Join us for the launch of a critical new book, Lived Resistance against the War on Palestinian Children, edited by Heidi Morrison and published by University of Georgia Press (August 1, 2024). We are launching our book tour with talks & panels hosted in Turku, Tampere & Helsinki from October 8-11 and hope you can attend one of them.
The book tour will include speaking events hosted in Turku, Tampere, and Helsinki. The book’s editor Prof. Heidi Morrison will offer her motivations for the book and an overview of key themes, while contributing author Prof. Nitin Sawhney will discuss his psychosocial research and documentary film, Flying Paper, produced with children in Gaza.
Other invited panelists will offer critical perspectives on vulnerability and resilience among children in war, as well as the historical and political situation in Palestine, and its impacts on the lives of young people in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem).
I wrote a chapter, “Invisible Lives, Visible Determination: Creative Agency as Resilience among Palestinian Children under Siege in Gaza”, that interleaves my participatory youth media work, documentary film, and psychosocial research with children in Gaza over the years. 🍉
Together we will discuss how the scholarship and research in this book remains relevant today, despite the horrific effects of the ongoing genocide, settler violence and state oppression experienced by Palestinian children and their families. How are these children resisting or coping with the effects of endless wars and Occupation in their lives, and what does the future hold for coming generations?
Full recording of event hosted at University of Helsinki on October 11, 2024.
October 8: Hosted by Kirsi Peltonen, Associate Professor and Clinical Psychologist, University of Turku
Venue: Calonia 1, Caloniankuja 3, Turku University Campus (16:00-18:00)
Panelists: Heidi Morrison, Nitin Sawhney and Kirsi Peltonen
Event page: https://invest.utu.fi/events/lived-resistance-against-the-war-on-palestinian-children-book-talk-and-panel-discussions/
October 9: Hosted by Professor Pirjo Markkola, Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University
Venue: City Campus Kalevantie 4, Main building, Café Toivo (17:00 – 18:30)
Panelists: Heidi Morrison, Nitin Sawhney, Kirsi Pauliina Kallio and Antti Malinen
Event page: https://research.tuni.fi/hex/event/book-launch-lived-resistance-against-the-war-on-palestinian-children/
October 10: Hosted by Andrea Botero Cabrera, School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Aalto University
Venue: Ekonominaukio 1 Hall (V001), Business School, Aalto University (17:00-18:30)
Panelists: Heidi Morrison, Nitin Sawhney, Joanna Saad-Sulonen and Andrea Botero Cabrera
Event page: https://www.aalto.fi/en/events/lived-resistance-against-the-war-on-palestinian-children-book-talk-and-panel-discussions-october-8
October 11: Hosted by Syksy Räsänen, University of Helsinki
Venue: Think Corner stage (Tiedekulma, Yliopistonkatu 4) with livestreaming (16:00-18:00)
Panelists: Heidi Morrison, Nitin Sawhney, Randa J Al-Dawoudi and Syksy Räsänen
Event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1076575663884755
About the Book:
Despite the increasing volume of scholarship that shows children as political actors, prior to this book, a cohesive framework was lacking that would more fully examine and express children’s relationship with political power. Rather than simply hitching children’s resistance to standard theories of resistance, Heidi Morrison seeks to meet children on their own terms.
Through the case study of Palestinian children, contributors theorize children’s resistance as an embodied experience called lived resistance. A critical aspect of the study of lived resistance is not just documenting what children do but specifically how scholars approach the topic of children’s resistance. With Lived Resistance against the War on Palestinian Children, the author’s account for the vessel (i.e., the body in flesh and mind) through which such resistance generates and operates.
The diverse group of chapter authors examine Palestinian children’s art and media, imprisonment, parenting experiences, bereavement, neoliberalism, refugee camps, and protest movements as aspects of their collective and individual political power. Through these outlets, the book shows consistencies and contends that these children’s relationship to political power operates from an inclusive model of citizenship and is social justice oriented, symbolically oriented, and contingently based.
Publisher’s website: https://ugapress.org/book/9780820366814/lived-resistance-against-the-war-on-palestinian-children/
Thanks to Aurora Navarro Villacampa for designing these awesome posters for our book tour events. Photo credit: Amber Fares, kite festival, Seifa beach, Gaza 2010.
Nitin Sawhney 