(11/01/17 8:04am)
On Tuesday, Oct. 17, Abdel Razzaq Takriti of the University of Houston presented a talk on the “Digital Humanities of the Underground,” covering Takriti’s work on a website documenting the “Palestinian Revolution.” The website, co-curated by Takriti, is designed to be an “online learning resource that explores Palestinian revolutionary thought from the Nakba of 1948, to the siege of Beirut in 1982.” While Takriti’s credentials as a scholar and his commitment to intellectual discourse are valiant, the content of his presentation and the online resource which it was designed to introduce are deeply disconcerting. On an intellectual and practical level, Takriti’s presentation and the website present a narrative that is suspect at best and plainly sinister at worst. The world has learned — and relearned on many an occasion — the very real costs of teaching history that glorifies violent struggle and humanizes its participants, while ignoring the humanity of “the other.” Yet Takriti seems determined to press on, regardless of the practical consequences of his actions.