The symposium develops out of initial findings from a small unfunded pilot project, 'Speaking on Palestine,' that I have been conducting with Ala Sirriyeh which has been exploring Palestinian, Arab and/or Muslim students’ experiences of talking about Palestine in UK universities using narrative interviews. Findings reveal that there is an important gap in trauma-informed care to support individuals affected by conflict. Equally, concerns remain in terms of how to speak and teach on Palestine – what can be said, what spaces are available and how conversations can be productively protected, supported and enabled. The next stage is to test initial findings using a wider audience and to broaden the project to include staff perspectives through a larger funded project that this symposium would support developing.
Through themed roundtable discussions, the event aims to bring together researchers and relevant external agencies to document issues/concerns, share best practice and identify future lines of inquiry to feed into a larger funded research project.