by the Ninth Circuit with an "evenhanded" approach, under which district courts will apply the same standard to prevailing plaintiffs and defendants when deciding whether to award fees. Ante, at 534 535, and n. 19.
It is difficult to see how the Court, when faced with "virtually identical" language in two provisions, can hold that a given interpretation is required by the "plain language" in [510 U.S. 517, 537] one instance, but reject that same interpretation as "mechanical" and "untenable" in the other. After today's decision, Congress could employ the same terminology in two different attorney's fee statutes, but be quite uncertain as to whether the Court would adopt a "dual" standard (that is, reject the "mechanical" construction) or apply an "even-handed" rule (that is, adopt the "plain meaning").
Such an inconsistent approach to statutory interpretation robs the law of "the clarity of its command and the certainty of its application." Doggett v. United States, 505 U. S. 647, 669 (1992) (Thomas, J., dissenting). Indeed, we repeatedly have sought to avoid this sort of inconsistency in our fee award decisions. See, e. g., Burlington v. Dague, 505 U. S. 557, 562 (1992) ("case law construing what is a 'reasonable' fee applies uniformly to all" fee-shifting statutes using the term); Ruckelshaus v. Sierra Club, 463 U. S. 680, 691 (1983) ("similar attorney's fee provisions should be interpreted pari passu"); Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U. S. 424, 433, n. 7 (1983) (the standards "set forth in this opinion are generally applicable in all cases in which Congress has authorized an award of fees to a 'prevailing party'"). See also Flight Attendants v. Zipes, 491 U. S. 754, 758, n. 2 (1989) ("fee-shifting statutes' similar language is 'a strong indication' that they are to be interpreted alike"); Northcross v. Board of Ed. of Memphis City Schools, 412 U. S. 427, 428 (1973) (per curiam) ("[S]imilarity of language… is, of course, a strong indication that… two [attorney's fee] statutes should be interpreted pari passu").
The Court recognizes the general principle that similar fee provisions are to be interpreted alike, ante, at 523, but states that the principle does not govern this case because the factors that guided our interpretation in Christiansburg  the policy objectives and legislative history of the statute  do not support the adoption of a "dual" standard in this context. See ante, at 522525. The Court's analysis, however, rests on the mistaken premise  a premise implicit in Christians- [510 U.S. 517, 538] burg  that whether we construe a statute in accordance with its plain meaning depends upon the statute's policy objectives and legislative history. Although attorney's fee provisions may be interpreted "in light of the competing equities that Congress normally takes into account," Zipes, supra, at 761, those "equities" cannot dictate a result that is contrary to the statutory language. "Our task is to apply the text, not to improve upon it." Pavelic & LeFlore v. Marvel Entertainment Group, Div. of Cadence Industries Corp., 493 U. S. 120, 126 (1989). When the text of the statute is clear, our interpretive inquiry ends. See Connecticut Nat. Bank v. Germain, 503 U. S. 249, 254 (1992). The Court goes astray, in my view, by attempting to reconcile this case with Christiansburg. Rather, it should acknowledge that Christiansburg mistakenly cast aside the statutory language to give effect to equitable considerations.
Because considerations of stare decisis have "special force" in the area of statutory interpretation, Patterson v. McLean Credit Union, 491 U. S. 164, 172 (1989), I might be hesitant to overrule Christiansburg and other cases in which we have construed similar attorney's fee provisions to impose a "dual" standard of recovery. See, e. g., Hensley, supra, at [510 U.S. 517, 539] 429, and n. 2 (42 U.S.C. § 1988 (1988 ed., Supp. III)); Pennsylvania v. Delaware Valley Citizens' Council for Clean Air, 483 U. S. 711, 713, n.1 (1987) (42 U.S.C. § 7604(d)). But while stare decisis may call for hesitation in overruling a dubious precedent, "it does not demand that such a precedent be expanded to its outer limits." Helling v. McKinney, 509 U. S. 25, 42 (1993) (Thomas, J., dissenting). I would therefore decline to extend Christiansburg's analysis to other contexts. Because the Court  at least in result, if not in rationale  refuses to make such an extension, I concur in the judgment.


text:
Bisan Abu Eisheh (b. 1985) studied for his BA at the International Academy of Art Palestine, and received his MA in fine art from Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts, London, in 2014. He has taken part in several art events including the Bitter Rose project, Glasgow international, Glasgow, UK (2016), and Friday Late Night at the V&A Museum, London, UK (2014). He also programmed Hospitalfield's Summer School Fieldworks 2016, in Arbroath, Scotland under the title Not Every Tent is The Same. He currently lives between Glasgow and Jerusalem.
Salim Abu Jabal worked as a journalist and film critic before pursuing a career in TV and cinema. He has produced and directed several films, series and programmes. His first feature-length film, Roshmia, has been awarded prizes in seven international film festivals, including the Dubai Film Festival, the MedFilm Festival in Rome, and the Al Jazeera Documentary Film Festival in Qatar. He founded and has been programming the Ramallah Cinema Club since 2014.
Isshaq Al-Barbary (DAK) (b. Beit Jibrin refugee camp, 1988) is a writer and researcher. His work combines discourse, spatial intervention, education, collective learning and public meetings. He practices critical pedagogy and is the coordinator of Campus in Camps, an experimental educational programme in Dheisheh refugee camp Bethlehem (www.campusincamps.ps). More recent research interests and projects revolve around representations of refugee camps and refugees in West Bank camps.
Tarek Al-Ghoussein is an artist and professor of visual art at NYU/Abu Dhabi. His solo shows, including 'K Files', 'E Series' and 'A Retrospective': Works from 2003–2010 have been exhibited in prominent venues, and his works are part of permanent collections in the Guggenheim Museum (New York) and The Royal Museum of Photography (Copenhagen), among others. Al-Ghoussein's work explores the boundaries between landscape photography, self-portraiture and performance art.
Mohammed Al-Hawajri was born in the Bureij refugee camp in Gaza in 1976. His multimedia work encompassing painting, sculpture, photography, digital collage and performance has been widely exhibited in Palestine, and he has received invitations to participate in exhibitions, workshops and residencies in Britain, Italy, Jordan, France Switzerland, USA, Austria, Japan, Argentina, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Qatar, Egypt and Lebanon. He is a founding member of the Eltiqa artists' collective.
Diana Al-Hosary was born in Gaza in 1988. Her collage-based work has been included in many of the exhibitions that have taken place in Gaza, and beyond, in the exhibition Diary of our Lives Here in Gaza in Jordan, for example. In 2010 and 2011, Diana taught at Al-Aqsa University.
