Welcome to The Experimental Humanities Collaborative Network

To Be—Named Podcast, led by Saida Hamad

Faculty-led

For decades, the Palestinian people have resisted various forms of settler-colonial practices designed to erase their presence, identity, and even memory. One of the most pervasive of these colonial tactics is cultural engineering, where the topography of the indigenous landscape is not only altered through the destruction of cities and towns but also through the defacement, falsification, and renaming of places. This deliberate act of renaming serves to erase the history and identity of the indigenous population. In Palestine, the act of "naming" has become a form of resistance and decolonization. Parents are naming their children after destroyed Palestinian villages and towns that were erased, replaced with settlements built on their ruins, and given Hebrew names. To explore the philosophy of naming in the Palestinian context, Palestinian parents and their children share the stories behind their names, sharing the impact these names have on their lives and cultural identity. Karmel, Yafa, Majdal, Bisan, Jinin, Falasteen are not just aesthetic or symbolic names; they represent a living legacy, an everlasting memory, and a preservation of identity and rights until the day of return arrives.