Cultivating Solidarity through Radical Subjectivity: A Review of Noor Ghazal Aswad’s Searching for Solidarity: Revolutionary Dreams and Radical Social Movements

Jul 1, 2026

Published in Book Reviews | Issue 9

By: Samantha Guajardo, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

Aswad, Noor Ghazal. Searching for Solidarity: Revolutionary Dreams and Radical Social Movements. The Ohio State University Press, 2025.

Noor Ghazal Aswad’s Searching for Solidarity: Revolutionary Dreams and Radical Social Movements opens with the story of Abu Furat, a Syrian military officer who joined the revolution after refusing orders to participate in attacks against civilians. Following a successful military campaign against the Assad regime, Abu Furat did not mark the occasion with triumphalism. Sitting alongside fellow revolutionaries, he reflected on loss and sacrifice before being killed only moments later by a tank shell (11-12). His story lingers throughout the text, serving as an overture to the questions that animate Aswad’s book: How do people come to stand with those engaged in liberatory struggle? What conditions foster solidarity across distance and diverse experiences of violence? At the center of the book is what Aswad calls the “dilemma of solidarity,” the painful reality that suffering alone does not necessarily generate recognition or collective action (17).

Stories of oppression circulate widely, yet many struggles remain unheard or displaced from public concern. Aswad approaches this dilemma through an exploration of solidarity as a capacity cultivated through attentiveness to particular bodies and forms of lived epistemologies (18). Central to this undertaking is the figure of the radical subject, individuals who engage in high-risk acts of resistance while envisioning more just futures amid repression and dispossession (23). Through engagement with radical subjects and their experiences, Aswad encourages readers to reconsider whose voices carry epistemic authority and how solidarity emerges through encounters with those confronting oppressive conditions firsthand (18-19). Situated at the confluence of rhetoric and critical cultural studies, Searching for Solidarity offers a compelling framework for understanding how solidarity takes shape through relationships with those engaged in revolutionary struggle (21). Across five interconnected chapters organized around orientation, testimony, postmemory, peripherality, and hope, Aswad develops an account of the pathways through which solidarity emerges and political judgment is transformed (27-31). The result is a salient contribution to scholarship on rhetoric and social movements. By centering the experiences of radical subjects, Aswad illuminates how agency, resistance, and liberation become points of departure for imagining collective futures.

Chapter 1, “On Orientation: Disrupting Erasure and Ideologies of Exceptionalism,” establishes the conceptual foundation of the book through Aswad’s examination of orientation as a prerequisite for solidarity. Drawing from the assassination of Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani and the subsequent responses it generated amongst the U.S. Left, Aswad interrogates how political attention is directed, what forms of suffering become visible, and whose experiences are granted significance within public discourse (35-39). Central to the chapter is Aswad’s concept of “reverse moral exceptionalism,” a tendency to interpret global events primarily through the actions and responsibilities of one’s own nation-state (37). While such critiques often emerge from concerns regarding imperialism and state violence, Aswad demonstrates how this orientation can inadvertently obscure the experiences of those directly confronting oppression on the ground.

One of the chapter’s most compelling contributions is its insistence that solidarity begins with an intentional turning toward radical subjects. For Aswad, orientation concerns the cultivation of attentiveness to those whose lived experiences are frequently displaced by broader ideological narratives. Drawing on Sara Ahmed’s work on affect and orientation, Aswad argues that where attention is directed shapes both political judgment and the possibilities for collective response (39). The chapter is particularly effective because it complicates familiar assumptions about solidarity. Aswad demonstrates how even well-intentioned political commitments can produce forms of erasure when radical subjects are rendered secondary to larger geopolitical frameworks (41-42, 56-58). In doing so, she offers a reminder that solidarity requires attention to those whose struggles constitute the very grounds upon which solidarity is sought.

