The Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at AUB organized a two day international conference, on June 12 and 13 2019, to launch the Palestinian Oral History Archive (POHA). This event was organized in collaboration with the project partners: The AUB Libraries, the Nakba Archive, and the Arab Resource Center for Popular Arts (AL-JANA).

POHA is an archival collection that contains more than 1,000 hours of testimonies with first generation Palestinians and other Palestinian communities in Lebanon. The project’s aim is to digitize, index, catalog, preserve, and provide access to the material through the creation of a state-of-the-art digital platform. It aims to expand and include additional oral history collections documenting varied aspects of the Palestinian experience in Lebanon and the region.

More than twenty scholars from different countries are participating in this event to present their research covering different aspects of the oral history. The conference is also an opportunity to honor several pioneers of oral history scholarship: Dr. Rosemary Sayigh, Dr. Bayan al-Hout, and Dr. Faiha Abdulhadi.

• Summary of the conference Written by Issam Fares Institute’s interns Solomon Abrahamson and Maya El Dib
• Brochure
• Program
• Keynote Speech by Dr. Bayan al-Hout
• Conference sessions video recordings:

Day 1:
• Opening Session
• Session 1
• Session 2
• Session 3
• Session 4

Day 2:
• Session 5
• Session 6
• Session 7
• Session 8
• Closing Remarks