August 2023 - Steve Salaita

Palestine Never Goes Away

Those who want to forget Palestine, can’t. Those who say they forgot Palestine, haven’t.

I’ve never thought of my devotion to Palestine’s liberation as contingent on any kind of productivity. It’s there whether or not I write about the occupation, whether or not I attend a conference, whether or not I argue with trolls on the internet, whether or not I read Electronic Intifada, whether or not I donate to Red Crescent, whether or not I do archival history, whether or not I buy revolutionary paraphernalia. It doesn’t matter if I visit Palestine, avoid Palestine, ignore Palestine, or visualize Palestine.

Yet Another Think-Piece on ChatGPT

New technology can be terrifying, but it needn’t scare us into immobility.

From 1999 to 2017, I taught college. Then I ran into some trouble. From 2017-2022, I was deprived of teaching. Technology changes rapidly in five years, which means pedagogy does, as well. The classroom to which I returned last fall, albeit in the Arab World rather than the United States, felt profoundly familiar. It also changed in ways I can’t quite comprehend.

The Catch

A reflection on the unreliability of impulse and common sense.

My family recently made the short drive up to New Jersey to visit relatives. I don’t normally associate Jersey with aquatic leisure, but the air was hot and the state, contrary to its unfortunate image in pop culture, is filled with natural beauty, so off we went to the shore for some swimming and sun.