Occupation: Project Coordinator at a Non-Profit
University: Boston University, Brown University
Organizations: SJP
Shireen Akram-Boshar is an activist and alum of Students for Justice in Palestine who has organized Palestine solidarity work for nearly a decade. As a high school student, she organized Boston rallies in solidarity with Gaza, and throughout her undergraduate years she organized film screenings, lectures, rallies, and campaigns with her Students for Justice in Palestine chapters to raise awareness and build solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for justice.
Since late 2015, Shireen has focused on organizing around the question of the Syrian uprising and the relationship between Palestinian and Syrian struggles for liberation. She has organized numerous panels and a speaking tour, and given 10 talks on Syria at meetings, rallies, and conferences.
Beyond Syria and Palestine, Shireen is also dedicated to organizing against sexual and domestic violence, educating against Islamophobia, advocating for the rights of all immigrants and refugees, and mobilizing support for progressive social movements worldwide. She sees each of these struggles as intimately connected.
Shireen is a graduate of Brown University, where she was a member of Students for Justice in Palestine, and studied Africana Studies. Before transferring to Brown in 2014, she studied History and Anthropology at Boston University, and was also a member of BU’s SJP. In her senior year at Brown, Shireen examined the works of Black and Arab postcolonial thinkers side-by-side, including Frantz Fanon, CLR James, Albert Memmi, and Ghassan Kanafani, among others. She also took courses on the literature of the Black freedom struggle, Latino/a literature, and Arab poetry and its connection to social struggles from the 1940s to today.
Shireen’s articles include:
https://socialistworker.org/2017/01/31/solidarity-can-win-an-sjp-chapter-at-fordham
https://socialistworker.org/2017/09/14/the-spirit-of-the-syrian-people
She has co-written the following articles:
http://bluestockingsmag.com/2014/11/03/call-to-action-why-justice4rasmea-is-a-feminist-issue/
https://socialistworker.org/2017/12/12/why-is-ice-targeting-siham-byah