Stories of Hope and Resilience from Al-Aqsa University in Gaza, published in Brief Encounters

BRISMES is pleased to share the following press release announcing the publication of the Brief Encounters Special Issue: Pedagogical Resilience, Challenges and Adaptive Strategies. 

Brief Encounters, the open-access peer-reviewed journal funded by CHASE, is overjoyed to announce the publication of the first contributions to a Special Issue composed of work by students and faculty of the English Department at Al-Aqsa University in Gaza.  

Dr Ahmed Kamal Junina, Head of the English Department at Al-Aqsa University, has joined the editorial board as guest senior editor, working with CHASE doctoral researchers George Clutterbuck, Chris Bates, Millie Riddell and Emily Gresham Beamer to form the editorial team. 

The Special Issue was made possible thanks to Friends of Palestinian Universities’ Education, Occupation & Liberation programme, as it was at their webinar titled ‘Survival Through Education: Stories of Resilience from Palestinian Universities’ (which took place on 28 January 2025) that Dr Junina and George Clutterbuck were first introduced.  

Background 

The Special Issue amplifies the voices of students and academics in Gaza, highlighting the significance of their knowledge to discussions on Pedagogical Resilience, Challenges and Adaptive Strategies, and deepens global understanding of the war on Gaza since October 2023. 

Since the call for papers in April 2025, submissions have responded to and defied the lived realities of indiscriminate bombardment, enforced displacement, and the systematic denial of vital resources in creative and critical forms of writing and image-making. To quote contributor Sondos Abdalfattah Sobih, this work emerges despite the fact that ‘[i]n Gaza, silence can be safer’. 

Offering a counter-vocabulary to the violence of occupation at a time when even speech itself carries risks, the contributors’ work attends to profound and immeasurable loss whilst upholding shared tenacity and hope. As Shams Mazen Rajab writes, the ‘inherent unity’ found in Palestine ‘is not a passive response’, but a ‘dynamic and evolving’ source of survival and connection. 

The first contributions to the Special Issue are now available via the Brief Encounters website. We invite you to engage with this work in a commitment to Palestinian scholars’ determination to continue teaching and learning. In the words of Maryam Sharif Abed, ‘We ask you to hear us, share our words, and help us keep our dreams alive’.

Latest Activities 

In March 2025, Dr Junina established RECONNECT, an initiative dedicated to supporting displaced learners and promoting academic collaboration across borders. RECONNECT has supported the creation of the special issue and provided the CHASE community with a unique opportunity to engage in peer-to-peer exchange with students and faculty in Gaza. Recordings of past sessions are available to watch on YouTube. 

On 11 October 2025, Dr Junina and three representatives of RECONNECT – Menna Saber Abo Salem, Ruba Khalid Al-Faleet and Sojood Bakroon – joined Bradley Tuck, founder of the Exploding Appendix research collective, for a discussion about living and working under siege. Watch or listen to their conversation on the Exploding Appendix website.  

At the CHASE Encounters Autumn Conference 2025, Dr Junina, his colleague Dr Yehya El-Khoudary, Al-Aqsa University graduate Wedad Badra, and CHASE alumna Joy Stacey took part in a panel titled ‘Representing Palestine: Resistance, Advocacy and the Work of Remembrance’. A recording of the discussion can be viewed on Vimeo. 

Wedad reflected on her decision to organise a graduation ceremony for 150 of her peers in Al-Aqsa University’s English department – the first such ceremony to take place in Gaza since October 2023. In this video, you can see highlights from their celebrations.