Conceptualizing Modern Palestine: Exemplars of Liberating Knowledge (2)

The second volume of the series, titled "Conceptualizing Modern Palestine: Exemplars of Liberating Knowledge 2" (2023), has been released following the publication of the first part, titled " Conceptualizing Modern Palestine: Exemplars of Liberating Knowledge 1" (2021). This publication is the result of collaborative efforts between Birzeit University and the Institute of Palestine Studies. 

This publication is the result of collaborative efforts between Birzeit University and the Institute of Palestine Studies. The volume comprises nine academic articles that examine the elements of Palestinian national identity: the land, the people, and the narrative, across three levels: imaginary Palestine, field Palestine, and cultural Palestine. The articles are authored by eight candidates from Ph.D. Program in Social Sciences at Birzeit University, along with the editor, as a contribution to the discussion of the meanings of Palestine as an identity and a cause. In the imagination domain, the first part of the book discusses the religious understanding of Palestine by exploring levels of interaction between religious imagination components in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam through the study of the religious texts, historical experiences, and political discourse. In the field domain, the second part of the book reconsiders the conceptualization of the Charter Palestine, examining three moments related to founding, interpretation, and restoration of Charter meanings of Palestine through the study of different modes of resistance, be it in solidarity, organized, or individual. In the cultural domain, the third part of the book aims at culturally conceptualizing Palestine through three patterns of media, literary, and social discourses, hence sheding light on the "new Palestine" over the last quarter-century of Palestinian history. Building on the first volume of the book, the chapters of this second volume provide insights from within occupied Palestine aiming at further conceptualizing modern Palestine through diverse field and methodological approaches. The contributions address Palestine—fragmented in terms of geography, demography, and culture—employing tools ranging between post-colonial studies, indigenous studies and militant research. These field and methodological orientations allow for a dual critique of the ideological stability of the Zionist settler colonial project and the transformation inflicted upon the Palestinian national liberation project on political, social and cultural levels.

Contributors to the book include: Orouba Othman, Natalie Salameh, Mohammed Al-Sherbini, Bilal Shalash, Yasmeen Qadan, Rola Sirhan, Suhaila Abdel Latif, and Muntaha Abed. They are Ph.d. candidates from the Program in Social Sciences at Birzeit University, and members of the second cohort (2020-2021) in the course " Conceptualizing Modern Palestine," supervised by Abdul-Rahim Al-Shaikh, the book's editor and contributor, and a professor of philosophy and cultural studies at Birzeit University.

For more information, see the book page on the Institute for Palestine Studies

https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/1655003