Palestine in Focus - Archiving vs Erasure
Our seventh Palestine in Focus discusses archiving and archives, and more specifically, institutional practices and responsibility regarding Palestinian heritage.
Over more than a year, we have had to witness how Israel has increasingly targeted both Palestinian archives and archivists in the ongoing invasion and genocide of Palestine and its people. The destruction of Palestinian heritage is a form of “epistemicide,” used by the Israeli state, to wipe out Palestinian histories, culture, sovereignty, and identities since the Nakba of 1948. In their talks, dr. Jamila Ghaddar and Leila Musson both touch on different consequences of this destruction.
Dr. Jamila Ghaddar will discuss how people are trying to address erasures and losses in Palestine and Lebanon. More specifically, she will talk about the Fighting Erasure initiative, its key activities and goals, the archiving in place framework the project, and what it looks like to try to actively archive against genocide in practice. While sharing lessons learned and ways people can get involved, Ghaddar discusses the many challenges of doing this work while being silenced and in the face of the general abandonment of the international community of our Palestinian colleagues.
Leila Musson will discuss the systematic destruction and looting of Palestinian archives and libraries, and how systematic destruction serves colonial mythmaking & symbolic annihilation. She will include examples from the IISH catalogue that contribute to the latter, and discuses how archival responsibility should be working to counter epistemic violence, colonial erasure and the cultural dimensions of genocide.
Practical
Date 13 January
Time 16:00
Place IISG, Cruquiusweg 31, Amsterdam
Entrance Free entrance, but please register at event@iisg.nl
Dr. Jamila Ghaddar is a Lebanese feminist, archivist, historian and educator. Starting in January 2025, she will be an Assistant Professor at Amsterdam University's Media Studies Department. Dr. Ghaddar is Founding Director of the Archives & Digital Media Lab (ADML); a Research Affiliate at the Palestine Land Studies Center at the American University of Beirut; Chair of the Middle East Librarians Association’s Archives & Records Management Training & Advocacy Group; a member of the Association of Canadian Archivists’ Indigenous Matters Committee; co-convenor of Documentary Nakba: A Reading Group for Archival Liberation in & beyond Palestine; and co-host of the Archives & Heritage for Palestine series.
Leila Musson works at the International Institute of Social History (IISH) in Amsterdam. In her work she is interested in critical archival theory and in applying methodologies and concepts that address social justice principles. She has an MA in Gender Studies.
