Temaomtale HIM105

Våren 2026 tilbys følgende tema på HIM105:

Palestinians: A History of Colonialism, Resistance, and Everyday Lives

This course explores the history of Palestinians, from the late nineteenth century until the present. While generally adhering to a chronological narrative, we will attempt to challenge conventional periodization as we engage with a broad range of historical questions, political issues, and scholarly debates. We will study the overarching context of Zionist settler colonialism, as well as large and small acts of resistance to it, but also mundane moments of everyday life.We will bring out Palestinians and their diverse histories from the shadow of war and de-center conflict as the only way to understand Palestinian histories, experiences, places and spaces, communities and movements, and pasts, presents, and futures.

Topics covered in this course include: the history of Ottoman Palestine; settler colonialism and the origins of Zionism; the rise of Palestinian nationalism; the British Mandate; the War of 1948 and the historiographical war over 1948; the history of Middle Eastern Jewish communities, Palestinian communism, feminism, and islamism, revolution and liberation, anti-imperialism and global and transnational solidarity, the 1967 war and the origins and structure of the occupation regime, the failures of reconciliation and peacemaking; the rise of Hamas, October 7, and the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Through a diverse array of readings and primary sources, we are going to become acquainted with Palestinians, from revolutionaries, rebels, and refugees, to workers, merchants, and poets, and the hopes, dreams, disappointments, catastrophes, sorrows, and joys that have shaped and defined Palestinian life.