Ghiath Al Jebawi is a Syrian architect and urbanist based in Milan and Cologne. He has a Bachelor's degree in architecture from Damascus University, and a Masters in Architecture from the Politecnico di Milano. He has worked in architecture and as an assistant lecturer at the Department of Urban Planning and Environment in Damascus. After the outbreak of war in Syria he moved to Beirut and later to Venice where he has been working with language, art and architecture.
Ruqaia Al-Lulu was born in Gaza, where she currently lives and works. She graduated with a BA in painting from Al Najah University in Nablus in 1998, and in 2006 received her MA from Helwan University in Cairo, Egypt. Her work has been shown in exhibitions in Palestine, and since 1999 she has taught in a public school and also worked in the Fine Arts department at Al Aqsa University and Al Quds Open University in Gaza.
Jawad Al Malhi lives and works in occupied East Jerusalem in Shu'fat refugee camp. He received his MA in Fine Art from Winchester School of Art in the UK. His work over the years has focused on exploring communities, and their relationship to their environments and their everyday practices of life through painting, video, installation, sculpture and photography.
Abed Al-Raouf Al-Ajuri was born in Jabaliya refugee camp, Gaza, in 1977. He has participated in many art activities and exhibitions, both in Palestine and abroad. His paintings are expressionist in style, but he also works in sculpture and had a solo exhibition of his sculpture at the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center, Ramallah in 2003. He is a founder member of the Eltiqa group of artists, and is an administrative member of the Eltiqa gallery space.
Ali Al-Rozzi (b. Gaza, 1988) received his BA in Business Administration from the University of Palestine-Gaza. He has worked with several local and international organizations, mainly with children and young people. Recently, and after receiving advanced training in theatre and performance, he has been a participant and team coordinator of the 'Safferni' project, implemented by Riwaq within the activities of the 5th Riwaq Biennale and the 3rd Qalandiya International.
Aysar Al Saifi (DAK) is a political activist and a writer. He is a project activator at Campus in Camps, an educational programme in the West Bank refugee camps. Al-Saifi has published a number of novels including The Last Lesson, The Gallows of the Homeland, Fighter for the Sea, and The Dreamers, which all revolve around and discuss the different aspects of life in refugee camps.
Yazid Anani (b. Ramallah, 1975) is currently the Director of Public Programmes at the A.M. Qattan Foundation in Ramallah. He was a scholar at the Department of Architecture, Birzeit University from 1997–2016. Anani chaired the Academic Council of the International Art Academy Palestine from 2010–12. He has curated and co-curated several projects, including the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th editions of the Cities Exhibition.
Jumana Emil Abboud (b. 1971, Shefa-'Amr, Galilee) works with drawing, installation, video and performance, exploring personal and collective memory, loss, longing and belonging, Palestinian folklore, myths and oral histories. Abboud has participated in numerous exhibitions and venues, including the Venice, Sharjah and Istanbul Biennales; the Bahrain National Museum; the Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris; and most recently in a solo exhibition at BALTIC, Gateshead, UK. Based in Jerusalem, she teaches at the International Academy of Art Palestine.
Maiada Aboud is an artist and researcher who was born in Palestine. Aboud received her PhD degree from Sheffield Hallam University in the UK. Her solo and group exhibitions have been presented in both Palestine and England. Aboud's work deal with ways that social and religious structures interconnect and influence the individual. Using endurance art, her interest in social, political and religious issues draws on a unique and personal perspective.
Mohamed Abusal (b. 1976, Gaza) is a multimedia artist based in Gaza. His Metro in Gaza (2012) project proposes seven metro lines connecting the different areas of the Gaza Strip. Shambar (2013) looks at Gazan's alternative and creative light solutions because of the continuous disconnection of electricity. Abusal has exhibited internationally, particularly in France where he has had several solo exhibitions, and in the US, UK, Australia and Dubai. He is a founding member of the Eltiqa artists' collective.
Azra Akšamija is an artist and architectural historian, and an associate professor in the Art, Culture and Technology Program at MIT. Akšamija holds masters degrees from the Technical University in Graz, Princeton University, and a PhD from MIT. Her artistic work provides a framework for researching, analyzing and intervening in contested socio-political realities. Her academic research focuses on the politics of cultural memory and preservation in the Balkan wars of the 1990s. Her book Mosque Manifesto (Revolver, 2015) explores transcultural aesthetics and cultural mobility in the context of Islam in the West.
Kamal Aljafari's filmography includes Recollection (2015), Port of Memory (2009) and The Roof (2006). In 2009–10 he was the Benjamin White Whitney Fellow at Harvard University's Radcliffe Institute and Film Study Center. He has taught at the New School (New York, 2010) and at the German Film and Television Academy in Berlin (2011–13), where he also served as head of the directing programme.
Rheim Alkadhi is a visual artist who operates under growing conditions of impermanence, maintaining a practice that is portable and formulated from the perspective of a gendered Arab body in perpetual migration. Her projects are concerned with borders, mobility, intimacy, temporary economies and dis/order. Past research has culminated in Communications from the Field of Contact (Each Hair Is a Tongue) at the 2015 Sharjah Biennial; and Picture City Body, an online work commissioned by the New Museum.
Sama Alshaibi is a Palestinian-Iraqi artist and professor of photography at the University of Arizona. Alshaibi has received two national teaching awards in photography, and was the recipient of a prestigious Fulbright Scholar Fellowship (2014–15). In 2015, a monograph on her work, Sama Alshaibi: Sand Rushes In was published by Aperture. Her work has been shown in 15 international solo exhibitions, and she has participated in prominent festivals and fairs.
Hani Alqam (b. 1977) lives and works in Amman. He works in places around Amman, both anonymous and well-known, taking them as the main subject of his artistic production.
Suad Amiry is a writer and an architect. She is the author of a number of architectural and non-fiction books. Her book Sharon and my Mother-In- Law was translated into twenty languages and won her Italy's prestigious literary award, Permio Viareggio (2003). Her most recent book, Golda Slept Here was awarded the 2014 Nonino Prize in Italy. Amiry is the founder of Riwaq in Ramallah, Palestine. In 2011, she presented 'My Work My Hobby' at TEDxRamallah.
Arab Puppet Theatre Foundation (APTF) was founded in 2008 with the mission to encourage puppetry practices throughout the Arab world, advance new developments in the field, and function as an established puppetry school and theatre. APTF is a platform to revive, advance, continually challenge and rethink puppetry in the Arab world.