Chapter 2, “On Testimony: Reclaiming Affective Politics,” transforms one of the book’s most significant interventions by positioning testimony as a form of lived knowledge capable of informing political judgment and fostering solidarity (29). Aswad defines the radical subject as an individual committed to self-determination who acts with agency in the face of oppressive conditions (74). These are individuals who risk imprisonment, injury, and death while pursuing liberatory social change. Their actions emerge from engagement with the world and a refusal to accept domination as inevitable (74-81). Throughout the chapter, Aswad argues that radical subjects occupy a unique epistemic position because they possess forms of knowledge produced through direct encounters with violence, repression, and resistance. Their testimony offers insight into realities that often remain obscured within dominant public narratives (72, 80-81).

A particularly compelling aspect of the chapter is Aswad’s critique of liberal forms of inclusion. She questions whether simply expanding the number of voices within public discourse necessarily produces more equitable forms of understanding. Instead, she demonstrates how certain voices continue to carry disproportionate authority while radical subjects remain marginalized despite formal commitments to diversity and inclusion (95). This discussion is especially valuable because it shifts attention from the quantity of voices present in public discourse to the conditions under which some forms of testimony are acknowledged while others are diminished or ignored. For Aswad, testimony carries affect because it emerges from embodied experience. The radical subject’s knowledge is inseparable from the realities they endure, making testimony both informative and evocative (101-102). In centering testimony as a pathway toward solidarity, Aswad offers an account of how listeners might become more attuned to struggles that fall outside their immediate political horizons. The chapter ultimately demonstrates that solidarity depends upon recognizing radical subjects’ experiences as sources of knowledge capable of transforming how we understand oppression, resistance, and collective responsibility.

Chapter 3, “On Postmemory: Our Hearts Haven’t Been Quenched Yet,” shifts attention to the ways memories of struggle endure across generations and continue to shape political consciousness in the present. Drawing from family histories and personal reflections, Aswad explores how inherited memories influence one’s recognition of radical subjects and their struggles (116-117). Through these intimate narratives, the chapter demonstrates that solidarity is informed by genealogies of resistance that perdure long after specific events have passed. Central to the chapter is the concept of postmemory, a form of inheritance through which the experiences of previous generations continue to exert affect on descendants. Aswad recounts stories of family members whose acts of resistance shaped her own understanding of liberation and political struggle, illustrating how memories circulate through conversations, silences, family lore, and everyday acts of remembrance (110, 116-117).

These memories function as living archives that connect individuals to broader traditions of dissent and collective aspiration. One of the chapter’s most poignant contributions lies in its attention to the affective dimensions of memory. Aswad demonstrates how experiences of loss, grief, and survival often exceed the limits of language itself. At times, memory emerges through silence, gesture, or resonance, revealing forms of knowledge that cannot always be fully articulated (137-140). Such moments underscore the profound ways that memory shapes political subjectivity and informs how individuals understand both past and present struggles. Therefore, radical subjects inherit ways of interpreting power, recognizing danger, and imagining liberation (132, 139-140). By foregrounding postmemory as a vital component of solidarity, Aswad demonstrates how the past continues to inform contemporary movements and how memories of resistance remain significant to struggles that unfold across time and place.

In Chapter 4, “On Peripherality: Mobilizing Affective Geographies,” Aswad expands her discussion of solidarity by examining how radical subjects forge connections across geographic, political, and historical boundaries. The chapter introduces another significant theoretical contribution: the concept of the “elastic periphery,” an affective geography through which marginalized communities recognize themselves as participants in a broader global struggle for liberation (30, 151-154). Aswad develops this concept through an analysis of solidarities linking the Syrian Revolution, Palestinian liberation, and other movements confronting forms of colonialism and authoritarianism. The elastic periphery draws attention to the ways radical subjects navigate conditions of marginalization while simultaneously constructing alternative political imaginaries that position their struggles within larger networks of resistance (151-154). In this articulation, peripherality becomes a site from which new forms of agency, coalition, and collective consciousness emerge. Particularly compelling is Aswad’s attention to the affective labor required to generate transnational solidarity. Radical subjects frequently confront the challenge of communicating struggles that are dismissed as disconnected from broader political concerns. Aswad demonstrates how activists respond to these conditions by creating transnational points of identification that encourage audiences to recognize shared experiences of oppression and common aspirations for liberation (153-156). Through these efforts, solidarity becomes an active process of relationship-building as opposed to a passive expression of sympathy.

