Professor Mkhaimar Abusada. Photo courtesy of Lisa Kurian Philip/WBEZ
Mkhaimar Abusada is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Al-Azhar University in Gaza, and currently a visiting professor at Northwestern University. We spoke with him about his early life and education in Palestine as a child of refugees and his graduate studies in the United States, his experience teaching political science at Al-Azhar University from the late 1990s, and what has become of his university, his colleagues, and his students since the onset of the Gaza genocide in 2023.
This interview was conducted by Alireza Doostdar as well as two research assistants. Its three-part audio recording can be accessed here. What follows is a full transcription of Professor Abusada’s interview, which has been lightly edited for clarity.
Part 1: Early life, education in Jabalia refugee camp and Birzeit University, graduate study in the United States
Alireza Doostdar (AD): Thank you so much, Professor Abusada, for joining us. This is a conversation with Dr. Mkhaimar Abu Saada, who is an associate professor of political science at Al-Azhar University of Gaza. The conversation is taking place on May 4, 2025. First of all, thank you so much for agreeing to speak with us. I would love it if you could begin by just telling us a little bit about your early education and your life. Did you grow up in Gaza? Did you go to school in Gaza? If you could talk a little bit about that.
Mkhaimar Abusada (MA): Well, first of all, Dr. Ali, many thanks for hosting me, and many thanks for inviting me to be part of this conversation. Very happy to see you and to see your team here, the research assistants.
Speaking of myself, let me define myself as the following. I’m a descendant of a Palestinian refugee family. Both of my parents, my father and my mother, were originally from Mandate Palestine, or historic Palestine. And they were expelled – or fled, let’s put it this way – from Mandate Palestine, when the Palestinian Nakba happened in 1948. Both of my parents, they come from two different villages. My father comes from a village called Simsim, which is “sesame seeds,” and my mother comes from a village called Beit Daras. I don’t know what it means, but she comes from a faraway village. They both met in Gaza. And I was born in the Jabalia refugee camp as a son of a refugee family that was located in the Jabalia refugee camp, which is the biggest refugee camp in the Gaza Strip – which is now turned into complete rubble, as a result of the current Israeli war against Gaza.