Shukri Arraf is a researcher and lecturer, born in 1931 Ma'lea, in the Upper Galilee of Palestine. Awarded a doctorate in the history of the Middle East in 1985, and has more than 35 books that investigate the Arab cultural roots in Palestine, including: The Caravansaries in Palestine, Earth, human and effort, Palestinian Arab village – building and the land use, and Prophets and saints in the Holy land / Palestine…and so on.
Hamza As'ad received his MA from the Department of Sociology at Birzeit University. His interests are in the philosophy of social science. His MA thesis was titled 'From Canaan to Kanaaneh: Paradigmatic Shifts in Studies around Folklore'. He is a regular contributor to the Al Quds network online publication and Bab el Wad, and is a contributing researcher to the Sliman Halabi research circle.
Mohamed Badarne is a photographer, trainer and activist. He teaches photography and leads workshops in cooperation with NGOs, community centres and independent groups. For his own photographic work he has received grants from renowned art foundations, and his projects have been exhibited in major venues, including Darat Al Funun in Amman, the International Labour Organization in Geneva and the UN Headquarters in New York. He lives in Haifa and Berlin.
Mo'awia Bajis (b. 1989) lives and works in Amman. Bajis's work looks into ordinary, daily scenarios and details, and questions the hidden contradictions within them through multidisciplinary practices of video, sound and images and by relying on interactions with people to reveal new sociopolitical scenarios.
Mirna Bamieh is an artist from Jerusalem. Her work attempts to understand and contemplate the ever-shifting politics, while equally questioning notions of land and the geographies of in-between temporality. Recent projects have looked at scenarios that take languages of the absurd and the ironical use of them as tools for political commentary. In addition, she is developing situational performances that create, through the act of storytelling, a space of reflection, refuge and reconciliation. She has participated in several artist residencies, including the Maroc Artist Meeting, Art Omi, Ashkal Alwan, Kathmandu Contemporary Art Center, Delfina Foundation and Global Arts Village.
Ghazi Barakat (b. 1965, Frankfurt) is a German-Palestinian sound artist and musician based in Berlin since 1986. He has been a musician in many groups in Germany, the US and France, also contributing to film soundtracks and art installations. He has been a curator and a journalist, publishing and co-curating shows in several countries. His experimental work draws inspiration from jazz, ancient rituals, science fiction and neo-brutalist architecture.
Ahmad Barclay is an architect and visual communicator. He has led award-winning infographics projects with Visualizing Impact, facilitated workshops in multiple cities, and worked on major architectural projects. Ahmad previously worked with DAAR, Bethlehem, investigating architectural models for Palestinian return. His academic research focused broadly on the role of architecture as a tool of 'spatial resistance'. He holds an MPhil in Environmental Design from the University of Cambridge.
Anika Barkan is a Danish performer, artistic developer, cultural entrepreneur at CoreAct and at AFUK. Anika studied and worked in Japan, New York and South Africa with a number of legendary artists, among them Min Tanaka, Anna Halprin, Ann Bogard and The Wooster Group. Anika's Moving Garden – Ramallah performance aims to establish a temporary respite where performative and sensory experience evoke memories that revolve around the concept of 'gardens'.
Asef Bayat is professor of Global and Transnational Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He previously taught at the American University in Cairo, and was director of the International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World (ISIM), holding the Chair of Society and Culture of the Modern Middle East at Leiden University, the Netherlands. His research areas range from social movements and social change, to religion and society, Islam and the modern world, and urban space and politics.
Richard Bell is an Australian artist and political activist. He is one of the founding members of Brisbane-based Aboriginal art collective proppaNOW. His works, that include painting, installation, performance and video, have been exhibited widely throughout Australia and internationally.
Timon Beyes is a professor of design, innovation and aesthetics at the Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy, Copenhagen Business School (Denmark), and a visiting professor at the Centre for Digital Cultures, Leuphana University of Lüneburg (Germany). Recent publications include Social Media – New Masses (with I. Baxmann and C. Pias, 2016), The Routledge Companion to Reinventing Management Education (with M. Parker and C. Steyaert, 2016), and Performing the Digital (with M. Leeker and I. Schipper, 2016).
Dineo Seshee Bopape is a South African multimedia artist, born in Polokwane. She uses experimental video montages, sculptural installations, paintings and found objects to address problems with representation and storytelling. She lives and works in Johannesburg.
Vanni Bianconi (b. 1977, Switzerland) is currently based in London. His poems have been translated into various languages and published in book form, in magazines and anthologies. In 2016 he published his first English language prose book, London as a Second Language (Humboldt Books). He has been awarded the Schiller Prize, the Marazza Prize for translation, and was shortlisted for the European Poet of Freedom Prize 2016. He is also the founder and artistic director of the Babel literature festival.
Benji Boyadgian (b. 1983, Jerusalem) studied architecture at ENSAPLV School of Architecture in Paris, specializing in urban sociology in post-conflict areas. Boyadgian works on research-based projects that explore themes revolving around heritage, territory, architecture and landscape. He uses painting and drawing as the main tools in his practice while also incorporating other mediums. He lives and works in Jerusalem.
Khaldun Bshara is a conservation architect and anthropologist. Bshara is currently the Director of Riwaq where he has worked since 1994. He received his B.Sc. in Architectural Engineering from Birzeit University (1996) and his MA in Conservation of Historic Towns and Buildings from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium (2000). On a Fulbright Scholarship, Bshara joined the University of California Irvine where he attained his MA in Anthropology in 2009 and a PhD in 2012.
Geraldo Adriano Campos is the Curator and Director of the Arab Film Festival of Brazil. He is professor of sociology and international relations at ESPM University in São Paulo. A researcher and member of the Executive Council of the Edward Said Chair of Contemporary Studies at the Federal University of São Paulo, he is also the Music Curator of the Biblioteca Mário de Andrade.
Campus in Camps is an educational programme that activates critical learning and egalitarian environments in Palestinian refugee camps in order to overcome decades of social exclusion, political subjugation and apathy. For the past years this programme has provided Palestinian refugees with the infrastructure and intellectual space to transform theoretical discussions of 'space' and 'agency' into practical, community-driven interventions.
City Guerilla was originally created as a part of an institution, Goethe-Guerilla, and has since become a well-known platform for individuals to express their creativity and enthusiasm in dealing with inconsistencies and attempting to create a better environment for themselves and other citizens. Being a member of the 'Guerilla' group has become a strong connection point, a generator of creative ideas and a synonym for activism, teamwork, creativity and an open-minded approach.
