ATTEND | Ghassan Kanafani: Palestinian Resistance Literature Under Occupation Launch w/ Rashid Khalidi, Eman Abdelhadi, + Nadine Naber 10/13/26
Rashid Khalidi, Eman Abdelhadi and Nadine Naber launching Ghassan Kanafani's Palestinian Resistance Literature Under Occupation
Tuesday October 13th, 2026
7:00PM - 9:00PM
Pilsen Community Books, Al-Hambra Palace, and the Palestinian Youth Movement welcome Rashid Khalidi to Chicago for a conversation with Eman Abdelhadi and Nadine Naber to launch the first english translation of Ghassan Kanafani's Palestinian Resistance Literature Under Occupation 1948-68.
Ghassan Kanafani’s remarkable extended essay Palestinian Resistance Literature Under Occupation, 1948–1968 is an unyielding act of cultural and political endurance. Writing in the wake of Israel’s devastating territorial expansion in 1967, Kanafani elaborates his theory of resistance literature and offers a visceral account of life under occupation. Translated for the first time into English by one of the greatest living translators from Arabic to English, Tarif Khalidi, Kanafani’s essay offers one of the sharpest social and political analyses of life in Palestine in this early period of occupation. In the two decades following the Nakba, Palestinian writers undertook the gruelling task of advancing a cultural struggle to protect their language, culture, and heritage. Join us for a conversation about this newly translated text and its relevance to the continued struggle for Palestinian liberation.
This event is co-hosted by Pilsen Community Books, Al-Hambra Palace and the Palestinian Youth Movement.
Doors will open at 6:30pm, the event will start at 7pm.
APPLY | PARC 2027–2028 Fellowships
2027–2028 PARC Fellowships for U.S. Scholars Conducting Research on Palestine
The Palestinian American Research Center (PARC) announces its 27th PARC U.S. research fellowship competition for research that will contribute to Palestinian Studies. Applicants must be doctoral students or scholars who have earned their PhD and must be U.S. citizens. Fellowship awards up to a maximum of $10,000. Research must take place in Palestine, Israel, Jordan, or Lebanon. Applications are due January 18, 2027.
2027-2028 PARC Fellowships for Palestinian Scholars Conducting Humanities and Social Science Field-Based Research on Palestine
The Palestinian American Research Center (PARC) announces its 28th annual Palestinian research fellowship competition for research in the humanities and social sciences that will contribute to Palestinian Studies. Applicants must be Palestinian doctoral students or Palestinian scholars who have earned their PhD. Palestinians may apply regardless of their country of residence or ID. Fellowship awards are up to a maximum of $6,000. Research must take place in Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, or Lebanon. Applications are due December 5, 2026.
2027-2028 PARC Tanya Baker-Asad Scholarships for Palestinian Women Pursuing PhDs
The Palestinian American Research Center (PARC) announces its 5th competition for PARC Tanya Baker-Asad Scholarships for Palestinian women pursuing PhDs in the humanities and social sciences. Qualified applicants should have an acceptance to, or already be enrolled in, a doctoral program in the humanities or social sciences at an accredited university anywhere in the world. Applicants who are applying to PhD programs and are currently in Gaza are also eligible for this competition. Scholarship awards for the academic year 2027-2028 are from $5,000 up to a maximum of $25,000. Scholarships may be used for any expenses related to the pursuit of the degree. Interested applicants should submit a pre-proposal due on October 26, 2026. Approved applicants will be invited to submit a more detailed final application. The deadline for final applications is January 25, 2027.
