May 30, 2008

Announcement: Palestinian Women Literature Conference

Bethlehem University will this year host an exciting International Conference on Palestinian Women Literature. The Event, to be held June 6 and 7, is organized by the Arabic Department and will take place in Furno Hall. This is the third conference on Palestinian Literature. It follows last year's conference on Palestinian Literature in the Diaspora and an earlier conference on Palestinian Literature inside the Green Line, held in 2006. Both events were considered a great success and enrichment of the cultural life at Bethlehem University and in Palestine .

Like the last two conferences, this year's will be an occasion that includes Palestinian writers from the Palestinian Territories, from the other side of the Green Line and from the Diaspora to meet, exchange and strengthen cultural and academic ties. “It is extremely important that Palestinian writers and intellectuals from different regions and with different backgrounds come together, transcending the borders between them and thus resisting the dangerous tendency of separation,” commented Professor Qustandi Shomali, the head of the organizing committee. This year, the presentations and readings will focus on the literary work of female writers who have gained great importance in Palestinian literature in the second half of the twentieth century.

Thirty papers will be presented throughout the two-day conference, which will host international participants from the USA, Sweden, Australia, Iraq, Jordan, and Spain, as well as local contributors from several Palestinian Universities, such as An-Najah University in Nablus, Birzeit University, al-Quds University in Jerusalem and Hebron University. The conference will especially feature the life and work of the Palestinian novelist Sahar Khalifa and will also present exhibitions of photography, calligraphy and books.

The event was made possible through the generous support of the Qattan Foundation, the Palestinian Woman Research and Documentation Center (PWRDC) and Bethlehem University .

Please click here to see the invitation for the conference