Megan Cope is a multidisciplinary artist working with video, painting and site-specific installations. A Quandamooka woman from North Stradbroke Island, Queensland, Australia, her work explores the intricate relationship between environment, geography and identity to probe myths and methodologies around colonization.
Alice Creischer is one of the key figures of German political art movements in the 1990s. Her recent joint project with Andreas Siekmann, In the Stomach of the Predators (2014), explores today's predatory capitalism. Creischer lives and works in Berlin.
Saad Dagher is a freelance agronomist, agro-ecologist, educator, and yoga and reiki trainer. Saad regularly travels around the world researching sustainable farming methods. He established the first eco-village in the West Bank on the lands of Farkha village. Saad is establishing the first Community Garden and Neighbourhood Compost Centre on the grounds of the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center.
Mais Darwazah is a Palestinian, Syrian and Jordanian filmmaker who works out of the Arab region. She has completed several experimental films. Her first feature-length documentary My Love Awaits Me by the Sea premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and received several regional and international awards. She is currently working on her next feature film on the subject of violence.
Chiara De Cesari is an anthropologist and a NGO assistant professor with a double appointment in European Studies and in Cultural Studies at the University of Amsterdam. She completed her PhD in socio-cultural anthropology on Palestinian heritage and memory politics at Stanford University in 2009. She is currently completing a book, Heritage and the Struggle for Palestine (forthcoming, Stanford University Press). She is also co-editor (with Ann Rigney) of Transnational Memories: Circulation, Articulation, Scales (de Gruyter, 2014).
Jessika Devlieghere is a social worker who has lived in Palestine since 2005. Originally struck by the life of street children while living for a year in Ecuador, her work and life have become centred on the fight for justice worldwide through working for many NGOs. In 1998, a first work camp for Palestinian children in Lebanon introduced her to the Palestinian cause.
Dictaphone is a research and performance collective that creates live art events based on a multidisciplinary study of space. It is a collaborative project initiated by live artist Tania El Khoury and architect/urbanist Abir Saksouk. Together with artist and performer Petra Serhal, they have been creating site-specific performances informed by research. The aim of these projects is to question our relationship to the city, and redefine its public space.
Anthony Downey's research interests focus on global art practices and their relationship to politics; new media and global cultural production; collaborative and participative art practices; human rights; bio-politics and migration, and contemporary art practices across the Maghreb and the regions of the Middle East. Downey is the Editor-in-Chief of Ibraaz, sits on the Editorial Advisory Board of Third Text and is a Consulting Editor for the Open Arts Journal (Open University, England). He is a Directorial Advisor to the Kamel Lazaar Foundation, sits on the Advisory Board of Counterpoints Arts and Pivotal Arts Studio, and is a Trustee of Strange Cargo and the Maryam and Edward Eisler Foundation.
Övül O. Durmuşoğlu is a curator and writer based in Berlin and Istanbul, and is the director/curator of YAMA screen in Istanbul. In 2016, she was the curatorial and public programme advisor for Gulsun Karamustafa's Chronographia monograph at Hamburger Bahnhof. She co-leads Solar Fantastic, a research and publication project between Mexico and Turkey, and recently curated 'Future Queer', the 20th anniversary exhibition for Kaos GL association in Istanbul. She contributes to various print and online publications.
Basel El Maqousi (b. Gaza, 1971) is a painter, photographer and video artist. In 2003, he was awarded the Charles Asprey Award for Palestinian artists and shortlisted for the A.M. Qattan Foundation's Young Artist of the Year Award. He has been an artist-in-residence in Bangalore, India (2006), at the I-Park Foundation in the USA (2015), and was nominated by UNESCO for a residency in Algeria in 2013.
Mahasen Nasser-Eldin (b. Jerusalem) is a filmmaker who explores in her films lines between documentary and fiction constructions. Her research interest is in oral and women's history, exploring the representation and writing of history through film. She holds two masters degrees, one in Arab Studies from Georgetown University in Washington DC, and a second in filmmaking from Goldsmiths, University of London.
Alex Eisenberg is a curator and artist based in London. He is currently working on 'Performing Jerusalem', a project in collaboration with Al-Ma'mal Foundation for Contemporary Art exploring live art and performance in Palestine. He works at the Live Art Development Agency in London and on independent projects.
Irmgard Emmelhainz is an independent translator, writer and researcher based in Mexico City. Her work about film, the Palestine Question, culture and neoliberalism has been translated to multiple languages, and presented at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the March Meeting at Sharjah, the Walter Benjamin in Palestine Conference and the New School and Americas Society. She is member of the editorial board of Scapegoat Journal, and author of The Tyranny of Common Sense: Mexico's Neoliberal Conversion.
Munir Fakher-Eldin received his PhD in history from New York University in 2008, and is an assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Studies and on the Contemporary Arab Studies Masters Programme at Birzeit University. He is also a researcher at the Institute for Palestine Studies. His research has focused on how elite and popular actors in Palestine interacted with late Ottoman and British Mandate discourses of reform.
Issa Freij is a Palestinian filmmaker, photographer and cinematographer.
Hamody Ghannam is an artist and photographer from Haifa. Ghannam studied photography, history of art and painting at Tiltan college before majoring in geographical photography in the Glitz school in 2012. In his work, he makes connections between his specialized lighting experience and practice and the diverse background of his visual stories.
Riham Ghazali, born in Syria, is a photographer and filmmaker based in Gaza. She received her bachelor degree in journalism and media from Al-Aqsa University. She has produced several short documentary films and has participated in international festivals and competitions.
Aiman Halabi is an artist from Majdal Shams in the occupied Golan Heights. He is an active member of a number of artistic associations and founded Majaz Art Gallery in Majdal Shams. He has participated in several international exhibitions including the Journalistic Photography Exhibition in Amsterdam.
Ayesha Hameed's work explores contemporary borders, migration, critical race theory, Walter Benjamin and visual cultures of the Black Atlantic. Her presentations and performance lectures have featured recently at London's ICA, Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin and Edinburgh College of Art. Forthcoming co-edited publications include Visual Cultures as Time Travel (with Henriette Gunkel, Sternberg, 2017) and Futures and Fictions (with Simon O'Sullivan and Henriette Gunkel, Repeater, 2017). She is joint programme leader of Fine Art and History of Art at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Ahmed Hamza (b. 1989) is an architect from Gaza. His obsession with art led him to work as a freelance creative interior and graphic designer for a living, and he also participates in visual art projects. Recently, Hamza has participated in 'At Home in Gaza and London', a project with Station House Opera, London. Currently he is working on his personal portrait photography project.