The chapter also offers a thoughtful engagement with debates surrounding the Global South. While acknowledging the term’s usefulness for describing histories of dispossession and disproportionate power relations, Aswad remains attentive to its conceptual limitations (156-159). Her discussion foregrounds the epistemic contributions of communities frequently marginalized within dominant frameworks of knowledge production while emphasizing the fluid and transnational character of contemporary struggles. Particularly insightful is her observation that solidarities often emerge through shared experiences of exclusion, even when movements are separated by geography, political context, or historical circumstance (157-158). By situating peripherality as a source of political possibility, Aswad offers a nuanced account of how solidarity circulates across borders and movements. The chapter demonstrates that radical subjects do not simply inhabit the margins of power. Through creative acts of coalition-building and political imagination, they transform those margins into spaces of resistance and agency.

Chapter 5, “On Hope: Bloom-Spaces and the Circulation of Solidarity,” brings the book’s central concerns together through an examination of hope and its role within revolutionary movements. Having established the importance of orientation, testimony, postmemory, and peripherality, Aswad turns her attention to the ways radical subjects imagine futures beyond oppression and cultivate possibilities for collective transformation (30-31). Aswad conceptualizes hope as a multidirectional affective force that circulates among communities engaged in struggle (30). Hope emerges through what she terms “hope talk,” communicative practices that allow radical subjects to articulate aspirations, affirm one another’s efforts, and maintain commitments to liberation despite conditions that often appear insurmountable. In this sense, hope functions as a vital component of solidarity because it enables individuals to imagine futures that extend beyond the immediate constraints of repression and violence. One of the chapter’s most compelling insights concerns the relationship between hope and political action. Aswad demonstrates that hope does not arise from certainty about future outcomes. Revolutionary movements frequently unfold amid instability, loss, and disappointment. Yet radical subjects continue to articulate visions of freedom, justice, and self-determination even when success remains uncertain. Hope, therefore, becomes intertwined with agency. It animates political engagement and encourages continued participation in collective struggle despite formidable obstacles.

The chapter is particularly effective because it resists romanticizing either hope or solidarity. Throughout the book, Aswad remains attentive to the difficulties that accompany revolutionary movements, including grief, displacement, and the lingering effects of violence. These realities do not disappear in the presence of hope. Instead, hope operates alongside them, creating openings through which alternative futures may be imagined and pursued. Such a perspective allows Aswad to maintain a nuanced understanding of solidarity while remaining cognizant of the material conditions shaping political life. As a concluding chapter, “On Hope” reinforces a significant claim: solidarity is cultivated through ongoing relationships with radical subjects and the worlds they seek to create. Hope provides the connective tissue linking memory to aspiration and individual acts of resistance to broader movements for liberation. In doing so, Aswad offers a thoughtful account of how collective futures are envisioned, shared, and carried forward amid uncertainty.

Aswad, Noor Ghazal. Searching for Solidarity: Revolutionary Dreams and Radical Social Movements. The Ohio State University Press, 2025.

About the Author

Samantha Guajardo is an Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Her research examines the rhetoric of Latinidad, borders, and agency, with particular attention to the Rio Grande Valley and the U.S.-Mexico border. Her work has appeared in the Journal of Communication and Religion and the Communication Center Journal. In addition to her research, she teaches courses across the field of Communication, including: Rhetoric and Civic Controversy, Oral Communication, and Interpersonal Communication. Her pedagogy centers agency as she cultivates classroom spaces attentive to students’ lived experiences. samanthaguajardo.com