Profile
Atwa Jaber

Atwa Jaber

Research Associate
email
Spoken languages
Arabic, English, French, German

PROFILE

Atwa Jaber is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Basel and a Research Associate in the Center for Digital Humanities and Multilateralism at the Geneva Graduate Institute. He was also affiliated with the Department of International History and Politics, where he obtained his PhD in 2025. His research interests are centered around the histories and geographies of forced displacement, with a focus on oral histories, overlooked visual records, and humanitarian and multilateral archives.

His doctoral dissertation, now a book project, reexamined the War of 1967 and its aftermath through the lived experiences of Palestinians in/through the occupied Jordan Valley. By centering oral testimonies and underexamined archival images, his analysis moves beyond dominant geopolitical narratives to reconstruct the social histories of displacement, return, and fragmentation across the Jordan River.

In his postdoctoral work, as part of the Futures Interrupted project led by Prof. Dr. Falestin Naïli, Atwa’s research explores social, economic, and political initiatives undertaken by Palestinian refugees throughout the Arab world in the three decades following the Nakba. Focusing on oral histories and critical archival research, his work examines how refugees experienced and navigated everyday life between moments of renewed displacement, systemic violence, and perpetual exile.

RELEVANT PUBLICATIONS AND WORKS

 

  • Jaber, Atwa. “The Israeli Annexation of The Jordan Valley: Exploring a History of Settler-Colonial Expansion”. In De/Colonising/Palestine, edited by Riccardo Bocco and Ibrahim Saïd. Genève: Graduate Institute Publications, 2025. https://doi.org/10.4000/13zn9

  • Jaber, Atwa. “No Bridge Will Take You Home: The Jordan Valley Exodus Remembered Through The UNRWA Archives.” Jerusalem Quarterly, no. 94 (Summer 2023): 10–32. https://doi.org/10.70190/jq.I94.p10.

AFILIATIONS

 

  • Fellow of the Institute for Palestine Studies (Beirut, Lebanon), the Palestinian American Research Center (Ramallah, Palestine), and the European Center for Palestine Studies (Exeter, UK).
  • Member of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA), British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES), Arab Council for the Social Sciences (ACSS), Societé Suisse Moyen Orient et Civilisation Islamique (SSMOCI), and Conférence universitaire de Suisse occidentale (CUSO).

ACADEMIC WORK EXPERIENCE


Research and Teaching Experience

Current:

  • Postdoctoral Researcher, Near and Middle Eastern Studies Program, University of Basel (2025-)

Previous (IHEID):

  • Doctoral Researcher & SNSF Doc.CH Fellow at the Department of International History and Politics (2021-2025)
  • Teaching Assistant at the MINT Program (2024-2025)
  • Research Assistant at the Global Health Center (2021-2023)
  • Research Assistant at the Small Arms Survey (2019)

FELLOWSHIPS, GRANTS AND AWARDS

  • Palestinian American Research Center (PARC) Palestine Fellowship (2023-2024)
  • SNSF Doc.CH Fellowship, Geneva Graduate Institute (2021-2024)
  • SNSF Doc.Mobility Grant, University of Exeter (2024)

LINKS