Hello! Thanks for visiting ArabishWay! We would love to keep you posted on the latest happenings. Click on one of our current newsletters below to subscribe. We promise not to email from any one list more than once a month!
Virtual Lecture: Ethical Stewardship of Palestinian Dress
January 9, 2026 @ 9:00 am - 11:00 pm PST
Ethical Stewardship of Palestinian Dress: Collecting, Cataloguing, and a Case Study
Date: Friday, January 9, 2026
Time: 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM EST
Location: Online, Zoom link will be emailed at 10am EST on event day
Instructor: Wafa Ghnaim, Dress Historian, Researcher & Educator
Registration Fee: Sliding scale
Description: This lecture presents the research and findings of Wafa Ghnaim’s forthcoming article “Archiving the Thobe,” to be published in the Journal of Textile Design Research and Practice (JTDRP). It outlines a reparative framework for the identification, cataloguing, and stewardship of Palestinian dress in American museum collections. Drawing on oral history, regional provenance, and nearly a decade of sustained research with institutions alongside the development of the Tatreez Institute collection, the lecture examines how museum practices and fashion media produced misattribution, decontextualization, and exoticization. It traces how garments were extracted, anonymized, and reframed through biblical and Orientalist lenses, and how these interpretations continue in contemporary digital spaces, priming American and European audiences to adopt dehumanizing views of Palestinians today. The lecture introduces rematriation as a reparative paradigm grounded in Indigenous feminist ethics and matrilineal stewardship. The session invites scholars and cultural workers to cultivate accountable, community-centered practices that safeguard Palestinian cultural heritage in their museum and cultural work.
