We Haven’t Started Yet: Workshop as Reassembly

Our reflection commences with a workshop we had planned for the annual meeting of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS) in April 2025 centered around one question: What should teaching “Palestinian film and media” include? The original idea was to convene those with expertise/experience in the area and nonexperts who see teaching Palestine as a historical necessity in order to reflect collectively on their curriculum and pedagogies amid the ongoing genocide in Gaza. We were galvanized by an intensifying information war that complemented and buttressed the massive loss of Palestinian lives, forced displacement, and the use of famine as a weapon of war. We were also alarmed by the intimidation of scholars teaching Palestine in institutions across the world, with Palestinian academics in particular under constant scrutiny.