[Wendy Pearlman introducing Dr. Nour Joudah]
University Hall filled with around 30 people Friday afternoon for Middle Eastern North African studies Palestine in Context series. UCLA professor Dr. Nour Joudah shared personal anecdotes about her family’s experiences in Gaza, then opened the floor for the audience to ask questions.
Interim director of MENA studies, Wendy Pearlman explained how the Palestine 101 series felt especially necessary to bring to campus when the war in Gaza started.
WENDY PEARLMAN: After October 7, with Hamas’s attack on Israel In Israel, Israel, subsequent war on the Gaza Strip, there’s been a surge of interest in Israel and Palestine and wanting to learn more. So we hope that we would have a series of events bringing in experts to talk about Palestine in a way that can fill in some of those gaps and empower students with the knowledge and the tools they need to go out and follow the news on their own.
Amid the ongoing war in Gaza, the series navigates the history, politics and culture of Palestine. Less knowledgeable students are the target audience.
PEARLMAN: The only way to understand these types of events is to get more background and we are a university. What we specialize in, is learning is asking difficult questions is Is having discussions together. That learning is never bad. We hope that, that bringing in programming and giving students this chance to learn will only empower them with the tools they need to to engage in informed, sensitive, respectful conversations with each other.
Third year Ph.D candidate Issrar Chamekh attended the event. She said that as a graduate student currently teaching a class, she does not talk directly about Palestine in her classroom. However, she encourages her students to attend MENA’s programming to learn more.
ISSRAR CHAMEKH: I really, really appreciate MENA for organizing these events, because not only does it bridge those gaps in undergraduate’s training, but also because of the censorship on campus and restrictions.
Pearlman said MENA chose Dr. Joudah partially due to her background and expertise on the subject of Palestine as a Palestinian American herself.
PEARLMAN: We looked around and Northwestern has a real lack of Arab faculty in general, and Palestinian faculty in particular. It was important for us also to bring in professors of Palestinian or Palestinian American background so our students can hear from someone who has that life experience and that personal background, as well as a scholarly expertise on these topics.
Chamekh said she enjoyed the conversation especially because –
CHAMEKH: – there hasn’t been much space for personal narratives. And I appreciate the fact that it’s not just a white person relating personal narratives of indigenous Palestinians. It is a Palestinian person.
Dr. Joudah, What would be the one thing you would hope students took from your talk at Northwestern?
NOUR JOUDAH: Palestine and Palestinians deserve our attention, even in moments where they are not being killed. And that the story of Palestine is one characterized by much more than loss, it’s characterized by creativity and innovation, and survival and steadfastness and that is as much a part of our story as the death and destruction that we witness on our new screens. And that we have to understand that for there to be destruction, you have to have something to destroy, which means you have to have built something.
[music]
Looking ahead, MENA’s Palestine in Context series will continue to spotlight Palestinian history, politics and culture throughout the winter.
PEARLMAN: We don’t think that the Palestine in Context series is the only thing that should be done at Northwestern. It’s what we’ve been able to do as a part of our regular MENA mission. But we hope that there is more and this is the start of much larger conversations on campus.
From WNUR News, I’m Erica Schmitt.
