Dark Opacities Lab x Nazar Research Symposium

Dark Opacities Lab presents its first research symposium “NAZAR: A THEORY OF THE EVIL EYE: A FALL RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM” convening over two days, featuring scholars, students, artists, and organizers from all over the world. We are especially thrilled to include two keynotes and are excited to have you join us. See details below and registration will not be required, just show up and join us! Given that this is the last year of our multi-year project, we hope this will give us opportunities to strengthen the ideas and practices that have emerged since 2024.

NAZAR: A THEORY OF THE EVIL EYE — A FALL RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM

Symposium Day 1

9:30 a.m. – Welcome + Coffee + Pastries

10 a.m. – Panel 1

Psychoanalysis of an Eye – Chair and Moderation by Dr. Prathna Lor

Sadia Awan, “A Decolonial Speculation of the Anus as the Third-Eye and Site of Unity of Being (Wahdat al-Wujūd)”

Matthew Molinaro, “You Fail la dictée”: Caribbean Feminism, Québécoise Opacity, and the Politics of Relation”

Evé Mayenga, “Cinema as Technology of Death and Its Conjuring”

12 p.m. – Keynote Conversation

Mahmoud Al Shaer Book Launch with Nasrin Himada – Moderation by Marlihan Lopez

Location: 4th Space (w/catered lunch)

2:30 p.m. – Panel 2

Vision, Speculation, Permanence – Chair and Moderation by Setayesh Nejadi

Joshua Vettivelu, “Instinct Under Construction: Ideological Immersion and the Governance of Perception”

Layan Salameh, “Incorporation and Refusal: Refugee Resettlement and Palestinian Urban Imaginaries in Nazareth, 1958–1961”

Marius Gnanasihamany, “Undo, Redo: Tracing Rehearsal as Anti-Imperialist Method”

Tracy Valcourt, “Whole Earth” and Satellite Blackout: World Picturing on the Brink of Planetary War”

Saturday November 7, 2026:

10 a.m. Coffee + Pastries

10:30 a.m. – Panel 3

Water’s Sacred Power – Chair and Moderation by Denis Soboh

Shahana Rajani, “To Cast a Line”

Amanda Ghazale Aziz + Lensa Lello Said, “Release to Return”

Marco Giovanetti, “Marian Whitewashing: Rosa Mystica, María Auxiliadora, and the Narco-Theology of Protection”

12:30 p.m. – Lunch (catered)

2 p.m. – Panel 4

Nazar as Method: A Practicum – Chair and Moderation by Somayeh Rashvand

Mahdieh Vali‑Zadeh & Behrang Ajam, “Rumi’s Lyrical Subject, Flow, and Shifts: Evil Eye, Fear, and Agency”

Nada Salama, “Arabic as a Talisman of the Divine”

Jasmine Sihra, “Navigating Nazar in the Museum Context”

Nathalie Batraville, “Six Revolutionary Tarot Cards”

4 p.m. – Closing Keynote

Dr. Lara Sheehi, “Psychic Militancy for Revolutionary Futures”

Roundtable with Prathna Lor, Anna Shah Hoque, and Hiba Zafran

Moderated by Balbir K. Singh