This talk brings together insights from two interrelated works—Palestinian Refugee Women from Syria: Decolonizing the Geopolitics of Displacement and the forthcoming Living Palestine: A Family History from Balfour to Nakba, to explore how Palestinian women experience and narrate political life under conditions of settler colonialism and forced displacement.

Drawing on fieldwork with Palestinian refugee women displaced from Syria to Jordan, the talk examines how structures of anti-Palestinianism, which is embedded in refugee governance, humanitarian aid, and state policies, produce layered forms of violence. These women’s voices reveal how the Nakba continues to shape their everyday lives, not as a past event but as a watershed and persistent political reality.

Through a storytelling methodology, Living Palestine offers an intimate and grounded account of how Palestinian women remember and transmit the political realities of settler colonialism, from the British Mandate period through the forced displacement of 1948/9, and into life in exile across camps in Jordan. These stories are not shared as passive memories of the past, but as active and embodied knowledge systems that challenge dominant narratives and reframe the ways in which we understand Palestinian history and political subjectivity.

By bringing these two works into conversation, the talk foregrounds the power of Palestinian women’s voices in articulating the continuities of settler colonial violence and the possibilities of resistance. It calls for a deeper engagement with intersectionality as a lived method, and for a decolonised reading of both past and present that centres those whose lives have been systematically excluded from formal archives and official histories.

Ticket holders will receive an email with the venue details on the day of the event. Please note that a ticket does not guarantee enrty depending on capacity.

Meet our chair and speaker: 

Dr Afaf Jabiri is a Palestinian refugee, feminist scholar, and activist whose work bridges academic research with political and grassroots engagement. She is a Senior Lecturer in Global Development at the University of East London, where she co-directs the Centre for Social Justice and Change. Dr. Jabiri brings an interdisciplinary approach that draws on sociology, history, international law, and decolonial feminist theory. Her research focuses on intersectionality, settler colonialism, and women’s political agency, particularly in Palestinian refugee contexts. Her recent book, Palestinian Refugee Women from Syria to Jordan: Decolonising the Geopolitics of Displacement, offers a critical feminist analysis of forced displacement under settler colonial conditions. Her forthcoming book, Living Palestine, uses storytelling as a decolonial method to trace the lives, memories, and political legacies of Palestinian refugee women.

Dr Hakan-Sandal-Wilson is Assistant Professor of Gender, Peace and Security at the Department of Gender Studies. He is a political sociologist whose teaching and research explore how gender and sexuality intersect with democracy, conflict, and ethnic and religious difference. His work focuses on the Middle East and North Africa and is grounded in a commitment to social justice, inclusive democracy, and critical engagement with power. He is also interested in developing research methods and methodologies in dialogue with creative writing and literature.