Samar Hazboun is an artist and photographer who lives and works in Palestine and Europe. Besides pursuing her degree in international relations in Prague, Hazboun works as the Middle East and North Africa photo editor for AFP. She was awarded by the Khalil Sakakini Center for her project Hush on gender-based violence in Palestine, and she has been the recipient of a Culture in Defiance grant from the Prince Claus Fund.
Ala Hmedy is a conceptual artist who was born in Damascus. In 2015, Hmedy won the first prize from The Arab Photographers Union. Her work has been exhibited in Syria, Belgium, UAE, France, England and Morocco, and she has been an artist-in-residence at Testrup Højskole, Aarhus, Denmark.
Gordon Hookey is an indigenous Australian artist who belongs to the Waanyi people. He is a member of the Brisbane-based Aboriginal arts group ProppaNOW. He is currently working on a major project called MURRILAND!, a visual history of Queensland from a Murri perspective.
Wafa Hourani (b. Hebron, 1979) studied experimental cinema in Tunisia, and works with film, photography, installation, performance, music and poetry. Recent exhibitions have been at White Box, New York, and at the Weatherspoon Museum, North Carolina (2014). His work is in the collections of the Archaeological Museum, Thessaloniki; the Saatchi Gallery, London; ADACH, Abu Dhabi; and the Nadour Collection. He lives and works in Ramallah.
Raed Ibrahim (b. 1971) lives and works in Amman. Ibrahim's work aims to provoke the viewer, by making them think or laugh. This combination succeeds very acutely in shedding light and generating debate on taboo subjects.
Nuha Innab is a Palestinian-Jordanian architect. She obtained her Masters degree in Urbanism in Germany and Cairo. She has an interest in individual and collective movements, the influence of the socio-political forces on the cityscape and the citizen-state-city relation. Her interest in Amman is represented in urban photography and documentation, housing policies and their relation to the economy, in an ongoing project called Traces of Socialism.
Ahed Izhiman is an artist who was born in Jerusalem. Ahed has worked as a photography consultant and freelance photographer for the last ten years. Since 2001, he has contributed to community organizations as a young artist, art lecturer and fine art professional trainer, and is one of the co-founders of Art Lab, the first office-sharing project for artists in Jerusalem. His works have been widely presented in national and international exhibitions.
Muhammad Jabal, 36, is an artist, writer, poet, illustrator and DJ based in Haifa. He is a guest lecturer in photography at the Bezalel Academy for Art and Design in Jerusalem. His 2012 work Jaffa 2030 offered an alternative Visitor Center for Jaffa, to help imagine Jaffa's return to the Arab World after the return of the Palestinian refugees. He has collaborated with DAAR, and been part of the Palestinema Group for Independent Films in Palestine and The Jaffa Saraya Arabic Theatre.
Annemarie Jacir (b. 1974) is a filmmaker and poet. Her 2012 film When I Saw You won Best Asian Film at the Berlin International Film Festival, Best Arab Film in Abu Dhabi, and was Palestine's entry for the Oscars in 2013.
Rana Jarbou has been researching and documenting graffiti and street art in the Arab world since 2007. She received an MA in Social Documentation from the University of California at Santa Cruz. Her ongoing project One Thousand and One Walls has so far covered 12 Arab countries. Her recent documentary Hajwalah has been screened in six film festivals. She has published essays in Arabic Graffiti and Walls of Freedom and is currently working on a book about graffiti in Saudi Arabia.
Khaled Jarrar (b. 1976, Jenin) graduated from the International Academy of Art Palestine in 2011. His work has been exhibited widely internationally in galleries, museums and film festivals. His documentary, Infiltrators, won several accolades at the 2012 Dubai International Film Festival. Recent solo exhibitions have been at Art Bartsch & Cie, Geneva (2015); Galerie Polaris, Paris (2012, 2014); and Gallery One, Ramallah (2014). Lives and works in Ramallah.
Monther Jawabreh is a Palestinian visual and performance artist based in Bethlehem. Jawabreh has presented his artwork in several cities, in solo and group exhibitions. In 2010, he developed and exhibited his collection One, and in 2012 showed his series of 12 paintings, As Once Was Known. Jawabreh has travelled the Euro-Mediterranean space with his artwork through a refined metamorphosis of techniques comprising drawing, painting, experimental performances and video, among others.
Lana Judeh is an architect and instructor at Birzeit University. She previously worked on Riwaq's rehabilitation projects of historic centres in Palestinian villages, and on producing a manual for the rehabilitation of the old city of Ramallah. She holds an MA in architecture, cultural Identity and globalisation from the University of Westminster, UK. She is a co-founder of Group28, a research collective looking at the built environment in Palestine.
Karrabing Film Collectiveis a group of Aboriginal Australian filmmakers. The group collectively scripts and improvises characters based upon their own lives as a way of narrating the current status and challenges of Aboriginal worlds. The films of Karrabing have been exhibited in film festivals, biennales, and in community art spaces.
Abdulrahman Katanani (b. 1983) grew up in Sabra refugee camp in Beirut. He is an artist whose work is noted for its intensity in portraying a vivid recollection of stories amassed throughout the years that initially depict the tragedy and hardships endured at the camp. Through his work, he delivers the camp's message of resistance and endurance using tools from the camp that resonate happiness, apathy, empathy, tears and joy.
Lara Khaldi is an independent curator, based in Jerusalem. She is a recent alumna of the de Appel curatorial programme, Amsterdam, and the European Graduate School, Switzerland. Khaldi has curated exhibitions and projects in Ramallah, Jerusalem, Cairo, Dubai, Oslo, Brussels and Amsterdam. She teaches at the International Academy of Art Palestine, and at Dar Al-Kalima University College of Arts and Culture in Bethlehem.
Yazan Khalili lives and works in and out of Palestine. He is an architect, visual artist, and a cultural activist. Khalili has woven together parallel stories over the years, forming both questions and paradoxes concerning scenery and the act of gazing, all of which are refracted through the prism of intimate politics and alienating poetics.
Rula Khoury (b. 1982, Haifa) is a curator, art historian and critic. She received a MA degree in art history from Haifa University (2011). Khoury was the artistic director of the Khalil Sakakini Culture Center in 2014. She was the curator of 'Manam' and 'Mapping Procession' at the 2014 Qalandiya International. Currently Khoury lives in New York, where she is pursuing a Masters degree in Writing Art Criticism at the School of Visual Arts.
Sameer Khraishi is a founding member and General Manager of Amoro Agriculture Company, which established the first mushroom business in Palestine. Sameer holds a Masters Class Certificate in Mushroom and Compost Growing from Horst, Holland and from 2010–12 volunteered with the Andalusia Syndicate of Workers (SAT) in land reclamation, rehabilitation and eco-agriculture to develop a more mutually beneficial relationship between producers and consumers.
