Al Rowat (storytellers in Arabic) is a research institution that documents Palestinian social history by collecting oral testimonies of cultural value, and focuses on recording women experiences as part of its vision and belief in the importance of focusing on the stories of marginalized groups whose testimonies were excluded when history was written. The institution currently operates in Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and Chile through four projects: 1948 Displacement Project, Pioneer Women Biographies Project, Gaza Suffering - Aggression of 2014 Project and Fiddet Zaman (Palestinian Silver Heritage) Project. A group of female researchers from different geographical locations work on the Center’s projects. They have experience in the field of oral history as well as multicultural experiences.
VIsion:
Al Rowat for Studies and Research aspires to create a community that invests in the potential capabilities of its citizens, both men and women, and rewrites their social history by focusing on the stories of marginalized groups whose testimonies were excluded when history was written, such as women.
Message:
Al Rowat for Studies and Research adopts a mission of culture-based knowledge that depends on documenting people stories who witnessed relevant historic events.
Goals:
The Centre seeks to accomplish a major goal: writing social history from the perspective of people through documentation of oral narrations.
Activities:
To achieve its goals, the Centre seeks to implement one major activity:
Documenting Women’s Narrations, through a feminist perspective of oral history.
Other activities:
Researches and studies:
- Researches in social history
- Documenting human memory
- Documenting the place’s memory
Training:
- Organizing specialized training courses in oral history.
Conferences:
- Organizing conferences on memory and stories’ retrieval.
Archive:
- Establishing an archive for pioneer Palestinian women: documents, photos and jewelry.
Meetings:
- Organizing meetings and storytelling events to be documented in the Centre’s printed material.
Exhibitions:
- Organizing exhibitions for audiovisual materials, photographs and historic possessions.
Films:
- Producing documentaries using documented audiovisual materials and photographs.