palestinian arabic online

It has been a while in the making, but it is finally here: an edited collection on the experiences of collaborating online, and across borders.. The book is entitled Multilingual Online Academic Collaboration as Resistance. Crossing Impassable Borders and is published by Multilingual Matters. Authors from a range of academic backgrounds discuss, over nine chapters, an overview of online collaborations between universities in Europe, the USA and Palestine. The chapters recount the challenges and rewards of online collaborations which promote academic connections and conversations with the Gaza Strip , and which forge relationships between individuals, institutions and cultures.

It took the book editors and contributors a lot of effort and a long time to perfect a manuscript that weaves together different academic traditions, styles and disciplines, one that was entirely planned, discussed and put together through online collaboration, precisely in the same way (and with the same challenges and rewards) the projects described in each chapter. The book also came together through times of worry and grief. Almost 200 people were killed and tens of thousands injured during the Great March of Return in 2019, as we were writing the book, and several our Palestinian colleagues experienced repeatedly frustrated (and frustrating) attempts to travel out of the Strip for work or personal reasons. However, the time during which the book was taking shape also knew moments of joy and celebration, such as when two of our Palestinian colleagues finally managed to leave the Gaza Strip and were able to visit us in Glasgow.

The book starts with a prologue, which reproduces a WhatsApp conversation as an example of the frustrations we experienced, and with an introduction by the book editors. Part 1 collects chapters on ‘English as an Additional Language and Online Technologies’; part 2 consists of chapters on the topic of ‘Finding Motivation for Language Learning in a Situation of Forced Immobility’; part 3 discusses ‘Palestine and the Arabic Language’; while part 4  collects chapters that focus on ‘Making Connections’. An afterword by Alison Phipps recounts the delight of being together in person, after many failed attempts.

As we were putting the finishing touches to our book, the Covid-19 pandemic – and consequent lockdown – meant that the online work we had learnt to rely on, in order to keep collaborating despite the blockade of the Gaza Strip, had become the only way of working for many people around the world. Our long experience of shouting “Can you hear me?” at a computer screen was, suddenly, the experience of most academics who had, until then, taken for granted the possibility of meeting colleagues and students face to face, of travelling to conferences, of taking up international fellowships, of shaking hands, and of sharing books, offices but also food and drinks with colleagues around the world. The experiences of working online which the book was discussing was suddenly an experience shared by many, many more people. Our colleagues at the Islamic University of Gaza, like academics everywhere, were stuck at home working remotely. But they were mostly unfazed. While the threat of a pandemic was especially alarming for a country with a health system much weakened by a blockade that has now lasted more than 12 years, the sense of alarm and panic and the need to suddenly – and radically – change one’s life and taken-for-granted practices was nothing new to them, and so they were sending us messages of solidarity and affection, and strength…

For anyone interesting to purchase the book, a promotional 50% discount is available until the end of August. Below you can download the flyer with all the necessary information on how to buy the book at a discounted price.