Peter Kosminsky is an award-winning British writer, director and producer. He has directed films such as White Oleander and television dramas and series like Warriors, The Government Inspector, The Promise and Wolf Hall. His films have won a number of awards, including a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award.
Donna Kukama is an artist whose work navigates the spaces of performance, video, text and sound installations as laboratories for creative research in order to fictionalize reality. Kukama and lives and works in Johannesburg.
Amr Maddah (b. Majdal Shams) plays the saxophone. He specializes in more than one type of music, including jazz and blues. Currently he is completing his music studies at the Music Academy in Jerusalem.
Randa Maddah was born in Majdal Shams in the occupied Syrian Golan. She completed courses in painting and sculpture at Adham Ismail Center and graduated from Damascus University's department of sculpture in 2005. Maddah is a founding member of Fateh Al Mudarris Center for Arts and Culture.
George Mahashe was born in Bolobedu at Ga-kgapane in South Africa. His photography works with culture or cultural constructs, and people in relation to their place in time. He has exhibited in a variety of group and solo exhibitions locally and internationally.
Alaa Mahdi is an architect from Gaza. She founded her own business Falstaka in 2011 to spread and brand a young and dynamic Palestinian lifestyle based on local calligraphy design, to produce clothing, pins, pillows and cups.
Jumana Manna is an artist living in Berlin and Jerusalem. Her films and sculptures explore how power is articulated through relationships, often focusing on the body and materiality in relation to narratives of nationalism and histories of place.
Dina Mattar (b. Gaza, 1985) graduated with a BA in fine art and education from Al Aqsa University in Gaza in 2007. Her work has been exhibited in many exhibitions in Palestine and regionally, as well as in Europe, the USA, South America and the UAE. In 2012 she was an artist-in-residence at Cité International des Arts in Paris. She lives and works in Gaza, and is a member of the Eltiqa artists' collective.
Tshibumna Kanda Matulu (1947–1981) was a painter from Zaïre who was most famous for his series of 102 canvases, painted 1974/75, that tell the story of Congolese histories and revolutions and the colonial and decolonial periods. These paintings are collected in the book Remembering the Present by ethnographer Johannes Fabian.
Dina Mimi (b. Jerusalem, 1994) completed her BA at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, specializing in ceramics and glass, in 2016, and also studied fine arts in the Netherlands for a semester at the Artez academy in 2015. She will be studying for her MA at Ecole Cantonale d'Art du Valle (ECAV) in Sierre, Switzerland.
MinRASY PROJECTS has been developing and producing projects that stem from its director Rana Sadik. 'MinRASY' is both an acronym in Arabic, from the names Rana and Samer Younis, and a double entendre, meaning 'from my head'. Among its projects are: USPA at World Travel Expo, Kuwait, Tarek ala Duwar, Museum of Manufactured Response to Absence (MoMRtA), Study for a Domiciled Gallery and the publication We're all for Kuwait and Kuwait is for Us. MinRASY PROJECTS also participated in the 2012 Qalandiya International.
Rima Mismar completed her studies in Communication Arts at the Lebanese American University (LAU) after which she had a ten-year career as a film critic. In 2011, she joined the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC) as the Film Programs Manager and oversees the general call for films and special film programmes. In early 2015, she was appointed Deputy Director of AFAC.
May Murad (b. Gaza, 1984) graduated with a BA in fine arts from Al Aqsa University, Gaza, in 2006. She has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Gaza and elsewhere in Palestine, in Jerusalem, Umm El Fahem, Nablus, Hebron and Ramallah, as well as in Sharjah and Dubai. She teaches art in Gaza, where she lives and works.
Nene is an acrobat, juggler, dancer and actor from Colombia, now based in Tromsø, Norway, who works in between the borders of the circus, dance, visual arts and theatre. Nene received his Master's degree in Arts-Physical Theatre, and since then has been researching and questioning the performer-audience and audience-performer relations. Nene has performed in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, North and South America, and has led workshops in projects, schools and universities around the world.
Tom Nicholson works with archival material and the visual languages of politics. Nicholson engages aspects of Australia's colonial histories and realities through combinations of drawings, monumental forms, and printed material, often linking these to the realities of other places and struggles. He lives in Melbourne, Australia.
Malene Nors Tardrup (b. 1974) studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Glasgow School of Art, and the University of New Mexico. Interested in why, where and how as humans we navigate and manifest ourselves, as an artist, theorist and facilitator, her work focuses on issues of cultural identity, cultural history and historiography. Her work is based on the photographic medium but often uses different media and methods. Lives and works in Copenhagen.
Nothing Gets Organized (NGO) exists as a forlorn and contemplative_____, a ____ and _____ twirl in a moment of bewilderment. The platform is interested in un/conventional processes of self-organising, those that do not imply structure, tangibility, context or form. The founding members are Dineo Seshee Bopape, Gabi Ngcobo and Sinethemba Twalo.
Christian Nyampeta is a Rwandan-Dutch artist. His practice focuses on the idea of 'how to live together'. He builds habitable structures, which encourage audiences to dwell within a space of art. He lives and works in London.
Rachel O'Reilly is a poet and artist, independent researcher and theory advisor at the Dutch Art Institute. She developed The Gas Imaginary in residence at the Jan van Eyck Academie. Curatorial collaborations include The Leisure Class GoMA, Contour 8 (public programs), and the online platform of Cosmopolis, Centre Pompidou 2017.
Fernando Jose Pereira studied at the School of Fine Arts of Oporto and was awarded his PhD in Fine Arts from Vigo University in Spain. He teaches at the University of Porto, and is a researcher at the Institute of Research in Art, Design and Society. His main subjects are art and politics, and art and nature (as a form of politics). He lives and works in Oporto, Portugal.
Elizabeth A. Povinelli is Franz Boas Professor of Anthropology at Columbia University. Povinelli's work focuses on developing a critical theory of late liberalism that would support an anthropology of the otherwise. She is one of the founding members of the Karrabing Film Collective.
Ryan Presley currently lives and works in Brisbane, Australia. His art practice is a reflection of his locale which he audits and critiques to mount a larger enquiry that interrogates the articulations of power. He recently completed a PhD at the Queensland College of Art.
Sahar Qawasmi is an architect and cultural heritage practitioner. She is co-founder of Sakiya, a nomadic platform for art, science and agriculture. Sahar is co-curator of 'Sites of Return',the Ramallah Municipality Programme for QI 2016.
