The Institute of Palestine Studies is pleased to announce the convening of a workshop: “Towards Engaged and Responsible Research: The Case of the Palestinian Refugee Camps of Lebanon” on May 5-6, 2016, at The Institute for Palestine Studies in Beirut. (Click here to see the map.)
Workshop Description
The Israel-Palestine conflict is one of the most protracted conflicts of our time and has produced one of the largest refugee crises in contemporary history. In the continued absence of a political solution Palestinian refugees remain in exile for over six decades. Reflecting the importance of this longstanding and fundamental crisis, the academic study of Palestinian refugees generated, and continues to generate, a large body of knowledge across a variety of disciplinary fields. In contrast little research has been devoted to investigate its impact on the researched community. This workshop, convening scholars and community workers, will focus on the study of the Palestinian refugee camps of Lebanon which have been, and continue to be, one of the most coveted sites of fieldwork for researchers year after year and decade after decade. It asks: How has research, spanning several decades, affected the Palestinian community? What responsibilities do researchers carry towards the researched community in under-privileged conditions? Are there strategic intersections between activism and research in Palestinian camps? What new forms of research are emerging in Palestinian camps? Are these practices challenging traditional roles of researchers in marginalized contexts?
ACSS Director-General, Seteney Shami, and ACSS member Mudar Kassis from Birzeit University will be speaking at a consultation panel titled "Research Ethics and Vulnerable Populations: Responsibilities of Individual Researchers, Research Institutions and Universities."
The panel is part of the joint project launched by the ACSS and Birzeit University - Research Ethics Committee to convene experts and scholars around research ethics in the Arab region with a focus on the social sciences. Supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), this pilot project aims at promoting a regional reflection on appropriate research ethics guidelines, practices and structures.
During the panel, speakers from the ACSS and Birzeit University will present the tools and guidelines they have developed at the level of the research institution (ACSS) and at the level of the university (Birzeit University). Attendees will be asked how to develop these tools further in order to ensure their relevancy and efficacy in the varying contexts in the Arab region. The discussion will be framed as thinking about what ‘vulnerable populations’ mean in these differing contexts.
ACSS grantee Ismael Sheikh Hassan will also be taking part in the workshop. He will be speaking on a panel on the challenges of engaging the community, focusing on how to negotiate academic research, political activism, and professional practice in Palestinian camps.
The workshop is open to the public and simultaneous translation (Arabic-English) will be provided. Please email perla@palestine-studies.org if you would like to attend.