Multilingual Online Academic Collaborations as Resistance: Crossing Impassable Borders

by Giovanna Fassetta (Editor), Nazmi Al-Masri (Editor), Alison Phipps (Editor)

Overview

This book details online academic collaborations between universities in Europe, the USA and Palestine. The chapters recount the challenges and successes of online collaborations which promote academic connections and conversations with the Gaza Strip, despite a continuing blockade imposed on Gaza since 2007, and forge relationships between individuals, institutions and cultures. The chapters examine, from different perspectives, what happens when languages and the internet facilitate encounters, and the fundamental importance this has as a form of defiance and of resistance to the physical confinement experienced by Palestinian academics, students and the general population of Gaza. They highlight the limitations of multilingual and intercultural encounters when they are deprived of the sensory proximity of face-to-face situations and what is lost in the translation of languages, practices and experiences from the ‘real’ to the ‘virtual’ world.

This book is open access under a CC BY NC ND licence.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781788929615
Publisher:	Multilingual Matters Ltd.
Publication date:	08/07/2020
Series:	Researching Multilingually , #4
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	200
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Giovanna Fassetta is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Education at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK. Her research interests include multilingualism, intercultural communication, language education, migration studies, and indigenous knowledges and methodologies in research.

Nazmi Al-Masri is an Associate Professor of Education at the Islamic University of Gaza, Palestine. His research interests include language teacher education, intercultural communication, curriculum development, and evaluation and technology in education.

Alison Phipps is UNESCO Chair in Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts, and Professor of Languages and Intercultural Studies at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK. She writes and publishes widely in both academic publications and the media, and is a respected activist and campaigner for humane treatment for those seeking refuge.

Giovanna Fassetta is a Senior Lecturer in Social Inclusion in the School of Education, University of Glasgow. Giovanna’s research focuses on inclusion in education of children and young people from refugee backgrounds and on refugee education more in general, with a focus on the role of languages and cultures in the process of integration. She has led several projects working with partners in the Gaza Strip and other Low and Middle Income countries, including the Welcoming Languages projects. Giovanna teaches on several Master’s degree programmes with a focus on inclusion in relation to cultural and linguistic diversity, gender identity and sexuality, socioeconomic backgrounds. She currently co-convenes the Glasgow Refugee Asylum and Migration Network (GRAMNet).

Nazmi Al-Masri is an Associate Professor of English Language Teaching at the Islamic University of Gaza. He is an Honorary Fellow in the School of Education at the University of Glasgow, UK until 2029. He has served as a Principal Investigator and Co-Investigator for various international research projects, including Disabled Voices from Gaza, Disability under Siege, Culture for Sustainable & Inclusive Peace (CUSP), Researching Multilingually at the Borders of Language: The Body, Law & the State, Welcoming Languages, and eTraining FinPal.

Alison Phipps holds the UNESCO Chair in Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts at the University of Glasgow, where she is also professor of languages and intercultural studies and co-convener of Glasgow Refugee, Asylum and Migration Network (GRAMNET).

Table of Contents

Prologue: Collaborating Under Siege: A Whatsapp Tale   

Introduction: Alison Phipps, Giovanna Fassetta And Nazmi Al Masri: Can You ‘Here’ Me? Editors’ Reflections on Online Collaborations Between the Gaza Strip and the Global North

Part 1. English as an Additional Language and Online Technologies        

Chapter 1. Bill Guariento: Engineers Operating Multilingually: Reflections on Four Years of Glasgow-Gaza Pre-Sessional English Telecollaboration

Chapter 2. Sanaa Abou-Dagga: Islamic University of Gaza (IUG) Internationalization Endeavours at the Level of Postgraduate Programmes

Chapter 3. Gary Motteram, Nazmi Al-Masri, Heba Hamouda, and Shaiffadzillah Omarali: Exploring Mobile Support for English Language Teachers in a Context of Conflict: Syrian Refugee Teachers in Jordan

Part 2. Finding Motivation for Language Learning in a Situation of Forced Immobility    

Chapter 4. Abedrabu Abu Alyan: Motivational Strategies and Online Technologies: Are Palestinian EFL University Students in the Gaza Strip Empowered to be Bilingual?

Chapter 5. Anna Rolinska, Bill Guariento, Ghadeer Abo Uda and Ongkarn Nakprada: ‘Really Talking’ to Gaza: From Active to Transformative Learning in Distributed Environments and Under Highly Pressured Conditions

Part 3. Palestine and the Arabic Language           

Chapter 6. Giovanna Fassetta, Nazmi Al-Masri, Mariam Attia And Alison Phipps: Gaza Teaches Arabic Online: Opportunities, Challenges and Ways Forward

Chapter 7. Maria Grazia Imperiale: (In)Articulability of Pain and Trauma: Idioms of Distress in the Gaza Strip

Part 4. Making Connections       

Chapter 8. Ahmed S. Muhaisen: The Experience of The Islamic University of Gaza in Cross-Border Academic Collaboration: T-MEDA Project as a Case Study

Chapter 9. Chantelle Warner and David Gramling: From the Kitchen to Gaza: Networked Places and the Collaborative Imagination

Afterword: Alison Phipps: “I Am Here”: Savouring the ‘Selfie Moments’

List of Contributors (in Alphabetical Order) 

Editorial Reviews

The book opens a discussion on what it means to collaborate through the internet when one of the two partners is living in a situation of forced closure. The collected stories of collaboration are not only stories of resistance and resilience, but narratives of innovation and openness. They represent an immense source of inspiration for the whole Mediterranean community and beyond, and examples of equitable and sustainable international academic collaboration.

UNIMED - Mediterranean Universityies Union Marcello Scalisi

This book documents and enacts a creative improvisation that challenges, resists and connects. Produced by powerful academic online collaborators, it opens a window into the cultural resilience that stubbornly co-created curious academic bridges in spite of the impassable borders. This book offers a rare and valuable opportunity to learn from and about resilient education and scholarly innovation in areas torn by war, like the Gaza Strip. It challenges us to rethink our remits of possibility.

Khawla Badwan

The book opens a discussion on what it means to collaborate through the internet when one of the two partners is living in a situation of forced closure. The collected stories of collaboration are not only stories of resistance and resilience, but narratives of innovation and openness. They represent an immense source of inspiration for the whole Mediterranean community and beyond, and examples of equitable and sustainable international academic collaboration.

UNIMED - Mediterranean Universities Union Marcello Scalisi

The book opens a discussion on what it means to collaborate through the internet when one of the two partners is living in a situation of forced closure. The collected stories of collaboration are not only stories of resistance and resilience, but narratives of innovation and openness. They represent an immense source of inspiration for the whole Mediterranean community and beyond, and examples of equitable and sustainable international academic collaboration.

Marcello Scalisi