Radio Dona Taraddod (Without Hesitation/Frequency) is a volunteer-based online radio programme, and, quoting Naji al-Ali, is biased towards those who are down under. It has been broadcasting for over two years, and seeks to critique and rebut the prevailing socio-political, economic and media rhetoric, employing drama and black comedy (as needed). Radio Dona Taraddod is broadcast by www.itijah.ps, and Multaqa Nabd al-Shababi Pulse Youth Forum.
Shada Safadi is a visual artist born in Majdal Shams in the occupied Golan Heights. Safadi won the 3rd prize in the A.M. Qattan Foundation's Young Artist of the Year Award for her series of paintings, In the Presence of the Crow in 2008. She is a founder member of Fateh Al Mudarris Center of Arts and Culture.
Sakiya is an international Art/Science/Agriculture residency programme with a mandate to bring international and local practitioners together for academic, artistic and ecological interventions with an emphasis on fostering and developing sustainable practices across disciplines.
Rasha Salah is the Executive Manager of Dar El-Nimer, a nonprofit foundation that opened in Beirut in May 2016. A graduate in Social and Cultural Development from Bordeaux II, France, she was Grant Manager at the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture from 2010–15. The author of L'an prochain à Tiberiade (Albin Michel) she is also the co-director of Femmes Palestiniennes...Les Oubliées de la Paix (with Francis Bouchet and Gilles Signard).
Sohail Salem (b. Gaza, 1974) is an artist and graphic designer who received his BA in fine arts from Al-Aqsa University in 1999. He has exhibited in many local and international exhibitions, has had four solo exhibitions and has been invited as an artist-in-residence in Switzerland (2005) and at Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris (2010). He has taught at Al-Aqsa University and is one of the co-founders of the Eltiqa artists' collective.
Rabia Salfiti (b. 1979) graduated in photography from Wizo School of Art and Design (2014), has a diploma in Interior Design from the University of Florence in Italy, and studied philosophy at the University of Varanasi in India. His work often involves his own body and is shaped by the interest and inspection of the body, mind and spirit, between the micro and macro and where the two dissolve, in order to illuminate social and political boundaries, conflict and identity.
Salah Saouli lives in Berlin and Beirut, and his work has been shown internationally. He studied sculpture and painting at the University of Arts in Berlin after receiving his diplome des etudes superieures in fine arts at the Lebanese University in Beirut. Saouli has been the recipient of the First Award of Blickachse 2006 (Germany), and the Honour Award at the Third Sharjah Biennale. In 2015, he received the DANZ award in the 'Sculpture by the Sea' biennale in Denmark.
Yara Saqfalhait is a researcher, architect and co-founder of Group28, a research collective looking at the built environment in Palestine. Yara is interested in researching topics related to the dynamics of knowledge production and pedagogy in architecture. She has published various articles in Bidayat Magazine, Zawia, Interruptions and Jadaliyya.
Vivien Sansour founded the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library as part of her work on seed autonomy. Trained in anthropology, Vivien works with farmers worldwide on issues of agriculture and independence. Her solo show, 'Terrain: Palestinian Agri-Resistance', created a collection of people and landscape portraits of agri-Cultural Palestine. Vivien participated in the Confrontation Through Art residency in Nicosia, Cyprus as part of the collective exhibit 'Where The Sky And The Earth Touch'.
Marcel Schwierin is a curator, filmmaker and co-founder of the Werkleitz Biennial in Halle (Germany), the experimental film and video database 'cinovid', and the Arab Shorts festival in Cairo. His own films include The Images (1994) and Eternal Beauty (2003). He has curated regularly for the Werkleitz Biennials, the Goethe Institute, and the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen. From 2010–15, he was film and video curator of the Berlin-based art and digital culture festival 'transmediale'. Since 2015, he has been co-director (with Edit Molnár) of the Edith-Russ-Haus for Media Art in Oldenburg, Germany.
Rufaida Sehwail, a Palestinian refugee from the town of Magdal, was born in Gaza City in 1987. She studied at Al-Aqsa University for her BA degree in visual art and a higher diploma in education. Her award-winning work incorporates visual art, photography and design, as well as making toys and using drawing to provide psychological support. She has had two solo exhibitions and has shown in more than forty group exhibitions.
Randa Shaath is a photographer based in Cairo who teaches photography at the American University in Cairo. She is a trainer and mentor of award-winning photographers of AFAC's Documentary Photography Programme, a graphic designer for children's books at Dar Al-Fata Al-Arabi, and from 2008-14 was the photo editor of Al-Shorouk daily newspaper. She has published three monographs and has exhibited her work in Egypt and abroad. In 2006, Shaath represented Egypt at the Bienal de São Paulo.
Majed Shala was born in Gaza and graduated with a MA from Scranton University, USA in 2001. A member of the Palestinian Artists Union, he is a founding member of the Shababek gallery space and artists' group in Gaza. He has been an artist-in-residence at Darat al Funun in Amman, and has shown his work in many solo and group exhibitions in Palestine and regionally, as well as in South America, the UAE, the USA, South Africa and Europe.
Rawan Sharaf is a PhD candidate at Birmingham City University (BCU-UK) pursuing a research investigating the politics of contemporary art practices and the art institution in Palestine. Active across various cultural practices and institutions, Rawan lectured at IAAP, Dar al-Kalima and BCU and worked with Riwaq Biennale and Birzeit University Museum. She contributed to the establishment of al Hoash Gallery and was its former Director (2006–2013). Rawan was on the founding committee of Qalandiya International 2012.
Mohammad Shaqdih (1976) lives and works in Amman. Shaqdih is Assistant Director and Outreach Officer at Darat al-Funun/The Khalid Shoman Foundation.He also works as an artist, printmaker and graphic designer. His artist's book The Snake was included in the 3rd International Artist's Books Biennale held in Alexandria in 2008. He was awarded the 2012–13 Cultural Heritage Fellowship for Museums and Community Engagement at University College London.
Shela Sheikh is a lecturer in the Centre for Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London, and convenes the MA in Postcolonial Culture and Global Policy. Current projects include a monograph on martyr 'video-testimonies'; a special issue of Third Text (co-edited with Ros Gray) on 'Botanical Conflicts: Contemporary Art, Visual Cultures and the Politics of Soil and Planting'; and an edited collection (with Matthew Fuller), Cultivation: Vegetal Lives, Global Systems and the Politics of Planting.
