Wassila Abboud is a researcher and writer based between Amsterdam, Beirut and Sydney. Her work is grounded in collaborative research around the politics of bodies and the impossibilities inherent in language and communication within past and present cultures. Actively involved in the cultural scene in Palestine and Lebanon over the past eight years, her interests lie at the intersection between all these locations. Lately, she has been exploring her work through multiple formats, including writing, sound and performance.
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Samer Abdelnour is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh Business. His research explores how enterprise and humanitarian technology interventions in postwar contexts influence new forms of organising for societal transitions. His recent work examines the link between innovation ecosystems and violence. Samer co-founded the think tank Al-Shabaka, The Palestinian Policy Network, and has been an advisor to numerous cultural and social enterprise projects. He is also an aspiring artist who was recently selected for the Jhalak Art Residency.
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Feras Abo Dabboseh (1986, Palestinian)is a cultural activist and founder of
Lagrange Points Brussels, an organisation dedicated to promoting Arab culture’s diversity, creativity, and innovation in Belgium and Europe. With a background in Political Sciences from Université libre de Bruxelles and Damascus University, Feras has occupied various roles in the sector of Arts and culture in Brussels, including as Head of Production at
Passa Portaand social-cultural programmer at
VOEM, among other festivals and programs. He is recognized for his creativity-driven leadership and is adept at steering projects that generate significant cultural and political impacts. His work emphasises social change, leveraging literature and the arts to foster understanding across cultures while supporting the Palestinian and Arab diaspora in Europe.
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Joud Abu Al Humus is a design student pursuing her Bachelor’s degree at Birzeit University in Palestine. She specialises in product design as her work focuses on creating sustainable products. Her graphic, product and fashion design projects were inspired by the harsh situation her country is going through, including occupation and oppression, and she aims to employ her expertise to uplift her community. Her rich experience in Design is displayed by her work as a design counsellor in New York and attending a 3-month design internship at Kunsthal Gent.
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Thomas De Schepper is a former architecture student at KU Leuven, a current art history student at the University of Ghent, and an intern at Kunsthal Gent.
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Annelys Devet is a Belgium-based designer, researcher, and educator with a practice for long-term, participative design projects that actively engage in social and political struggles. De Vet initiated the publishing initiative’ Subjective Editions,’ facilitating workshops that map regions from the inside out by the inhabitants themselves, offering situated and human perspectives that include the ‘Subjective Atlas of Palestine’ (2007). De Vet co-founded ‘Disarming Design from Palestine’ a thought-provoking design platform developing artisanal products from Palestine that convey alternative narratives about life under occupation. Informed by this platform, she established the temporary master’s program ‘Disarming Design’ (2020–2022), centring design practices in situations of oppression at the intersection of crafts, politics, and community. It was part of the Sandberg Instituut Amsterdam, where she was the course director of the MA in Design from 2009 to 2019. Currently, she is a PhD candidate at ARIA, a practice-led doctoral study at the Sint Lucas School of Arts and the University of Antwerp. She teaches in the master’s program at the Sint Lucas School of Arts. As a total, the body of work explores the role of design in public and political discourse, seeking to develop methods, structures, and tools that challenge dominant narratives, question preconceptions, and foster dialogues about how to live together.
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Flyers For Falastin is a poster-action in solidarity with Palestine, started by a group of four friends based in Belgium (Brussels & Ghent). We collected posters with powerful illustrations from artists all over the world. On the back of each poster is an informational text on how people can support Palestine in different ways. We work together with pick-up points nationally and internationally (France, Finland, Switzerland, Italy, Lebanon, UAE, U.S.,…) where people can get posters for free. They are also free to download (as well as colouring pages and stickers) and print at home. People can hang the posters in their windows, use them during protests, etc., to colour the streets as much as possible! Our bigger aim, in which we hope to help just a little, is an immediate ceasefire, an immediate end to the genocide, a prosecution of the Israeli war crimes and an end to the Israeli occupation and system of Apartheid: a free Palestine.
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Pascal Gielen is a writer and full professor of sociology of culture and politics at the Antwerp Research Institute for the Arts (ARIA), where he leads the Culture Commons Quest Office (CCQO). Gielen is editor of the international book series Antennae – Arts in Society (Valiz). In 2016, he became laureate of the Odysseus grant for excellent international research from the Fund for Scientific Research Flanders in Belgium. In 2022, he was appointed by the Flemish Government as curator of Culture Talks. Gielen has published many books on culture, politics, commons and civil action.
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Natalija Gucheva is a Macedonian artist, curator, and writer who is currently pursuing her master’s degree in Visual Arts at KASK & Conservatorium in Ghent. Her practice encapsulates a variety of mediums through which she researches possible implementation of feminist care practices through evoking a dialogue between material, writing, hosting and the audience. Within the world-building that finds a place in her practice, she speculates possible scenarios in which togetherness can build a long-term healing process in recognition of interdependence between communities and non-human companions.
