EIHS Symposium: The Politics of Memory and Palestinian Struggles for History: An Interdisciplinary Conversation

The construction of memory and the ongoing reinterpretation of history are living processes. How have Palestinians, in historic Palestine and in the diaspora, conceptualized and materialized their own history, while confronting long standing policies of destruction and erasure? What does it mean for Palestinian individuals and institutions to engage with their heritage in the face of occupation and violence? This symposium takes up these questions with the help of experts in museological practice and historical anthropology. In conversation with the audience, our guests will explore strategies Palestinians have adopted to sustain collective identities rooted in shared histories, while navigating tensions across geographies, classes, and generations.

Diana Abouali is the director of the Arab American National Museum, located in Dearborn, Michigan. Previously, she was an assistant professor at Dartmouth College (New Hampshire, USA); head of research and collections at the Palestinian Museum (Birzeit, Palestine), and director of education, outreach and awareness at the Petra National Trust (Amman, Jordan). She serves on several boards and committees including ArteEast (NYC), CultureSource (Detroit), the Citizens Advisory Committee at the University of Michigan- Dearborn, and the general assembly of Taawon-Welfare Association (Palestine). Diana is Palestinian, was born in Toronto, Canada and grew up in Kuwait. She received her PhD in History and Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University in 2004.

Rochelle Davis is the Sultanate of Oman Associate Professor in anthropology at Georgetown University in the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies. Her research focuses on refugees, war, and conflict, particularly Palestinian, Syrian, and Iraqi refugees. She authored Palestinian Village Histories: Geographies of the Displaced, (Stanford University Press, 2012). She’s currently completing a manuscript on the cultural training the U.S provided soldiers about Arabs, Muslims, and Iraqis in the U.S. military invasion and occupation of Iraq, using interviews with US military servicemembers and Iraqis. She’s also at work on another manuscript chronicling the lives of Palestinian refugees who fled Jerusalem in 1948.

This event presented by the Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies. It is made possible in part by a generous contribution from Kenneth and Frances Aftel Eisenberg.