Tina Sherwell graduated from Goldsmiths, University of London, in Textiles and Critical Theory and received her PhD from the University of Kent in Image Studies. Previously Executive Director of the Virtual Gallery at Birzeit University, she was Programme Leader in Fine Art at Winchester School of Art in the UK (2005–07). She has written extensively on Palestinian art in catalogues, journals, monographs and books, and is currently the Director of The International Academy of Art Palestine.
Adania Shibli (b. 1974, Palestine) currently lives between Jerusalem and Berlin. Her novels, plays, short stories and narrative essays have been published, also in translation, in various anthologies, art books and literary magazines. She has twice been awarded the A.M. Qattan Foundation's Young Writer's Award, in 2001 and in 2003. She also edited Dispositions (Ramallah: Qattan, 2012), an art book featuring contemporary Palestinian artists. Shibli is also engaged in academic research and teaching.
Reem Shilleh is a researcher, curator and writer whose work expands across the moving image spectrum, often focusing on film. Her research interests have led into projects that explore and discuss the Palestinian narrative and its historical formation in regards to image production, both moving and still. In 2011 she co-founded Subversive Film, a collective that produces research-based works in relation to rare filmic material on Palestine and the region. She is based in Ramallah.
Nida Sinnokrot received his BA from the University of Texas at Austin and an MFA from Bard College. In 2001 he participated in the Whitney Museum's Independent Study Program, and was a 2002 Rockefeller Foundation Media Arts Fellow. His multimedia work has featured in 'Tea with Nefertiti' (2012/14); 'Biennial Cuvée – World Selection of Contemporary Art '(2010); the 2009 Sharjah Biennial; 'Never-Part – Histories of Palestine', Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels (2008/09); and the 2008 Jerusalem Show. He lives and works in Palestine.
Hana Sleiman is a researcher and archivist. Her work focuses on archive creation and appropriation in modern Palestinian history and its effects on the competing narratives on Palestine. Sleiman received her MA from Columbia University's Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies in 2013. She was a Special Collections Librarian at the American University of Beirut Library Archives from 2014–16.
Beth Stryker is co-founder of CLUSTER (Cairo Lab for Urban Studies, Training and Environmental Research), a platform for urban research, architecture, art and design initiatives in downtown Cairo. Stryker has curated exhibitions and programs for D-CAF in Cairo, Beirut Art Center, Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, AIANY/Center for Architecture in New York (where she held the position of Director of Programs), and the MCA in Chicago, among other venues.
Studioazue is a consulting and design team of development practitioners established in 2011 by a group of architects, engineers and sociologists. Our main challenge is to promote the transition to a low carbon society in developing and low income countries, converting high-tech models into systems applicable and replicable in diverse geographical, social and economic contexts.
Subversive Film is a cinema research and production initiative that aims to cast new light upon historic film works related to Palestine and the region, to engender support for film preservation, and to investigate archival practices and effects. Subversive Film was formed in 2011 by Mohanad Yaqubi, Reem Shilleh and Nick Denes and is based in Ramallah and London.
Salim Tamari is a senior fellow at the Institute for Palestine Studies and the former director of the IPS-affiliated Institute of Jerusalem Studies. The Editor of Jerusalem Quarterly and Hawliyyat al Quds, he is also professor of sociology at Birzeit University and an adjunct professor at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University, Washington D.C. He is the author of several works on urban culture, political sociology, biography and social history, and the social history of the eastern Mediterranean.
Wael Tarabieh (b. 1968, Majdal Shams) graduated from The Repin Academy of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Russia in 1996. From 1996–2012 he was a teacher of plastic arts and is manager of the Fateh Al Mudarris Center of Arts and Culture in Majdal Shams in the occupied Golan Heights.
Omar Imseeh Tesdell is an assistant professor in the Department of Geography at Birzeit University and a postdoctoral fellow of the Arab Council for Social Sciences. His research focuses on environmental questions and sovereignty in the Middle East. He was awarded his PhD in geography from the University of Minnesota in 2013. The Social Science Research Council IDRF, Palestinian American Research Center, and the University of Minnesota have all supported his research.
The Little Lantern Dance and Theatre Workshop was established in 2008 as part of the AJIAL – Social Communication Center in Ein al-Hilweh refugee camp in Lebanon. It aims to engage with children and teenagers in producing creative content that is committed to the causes and concerns of the people of the camp. Previously, they have performed in Ma'rouf Saa'd, Madina and Babel theatres in Lebanon, in addition to dance festivals in Beirut and France.
Oraib Toukan is an artist currently based in Oxford, England where she is completing her PhD at Oxford University's Ruskin School of Art. Recent exhibitions include the Centre for Contemporary Art, Glasgow; the Asia Pacific Triennial; the Mori Art Museum; Kunstraum Muenchen; and the 11th Istanbul Biennial. Until autumn 2015 she was head of the Arts Division and Media Studies programme at Bard College Al Quds; she is visiting faculty at the International Academy of Art Palestine.
Vivian Ziherl is a critic and curator from Brisbane, living and working in Amsterdam. In 2015 she established the art and research project Frontier Imaginaries. Through exhibitions, conferences and publishing it seeks to work trans-locally in order to map the ongoing significance of the frontier formation in the global era.
Mohanad Yaqubi is a filmmaker, producer and co-founder of Idioms Film. He teaches film studies at the International Academy of Art Palestine. He is a co-founder of Subversive Films, a curatorial and research collective focusing on militant film practices. Yaqubi is a producer of internationally screened films and the creator and producer of 'Suspended Time'.
Anna-Esther Younes completed her PhD in Geneva and is currently based in Berlin. Her work focuses on questions of race and racialisation in Germany and Europe, psychoanalysis and race, colonialism, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and anti-Islamic racism in Germany and Europe. She is the author of Germany's contribution to the 'European Islamophobia Report' in March 2016, a review of Sayed Kashua's book Native (July 2016), and organised the first month-long, interdisciplinary international Palestinian Arts Festival in Berlin in 2016.
Akram Zaatari is an artist and filmmaker whose practice is tied to collecting. He is deeply invested in researching photographic practices, particularly in the Middle East, and examining how photography has served to shape notions of aesthetics, postures and social codes. Since 1999, Zaatari has been focusing on the archive of Studio Shehrazade in Saida, studying the work of photographer Hashem el Madani as a register of social relationships and of photographic practices.
Shadi Zmorrod is a theatre actor and director born and raised in Jerusalem. At the age of 12, he joined Ashtar Theatre where he has been a drama teacher and actor, teaching children and adults from all walks of life. In 2000, he took part in his first circus workshop. In 2006, together with Jessika Devlieghere, he laid the foundation for the Palestinian Circus School.

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