Palestinian Childhoods: Solidarity & Ṣumūd
Intl Conference
International Hybrid Symposium:
Resisting the Silencing of Palestinian Children
2 – 3 September 2025
9:30-17:30 (London) | 11.30-19:30 (Jerusalem) | 4.30-12:30 (New York)
UCL East & Online
9:30-17:30 (London) | 11.30-19:30 (Jerusalem) | 4.30-12:30 (New York)
UCL East & Online
Join us for a two-day hybrid symposium bringing together scholars, practitioners and young people to confront the global silencing, complicity and epistemicide surrounding knowledge production about Palestinian children. Hosted at UCL East and online, the symposium seeks to move knowledge production about Palestinian children and childhood studies, in new indigenously informed anti-colonial directions.
Across a range of academic and practitioner-led panels, we will explore how Palestinian children, both in Palestine and in the diaspora, navigate grief, inherited memory, and trauma, while also asserting resistance, agency, and creativity in the face of systemic violence.
Key themes include:
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Intergenerational memory, storytelling and identity negotiation
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The history, politics and collective refusal of silencing
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The impact of ongoing genocide on familial relationships and everyday forms of family resistance
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Lived experiences of children in refugee camps and other contexts of displacement
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Art, social media and media workshops as tools for expression, healing, and political resistance
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The failures of humanitarianism and international child protection frameworks
Sessions will span research and lived experiences across Gaza, the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), 1948 Palestine, and the Palestinian diaspora.
Special sessions will feature book launches, including:
- Lived Resistance Against the War on Palestinian Children, edited by Heidi Morrison.
- Rethinking Human Rights: Critical Insights from Palestinian Youth, by Erica Jimenez.
- No Way Forward: Life Stories of Three Families in the Gaza Strip, by Bryan Barber.
The final programme will be released in early August.
Open to the public. Booking essential.
