The right to return through the Palestine refugee camp

The Palestinian ‘right of return’ to their homes is a legally recognized right since December of 1948. More importantly, it is a physical right that all Palestinians have been working towards achieving while enduring what is now a 77 year occupation of their homeland and a forced displacement to other lands. This talk will focus on the intersection of the legal and physical aspect of the Palestinian ‘right of return’ through a historical understanding of the Palestine refugee camp, alongside its contemporary conditions in creating and maintaining a spatial resistance to forced displacement. From the onset, the Palestine camp has been one of resistance before it was one of refuge, which is why they have been places of destruction even outside Palestine. While many divisions make any discussion about this topic tense and divisive, it remains the role of universities worldwide as sites of knowledge to examine the realities on the ground. The emphasis in this talk will be upon describing the actual lived experience of those inhabiting these parts of the built environment, rather than dealing with abstract theories or slogans. Inquiries into the role of architecture and humanitarian agencies in both building up and concealing narratives of violence will be addressed.

Accessibility

An access guide to Darwin Building, Lecture Theatre B40 can be found on AccessAble.

About the speaker

Dr Samar Maqusi is a Research Associate at University College London’s Person-Environment-Activity Research Laboratory (PEARL). Her work looks into the politics of space-making inside the Palestine refugee camps. More recently, she has been investigating modes of sociality and vitality in refugee camps inside a burdened Lebanon. Previously, Samar worked with UNRWA (UN Agency for Palestine refugees) as an Architect/Physical Planner, focusing on programmes of shelter rehabilitation and camp improvement.

About this event series

Political turning points, 2024-2025: Causes, consequences, solutions

2024 and 2025 are crucial years for global politics, with a number of highly anticipated elections (in India, the United Kingdom, the United States and elsewhere). These elections are coming at a time ofcoinciding with major armed conflicts (especially in Ukraine and Gaza), as well as rising levels of income inequality (globally and nationally), deflated living standards that still have not recovered to pre-Covid levels, crumbling healthcare systems, and fierce culture wars that are tearing up the fabric of our societies.

The sense of uncertainty and volatility is overwhelming and there is no way to predict what world we will live in two years from now. How can we understand thisthe causes and consequences of this overwhelming uncertainty and volatility? and what are the different components that define its causes and consequences? What is being done to mitigate for its effects and address the different challenges that emerge in it?

This series of Director’s Seminars and Soundbites will approach the question of uncertainty by exploring the complex range of practices and processes that define it today as a condition that is closely interlinked with economic, cultural, and environmental challenges.

Director's Seminars are an opportunity for audiences to get an in-depth theoretical perspective on sustainable and inclusive prosperity. These Seminars are given by academics who are pushing for new ways of thinking and new ways of researching society's grand challenges.

For more events in this series visit the series page ►

Above image: The 12-meter square prefabricated UNRWA shelter room given to each refugee family across Palestine camps within a grided layout, here in Baqa’a camp in Jordan. Credit: UNRWA Archive/Photo by G. Nehmeh, 1969