Since the so-called “Migration Crisis” of 2015, a dominant discourse in heritage studies has focused on the preservation of the at-risk and destroyed built heritage of the Middle East. Proposing an alternative to this popular place- and material-based approach, this research explores socially engaged art as a method to highlight new, people-based forms of migratory heritage in Europe. Specifically, this paper explores the personal and intangible heritage accumulated by migrants and refugees within the context of three cultural projects: bi’bak, an artists-run space in Berlin that facilitates programming about migration in Germany with a focus on Turkish communities; Making Waves, a boat-making workshop for newcomers, predominantly of Syrian origin, also based in Berlin; and Pages, an Arabic-language bookshop, café, and de facto cultural center that facilitates refugee-led forms of integration, formerly located in Istanbul and most recently in the Netherlands. These three case studies provide distinct examples of artistic/cultural praxis, forms of (non/)participation and collaboration, and illustrate how and by whom Middle Eastern diasporic culture is represented and engaged with in Europe. The fieldwork for this research was conducted in 2017 and included observation and participation as well as semi-structured interviews with project initiators and participants. Central to the interpretation and framing of each case study were the interviews with participants as the conversations supported how “people on the move” understand their own personal heritage and how heritage evolves during the process of migration. With a view towards proposing creative practice, collaboration, and cultural exchange as forms of heritage preservation, this paper aims to contribute to future discussions on integration, diversity, cultural identity, heritage as a human right, discrete perceptions of personal heritage versus national/ethnic categories of heritage, and new approaches to community engagement within heritage studies. Particularly regarding work that engages with minority, refugee, and diasporic groups and is labeled “participatory,” “community-based,” or “socially engaged,” scholars need to be critical in their research methods—going beyond the declared intent of the artist and the public presentation of the projects to understand how and when the participants’ voices are engaged with and how and by whom they are being (re)presented. In the sociopolitically-charged landscape of Europe since 2015, it is urgent that we recognize the role of power, agency, and ethics within migration-based art practices as well as within our own art historical research on these newly formed, migratory communities.

April 2020 marks the 45th anniversary of the Lebanese civil war, one of the longest and most devastating wars of the twentieth century. A war that gravely scarred the Lebanese physically and emotionally, given its brutality and absurdity. Amidst the terrible war, women emerged as heroines, forced to assume new roles within the family, the community, and the public sphere. They were persistently mending and re-stitching the fragile social fabric left tattered and torn by massacres, rapes, snipers, car-bombs, shelling, and displacement. While the men were gone – off fighting, detained, displaced, disappeared, or dead – women became the heads of households, the carrers, the nurses, the supply distributors, the negotiators, and the peace initiators, to mention a few. This paper will highlight the untold stories of these women and explore the role they played as peace activists, in protesting the atrocities of the war by participating in non-violent peace movements, humanitarian work, reconciliation efforts, and documenting the chaos by writing about and exposing it. It will also shed light on the absence of women from the negotiation tables where despite all their efforts and even though women represented a majority of peace movement activists, and their participation in unions and political parties increased during the war, they were marginalized from participating in post-war peace negotiations and reconstruction efforts. Patriarchal structures are often recalled whenever «order» is restored and in the Lebanese case the invisibility of women and their relegation to the private sphere is indicative of that. This paper, in acknowledging women’s role in post-conflict settings and reconciliation is paying homage to these champions of peace who fought endlessly to stop the bloodshed and whose undocumented efforts helped save Lebanon. Learning from past mistakes is essential for activists to strategize and not fall into the trap of invisibility while participating in the current Lebanese uprising.

Voluntarily or not, a majority of the teenagers and young adults in Lebanon during the Lebanese civil war (1975-1990), aka the Lebanese War Generation, participated in armed struggle, directly or indirectly via party support. Very few people remained unaffiliated. Now in their fifties, these teenagers have shaped the Lebanese political landscape and have never had a chance to come to terms with their own involvement in the war. Historical justice theorists and activists have made the case for facing one’s past and contributions to violence in order to “move on.” In Lebanon, ordinary people have not given that opportunity and for good reason: politicians in power after the war were previous warlords, who had granted a general amnesty for crimes during the war so as not to be made accountable. These politicians continue to benefit from the absence of historical justice and the victims are a majority of the Lebanese people who continue to face a corrupt ruling class. Yet, if people on the ground do not face their own complicity, how can they render continued beneficiaries of historical injustices accountable? This paper presents several historical transitional justice models, including the South African and Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commissions, the Forgiveness project, first embodied in Lebanon by Assaad Chaftari, and other digital dialogues projects from Croatia and the USA. Following a description of these models, the paper analyses the metaphors behinds these models and proposes a different one based on artificial conversations generated by an automatic editing machine built by the author. In contrast to the other models, the latter opens up opportunities for challenging the status quo of ignoring the past since its independence.