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Ahmed Hawwash is a Palestinian clarinettist and musician who loves to harness the power of music to transport us to another time and place with a broad audience of fellow music lovers and passionate musicians alike. Since a young age, Ahmed Hawwash has found great joy and satisfaction in making music and sharing it with fans and people worldwide.
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Brigitte Herremans is a postdoctoral researcher at Human Rights Centre UGent. She studied Eastern Languages and Cultures (Arabic and Biblical Hebrew). From 2002 to 2018, Brigitte worked as a Middle East policy officer for the development organisation Broederlijk Delen and the peace movement Pax Christi Flanders. She advocated the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from a rights-based perspective at the Belgian and European levels. In 2016, she co-published a book on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Israël en Palestina. De kaarten op tafel.’ From 2017 to 2019, Brigitte also worked as a policy officer on the Middle East and North Africa at BOZAR, the Centre of Fine Arts in Brussels, where she coordinated the Mahmoud Darwish Chair. In February 2019, she published an essay on how stories feed human rights. She is involved in the research for Justice Visions and was promoted successfully to doctor in law in 2023.
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Ibrahim Muhthadi is a Palestinian architect and design expert from Gaza who only recently evacuated Gaza with his family and is currently based in Cairo. He combines design skills and architectural experience to create memorable visuals using calligraphy, jewellery, graphic design, and Palestinian embroidery. He joined the Disarming Design team in 2015 when he participated in the design programme and developed the ‘Love for Life’ silver earrings. Ibrahim has contributed to several initiatives to enhance the lives of marginalised people and refugees. He is currently the Business and Marketing Manager at Atfaluna Society for Deaf Children. He was the embroidery centre manager at UNRWA’s Sulafa and worked closely with women artisans to create traditional and contemporary embroidery. He is also the design adviser of
Palestinian History Tapestry.
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Chris Rotsaert, interdependent artist and coordinator Manoeuvre, is a visual platform for artists and diverse communities. They create collective visual work where art, craft and everyday life meet. Manoeuvre facilitates development paths for artists in different contexts. Manoeuvre inhabits a maker space, a studio in the Rabot district where collectives develop from the inside out.
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Sulaiman Saleh is a communicator and researcher focusing on international and intercultural communication. He was a lecturer at Jonkoping University (Sweden), teaching students in Media and Communication and Global studies. Born in Gaza, studied in Malaysia, working in Sweden, and is currently based in Belgium, he is an active member of Cinema Maximiliaan and works as a coordinator for the Disarming Design project.
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Celine Semaan is a Lebanese-Canadian designer, writer, speaker, and advocate working at the intersection of environmental and social justice. Céline is the founder of Slow Factory, a 501c3 public service organisation addressing the intersecting crises of climate justice and social inequity — filling the gap for climate adaptation and preparedness, building community power through open education, narrative change and regenerative design. As a part of this work, Slow Factory produces a conference series promoting sustainability literacy called Study Hall, the first science-driven incubator in fashion called One X One, and a range of other offerings. An advocate in a range of fields, Céline is on the Council of Progressive International, has been a Director’s Fellow of MIT Media Lab, and served on the Board of Directors of AIGA NY, a nonprofit membership organisation that helps cultivate the future of design in New York City. Céline writes for New York Mag: The Cut, Elle, Refinery29, and Huffington Post, among other publications. Céline lives in New York City.
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Khalil Shaheen is a Ghent-based Palestinian refugee, born in Rafah camp of a Palestinian refugee family who was expelled from their homeland in 1948 in historical Palestine. Shaheen spent his life as a human rights defender with the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza, defending hope for a better life for more than two million Palestinians who suffered from the Israeli occupation forces for decades and paid tens of thousands of their lives and their blood, skin, and properties as a price for freedom and enjoying their fundamental rights equally like every human being in the globe. That’s simply because Palestinians love life as much as they can.
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Danielle van Zuijlen is an artistic initiator, collaborator and advisor. In 2018, she co-initiated Kunsthal Gent, where she is currently part of the coordination team and artistic coordinator for development. Her main interests are in artistic development, artistic strategies for art in social and public contexts, collaborative working methods and horizontal institutional models. She co-developed collaboration projects between Flemish arts organisations (Kunsthal Gent in 2018 and SOLO, a residency as a collaboration between Flemish studio organisations, 2017-2018, a precursor of umbrella organisation UFO.) For studio organisation NUCLEO, she developed an artist support policy, resulting in the SUPPORT programme, which is self-directed by artists. She has served as an advisor for the Kunstendecreet in Flanders (2018-2021), the cultural projects committee of the City of The Hague in The Netherlands (2018-2021) and as an external (lead) expert for the EU Creative Europe programme (2014-2023). She is currently a board member of Murals Inc (Rotterdam, NL) and Kunstenpunt/ Flanders Arts Institute, the Flemish organisation for the support and development of the arts.
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