Second visit of PARC researchers look into research opportunities with university faculty
A group of scholars and researchers in political science, journalism, geography, gender studies, history, literature, economics and management from the Palestinian American Research Center (PARC), visited Birzeit University on June 22, 2022, and discussed prospects of collaboration with the university’s professors and researchers.
Last month, May 25, fourteen scholars from PARC visited the university and exchanged knowledge with Birzeit University’s academics on settler-colonialism, Palestinian resistance, role of artists in the Palestinian political debate, and other topics.
The scholars met with university president Dr. Beshara Doumani, who outlined the new vision for the future of Birzeit University, including initiatives to advance decolonized teaching and research.
Amir Khalil, the Director of the External Academic Relations Office, discussed the internationalization efforts at Birzeit University and their impact on the institution’s faculty, staff and students.
At the foundation of the new vision, added Doumani is to create initiatives that puts Birzeit University as a leader and a space to produce knowledge that mobilizes change that works to liberate Palestinians. He stressed the importance of building partnerships to enable Palestinian universities and colleges to overcome all the restrictions imposed by the Israeli military occupation, which is placed to isolate universities from the rest of the world.
Carmen Kishek, representing Birzeit University’s Public Relations Office and the Right to Education Campaign, highlighted the systematic Israeli military violations against higher education, including systematic arbitrary arrests, restrictions of movement and the localization of knowledge.
She focused on the most recent attempt of the Israeli military to undermine the university’s academic freedom through the “Procedure for Entry and Residency of Foreigners in Judea and Samaria Region,” which grants the Israeli military the absolute power to isolate Palestinian universities from the outside world through arbitrary criteria that determines which international faculty, academic researchers and students may be present at Palestinian universities.
During the day, PARC’s scholars met with a number of Birzeit University’s faculty members and students and discussed horizons of cooperation with impactful ways that contribute to the university’s vision to be an institution that produce decolonized knowledge.