Scholarship that attempts to address the relationship between media and war tends to focus primarily on the links between communication and conflict, rather than on communication and peace (Hoffmann and Hawkins, 2015). This paper addresses this gap by exploring the role of media in the Syrian conflict and focusing on successful non-mass media outlets that promote counter-sectarian narratives and more inclusive discourse and which act as non-violent conflict resolution interventions in war-affected communities. Methodologically, I use multiple qualitative methods: 51 semi-structured in-depth online and offline interviews; online and offline ethnography; and document analysis. I apply the interdisciplinary work of Bourdieu’s, Ortner’s, and Gibson-Graham’s to conceptualize “Syrian online spaces of possibilities.” Syrian violent conflict and displacement crisis shattered the social and cultural fabric of Syrian communities inside and outside the country. However, as Kraidy (2016) and Lynch, Deen, and Aday (2014) show the use of media for spreading political violence and terror is not received passively rather it is met with creative resistance. I focus on five case studies of successful media outlets (Enab Baladi, Radio Rozana, ARTA FM, Radio Souriat, and Diaspora Kitchen) which offer transformative possibilities to overcome the dominant culture of violence and sectarianism. Within the structure of media in the Syrian war, the five successful outlets represent online spaces of possibilities because in order to prevail, they had to overcome constraints like surveillance, imprisonment, displacement, and lack of funding. New communication technologies, offered the leaders of these outlets possibilities to network and secure funding so they can expand and sustain their outlets and activities of cultural resistance against multiple systems and structures of violence such as: authoritarianism, extremism, and sectarianism. I argue that the “Syrian online spaces of possibilities” can act as non-violent conflict resolution interventions by alleviating the tension and any potential violence in the targeted communities. For example, after the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) started to gain control of large parts of the Jazira Region (in the northern parts of Syria, along the Turkish borders), there was tension between Kurds and Arabs, so ARTA FM collaborated with Enab Baladi to produce media materials to lessen the tension by encouraging healing and dialogue and focusing on the long coexistence and common history between Kurds and Arabs in Syria like mixed marriages, and joint trade and farming. The two media outlets also recruited respected voices from the Arab and Kurds communities to alleviate any possible violence.

While historically the Palestinian women’s movement was primarily focused on combating the effects of Israeli settler-colonialism, the delicate subject of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and gender equality was largely pushed to the margins. After the first and second intifadas, social media wasn’t available for mass mobilization, yet women started to address SGBV, albeit with limited reach. In the last decade, social movements have relied upon social media to spread their messages widely. Considering that recent Palestinian women’s movements have focused on creating an equal and safe society for Palestinian women, this study examines how the current Tal`at movement strategically uses Facebook and Twitter to bring women’s issues such as SGBV and female political prisoners back into public view. The Tal`at movement’s discursive strategies are examined using the framework of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and the theory of publics and counterpublics. Women of Tal`at are mobilizing to make the private public by creating a counterpublic narrative about SGBV that works to transform how the Palestinian public views violence against women. The sensitivities and taboo nature of SGBV in Palestinian society make it controversial. Social media has been particularly useful for Arab women to combat taboo issues because it allows for anonymous freedom of expression to a wide audience. To understand the dynamic stances of the Tal`at movement and the scrutiny they face, the posts, tweets, and demonstration posters must be understood from historical, cultural, and political perspectives. Through CDA, this study examines four dimensions of the movement. First, it examines the language used in posts, tweets, and posters to understand how women legitimize publicly addressing issues normally reserved for the private sphere. Second, it explores how personal stories are used to draw attention to taboo topics in ways that are both viable and challenging to societal norms. Third, it sheds light on how women’s campaigns promote democratic values and equity in Palestinian society and provide a model for civil society mobilization that relies on the sharing of personal stories online to advocate for gender equality. Lastly, it highlights the criticisms and challenges faced by women who participate in demonstrations and speak out publicly against SGBV. This study offers insights into how Palestinian women are challenging the overarching colonial and patriarchal power structures they face.