Insurgent Camera Witnessing. Resistance by recording in Palestine, Syria and Ukraine.

The purpose of my sabbatical is to complete for publication a monograph titled Insurgent Camera Witnessing. Resistance by recording in Palestine, Syria and Ukraine. Here, I employ a media practice-based approach to explore the often overlooked yet increasingly constitutive role of digital cameras and image production in contemporary grassroots struggles for justice. The book draws on interview studies and ethnographic field work conducted over the past ten years with video activists in Palestine/Israel, Syria and Ukraine, to develop a more nuanced understanding of what the embrace of digital cameras means to people themselves as political actors, and of how cameras and video production become the focal point of performative practices through which people forge new concerns, commitments and identities in oppressive contexts.

By analyzing the cases of Palestine, Syria and Ukraine together, the book will a) provide a timeline of how the use of digital cameras and online platforms have evolved over the past decade in response to conflict and state repression, b) highlight common patterns, contextual variations and broader trends in how the embrace of digital cameras shape grassroots justice efforts in different geopolitical contexts and, c) reveal how global power structures shape which struggles gain international recognition, legal action, and political legitimacy.

I plan to visit the world-leading Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics in 2027.