We are honored to host renowned scholar and historian, Dr. Salman Abu Sitta, Founder and President of the Palestine Land Studies Center (PLSC) at the American University of Beirut, in conversation with Ghada Dimashk, PLSC librarian and archivist, for the first installment of Archives & Heritage for Palestine, a series hosted by Dr. Jamila Ghaddar and Tam Rayan, in defense of Palestinian life, land, liberation, and return. Drawing on records, documents and maps from the PLSC collection, our guests will illustrate and explore the role of archives and heritage pertaining to Palestinian history and identity to counter epistemic violence, colonial erasure and the cultural dimensions of genocide.
The Archives & Heritage for Palestine series is a joint initiative of the Middle East Librarians Association (Archives & Heritage for Palestine Advocacy Sub-Group), the American University of Beirut’s Palestine Land Studies Center, Publishers for Palestine, and the Archives & Digital Media Lab; and sponsored by the Lebanese Library Association, CUNY’s Archival Technologies Lab, Library Freedom, and We Here. The series responds to the urgent need to act in solidarity with Palestinian colleagues and institutions in Palestine and the Shetat (Diaspora) to safeguard the heritage, history, and memory of the Palestinian people under settler colonialism and genocide. Through education and advocacy, the series works to surface, connect, amplify, and promote the efforts already underway by Palestinians and supporters in Palestine and around the world in the archives and heritage sectors.
About the Speakers & Hosts:
Dr. Salman Abu Sitta is a Palestinian academic best known for his crucial work formulating a practical return plan for Palestinian refugees and documenting Palestine’s land and people through his extensive mapping of Palestine. He is the Founder and President of the Palestine Land Society (PLS), and his archival collection and working files form the backbone of the Palestine Land Studies Center (PLSC) at AUB. He is also the author of over 400 articles and papers on Palestine, as well as several books. Notable among them is a series of atlases documenting Palestine at different periods. These include: Atlas of Palestine 1948, Atlas of Palestine 1917- 1966, Arabic and English editions; Atlas of Palestine 1871- 1877, and the Return Journey Atlas. There are also a series of poster maps about al Nakba. More details are available on the PLSC website: www.plands.org. His book, Mapping my Return, is the first personal memoir in English describing the experience of Al Nakba in southern Palestine. Dr. Abu Sitta is a member of several organizations dealing with Palestinian rights, human rights and international law. Dr. Abu Sitta spoke at many international forums in Europe, USA, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, in addition to the Middle East. Of notable interest is his virtual trial of Lord Balfour in his seat for many decades, the University of Edinburgh.
Ghada Dimashk is the librarian, archivist and interim coordinator at the Palestine Land Studies Center at the American University of Beirut, where she is responsible for the Dr. Salman Abu Sitta Archive, and the Centre’s policies and descriptive standards. Recently, she launched a project with a group of international experts to archive social media and web content from and about Palestine, with a focus on Gaza. From 2009 to 2023, Dimashk was the Librarian at the Lebanese National Library. She holds a master’s degree in Library & Information Science from the Lebanese University, where she completed a thesis project mapping the Lebanese LAM sector, and developing a sample online portal to increase accessibility and preservation efforts.
Dr. Jamila Ghaddar is a Lebanese writer, archivist, historian and educator. She is Assistant Professor at Dalhousie University’s Department of Information Science in Kjipuktuk, Mi’kma’ki (homeland of the Mi’kmaq) also known as Halifax, Canada. She is founding director of the Archives & Digital Media Lab and a Research Affiliate at AUB’s Palestine Land Studies Center. She recently completed a SSHRC-funded Postdoctoral Fellowship working with Raymond Frogner (National Centre for Truth & Reconciliation) and Dr. Greg Bak (History Dept.) at the University of Manitoba. Ghaddar has worked in archives and libraries around the world, including at the American University of Beirut’s Jafet Library where she archived the personal papers of Dr. Constantine Zurayk who coined the term ‘Nakba’; and at the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s Centre of Memory in Johannesburg where she helped preserve the papers of the anti-apartheid figure, Nelson Mandela. Her publications appear in Disputed archival heritage (2023, Routledge), In the Field, Archival Science, Library Quarterly, and Archivaria, among others. Ghaddar holds a PhD and Master of Information from the University of Toronto.
Tam Rayan is pursuing their PhD in Information at the University of Michigan, specializing in Archives and Digital Curation, and is advised by Ricky Punzalan and Patricia Garcia. They received their MI in Information Studies (2020) and MA in Ethnomusicology (2016) from the University of Toronto. Their research is focused on how to build transformative archival representations of those in diaspora. Specifically, they are interested in how to better serve and represent the recordkeeping needs of ethnic groups impacted by forced migration, political conflict, and/or exile. Their work has been previously published in Across the Disciplines and they have a forthcoming publication in Archival Science. They are currently a core member of the ACA BIPOC Special Interest Section, a former steering committee member of the SAA Archivists and Archives of Color section, and a former ARL/SAA Mosaic Fellow.
Archives & Heritage for Palestine: a Series Hosted by Dr. Jamila Ghaddar and Tam Rayan
Tuesday, June 4, 2024
Livestream on Facebook and Youtube live from Beirut!
Details