APPLY | "Teaching Palestine in the Age of Precarity," MESA Annual Meeting Workshop, 11/21/26
"Teaching Palestine in the Age of Precarity"
Precarity Committee Workshop, MESA Annual Meeting
Saturday, November 21, 2026, 10:30 AM – 3:00 PM
The workshop will include 16 precarious scholars who engage with Palestine through their teaching, writing, and political expression such as campus organizing. It will be led by specialists in Palestine studies in two separate sessions. The morning session will focus on teaching Palestine and the Middle East and North Africa, focusing on practical tools for teaching “controversial” texts and topics in the classroom. The afternoon session will center on writing about Palestine for both scholarly audiences and popular non-specialist audiences, focusing on addressing both editorial censorship and the tendency towards self-censorship. In both sessions, participants will explore strategies to push back against the “Palestine exception” and the larger repression of political expression.
Participants will submit a draft syllabus or detailed course description and an abstract or pitch for a piece of writing in advance for discussion in the breakout groups.
The workshop will be closed to the 16 precarious scholars and presenters; it will not be recorded.
Applications are due September 24, 2026.
WELCOME | Samee Sulaiman is Ibrahim Abu-Lughod Fellow in Palestine Studies
Samee Sulaiman is an anthropologist whose research and teaching focus on disability, political violence, mobility, and social movements in Lebanon and Palestine. He received his PhD in Anthropology from Brown University in 2023 and was previously a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Palestine Studies at Yale University’s Council on Middle East Studies. His research draws on ethnographic work with Lebanese and Palestinian disability activists and organizations, examining disability politics, citizenship and non-citizenship, war, and crisis in Lebanon. His current work focuses on disability and mass disablement in Palestine, particularly in Gaza, and explores the relationship between disability justice, decolonization, reconstruction, and liberation. He is currently the Ibrahim Abu-Lughod Postdoctoral Fellow at Columbia University’s Center for Palestine Studies. Learn more about his work here.
EXPLORE | The Palestinian Folk Music Archive
The Palestinian Folk Music Archive is a digital platform established by Serena Rasoul designed to preserve, connect, and revitalize Palestinian folk songs before they disappear. Drawing from an existing collection of field recordings, the project will combine these materials with a crowdsourcing site where Palestinians everywhere can upload recordings of their parents and grandparents singing the heritage songs of their childhoods. Each contribution transforms private memory into a shared archive–an act of remembrance, resistance, and continuity.
Serena Rasoul is an ethnomusicologist, artist, and cultural advocate whose work explores the relationship between sound and continuity. She is a PhD student in Ethnomusicology at Columbia University, where her research engages Palestinian folklore and oral traditions as active, intergenerational knowledge systems conveying the connection between land, community, and social life. Serena’s work bridges scholarship and creative practice, using community-based projects that refuse erasure and amplify lived experience. She has held positions as Resident Fellow at Harvard Divinity School and Community Engagement Specialist at the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art.
APPLY | BASAR Art Residency
Open Call 2027
The Palestinian Museum and the Sukhtian Foundation launch BASAR, a fully funded, two- to three-month art residency for Palestinian artists, curators, arts educators, and cultural practitioners in the diaspora. Applications are now open for the inaugural edition, with residencies beginning between January and June 2027.
BASAR supports research-led artistic and cultural work that explores Palestinian cultural narratives, histories, memory, and everyday life and, through artistic production and public engagement, imagines Palestinian futurities. Residents are provided with time, resources, and access to the Museum’s archives, exhibitions, collections, and cultural networks in Palestine. The residency also opens avenues for exchange and collaboration with local artists and cultural practitioners, and for conversations about artistic practices and questions of cultural work in Palestine.
The first BASAR residencies will begin between January and June 2027, with the exact dates and duration of each residency agreed with the selected resident.
• Location: The Palestinian Museum, Birzeit
• Duration: 2–3 months
• Residencies begin: January–June 2027
• Application deadline: 30 November 2026
• Applicants notified: January–February 2027
• Application and working languages: Arabic or English
CONGRATS | Lila Abu-Lughod Named International Fellow of the British Academy
92 distinguished scholars have been elected to the British Academy’s Fellowship this year in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the humanities and social sciences. Among them is Center for Palestine Studies faculty member, Lila Abu-Lughod, Joseph L. Buttenwieser Professor of Social Science, Department of Anthropology.