Gil Z. Hochberg - Visual Occupations (Perverse Modernities: A Series Edited by Jack Halberstam and Lisa Lowe)

Like all creations, this book is an outcome of a collegial effort. Many friends, students, family members, and colleagues have accompanied me throughout the extended period of researching and writing this book, providing me with invaluable support. I am deeply grateful to Shukri Abed, Paul Amar, Amal Amireh, Ariella Azoulay, S. A. Bachman, Ella Shohat, Rebecca Stein, Nadia Yaqub, and, last but not least, Simon Faulkner, for the many stimulating conversations I have had with each of them about vision, politics, and art and for a long-lasting intellectual dialogue.

This project would have never come to life without the inspiration I found in the work of numerous artists and political activists. I have had the fortune of forming special friendships and benefiting from the remarkably inspiring artistic and political work of Basel Abbas, Ruanne Abou-Rahme, Udi Aloni, Yael Bartana, Rula Halawani, Khaled Jarrar, Ilana Salama Ortar, Larissa Sansour, Miri Segal, and Sharif Waked. I thank all these outstanding artists for sharing their creative inner world with me.

For reading and commenting on several different sections of this book, I extend my gratitude to the wonderful members of the UCLA faculty writing group, which met regularly in 2012: Christine Chism, Elizabeth DeLoughrey, Helen Deutsch, Rachel Lee, Francoise Lionnet, Kathleen McHugh, and Shu-mei Shih. Our conversations and exchange of writings remains one of the most constructive experiences I have had.

At UCLA I continue to benefit from an enriching intellectual environment. I thank my friends at the Comparative Literature department and the Gender Studies department for their collegiality. I would like to extend my innermost appreciation to Ali Behdad, Michael Cooperson, Nouri Gana, Sondra Hale, Abeer Mohammed, Aamir Mufti, Todd Presner, and DavidSchanberg for their continual support and friendship, and to express my deepest gratitude to Efrain Kristal: as the chair of my home department, Comparative Literature, he has offered me his relentless support not only as an academic mentor but also as a motivating figure at the UCLA gym.

Other close friends have followed the project from early on, offering their support and encouragement in so many ways. I am immensely thankful to PP for accompanying me through the many phases of the journey. I thank Tamar Assal, Ayelet Ben-Yishai, Mel Y. Chen, Eliane Fersan, Sarah Gualtieri, Macarena Gomez-Barris, Maria-Elena Martinez, Chana Kronfeld, Anna More, Yonit Efron, and Naomi Kanuik for meaningful friendships that nourish both mind and soul. My heartfelt appreciation goes to my dear friend Jack Halbertstam, who has read the manuscript more than once, offering me priceless remarks along with confirming reassurance at times I needed it most.

Special thanks are also extended to my students from the graduate seminar on visual culture (2011). Many of the ideas in this book crystalized as an outcome of the conversations we held in this seminar. To Hoda El Shakry, Ethan Pack, Shir Alon, and Simchi Cohen, my graduate students past and present, I owe a great debt. Their dedicated research assistance has proven vital to the completion of this manuscript.

At Duke University Press I was met with the most wonderful group of individuals. I am deeply obliged to Ken Wissoker, who has followed this project from very early on, offering me his generous support and encouragement throughout. I am also thankful to Kathleen Kageff for her careful copyediting and generosity, for Jade Brook for her assistance in every stage of production, and to the two anonymous readers, who have read more than one draft of this manuscript. Their constructive comments and insightful suggestions have played a crucial role in bringing the book to its final form.

Colleen Jankovic came on board in 2014. Her dedication to this project has been very meaningful to me. I am profoundly thankful for her careful reading of the manuscript and for her editorial help, in additional to her guidance with formatting, image capturing, image improving, and much more.

The last words of thankfulness are reserved for my family: I thank my mother, Ruth Ramot, for believing in the project and serving as my main advocate. I thank my two wonderful brothers, Daniel Tsur and Itamar Tsur,for enduring my (often) unrestrained chattering about the past, present, and future of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I thank my stepfather, Yaron Tsur, for asking me the kind of questions historians ask and encouraging me to frame my arguments historically.

Finally, and as always, my deepest gratitude is offered to my partner, Keri J. Kanetsky (who has read and reread all-too-many drafts over the years), and our two beautiful children, Ella and Omri Kanetsky. The love the three of you share with me is the meaning of it all.