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Brief Encounters Journal

@chasebejournal.bsky.social

Open-access, peer-reviewed journal for interdisciplinary research and creative contributions. Contact us: chasedtpjournal@gmail.com

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Brief Encounters Journal @chasebejournal.bsky.social · 2mo ago

From ‘Gaza in an Endless War’ by Shahd Ismail Miqdad In an essay first drafted in July 2025, Shahd examines the circumstances that make the war on Gaza unique. Read now in the special issue: briefencounters-journal.co.uk/article/id/2... #EducationMatters #Gaza #صمود #AlAqsa_University #فلسطين

A quote which reads: 'What is the use of freedom if you are not free in your principles and faith within a liberated land? What
is the value of resources if they are plundered? And what is the value of blood and souls if they are not sacrificed for a homeland and sanctities that embody both creed and dignity?'

A photograph of the author, alongside their biography, which reads: 'Shahd Ismail Miqdad is a 23-year-old graduate living in Gaza’s central governorate, majoring in English Language. Shahd has a deep passion for reading and enjoys learning languages, including French and Hebrew. During the war, writing became her refuge, with personal loss being the main reason for writing stories and poetry. For Shahd, writing is a reflection of the self, a freedom of the spirit, and a voice that never fades.'

Brief Encounters Journal @chasebejournal.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Supported by @britishcouncil.bsky.social, Resilient Voices is a youth-led digital storytelling initiative, empowering young Palestinians to share their stories. Visit their website to stay connected with this remarkable project as it continues to unfold: resilientvoices.site #Palestine #Resilience

Brief Encounters Journal @chasebejournal.bsky.social · 7mo ago

From ‘Learning Under Siege’ by Sondos Abdalfattah Sobih Sondos reflects the unyielding spirit that drives Palestinians to continue despite the impossible. Read now in the Special Issue: briefencounters-journal.co.uk/article/id/2... #Gaza #Resilience #صمود #AlAqsa_University #فلسطين #Hope

A quote which reads: 'Students in Gaza do not only suffer from war. We study in blackout conditions, attend online classes over unstable connections, and live in constant fear. Hunger and exhaustion remain constant companions, yet we persist. We do not seek sympathy. We seek recognition.'

The author's biography which reads: Sondos Abdalfattah Sobih holds a Bachelor's degree in English Language and Teaching Methodologies from Al-Aqsa University. She began her journey with a professional translation course, where she first dreamed of becoming a legal translator. Sondos continues to develop her skills through an English language diploma and a professional project management course, undertaken alongside her university studies.

Brief Encounters Journal @chasebejournal.bsky.social · 8mo ago

From ‘Where Fear Hides, Hope Shines’ by Dana Hamdan Combining reportage & reflection, Dana sheds light on the impact of the occupation upon children in Gaza. Read now in the Special Issue: briefencounters-journal.co.uk/article/id/2... #Gaza #Resilience #صمود #AlAqsa_University #فلسطين #Childhood

A quote which reads: 'Desperately walking through the streets, surrounded by every kind of misery, I see an old man carrying the remains of his life behind him. I see a child pushing, with his tiny hands, a life toward an unknown fate. I ask myself: why? How? So many questions burn in my mind, but only hope answers them.'

A photograph of the author and their biography, which reads: Dana Hamdan is a senior in English Language and Literature at Al-Aqsa University. She is interested in humanitarian work and public service, and presently works with Human Appeal UK in Gaza. Recently, Dana became more involved in writing, and seeks to highlight what her people are going through during these hard times, because she believes in the power of words to make change.

Brief Encounters Journal @chasebejournal.bsky.social · 8mo ago

From ‘Reflections on Displacement, in Three Parts’ by Menna Saber Abo Salem In three dispatches, Menna recounts her experiences of ongoing displacement. Read now in the Special Issue: briefencounters-journal.co.uk/article/id/2... #Gaza #Resilience #صمود #AlAqsa_University #فلسطين #Displacement

A quote which reads: 'I loved to gaze at the moon, escaping each night to a balcony, staring at it for hours. I’d imagine the distance between myself and the moon – wondering if it was the same as the distance between me and my home.'

A photo of the author and their biography, which reads: Menna Saber Abo Salem is a fourth-year student of English Language and Teaching Methods at Al-Aqsa University. She is 20 years old. In her own words, “This genocide produced writers… I am telling the world, and writing the stories of my people and my story.” One of her recent works is titled I Roam the Streets and Collect Street Sayings, in which Menna narrates street sayings in colloquial Arabic, alongside their English translations.

Brief Encounters Journal @chasebejournal.bsky.social · 8mo ago

From ‘Life as a Student in Gaza Under Siege’ by Maryam Sharif Abed Maryam's piece is written in dedication to her brother, Abdulrahman, and her close friend, Dima. Read now in the Special Issue: briefencounters-journal.co.uk/article/id/2... #Gaza #Resilience #صمود #AlAqsa_University #فلسطين

A quote which reads: 'We, the students of Gaza, face countless difficulties, yet giving up has never been an option. We search for opportunities to learn and make our voices heard. We strive to prove ourselves and, most importantly, to continue our education despite every obstacle.'

A photo of the author and their biography, which reads: Maryam Sharif Abed is a third-year English Literature student at Al-Aqsa University. She is 20 years old, and is originally from Rafah. Maryam has a deep passion for writing and reading, especially novels by Dostoevsky and poetry by Mahmoud Darwish and Al-Mutanabbi. In her own words, “...writing is not just a hobby – it’s my voice, my way of expressing, and my dream”.

Brief Encounters Journal @chasebejournal.bsky.social · 8mo ago

From ‘Burning Footsteps’ by Alaa Ashraf El-Qarra A powerful account of an attack on the Bani Suheila neighbourhood of Khan Younis on 22 July 2024. Read now in the Special Issue: briefencounters-journal.co.uk/article/id/2... #Gaza #Resilience #صمود #AlAqsa_University #فلسطين #Displacement

A quote which reads: 'We are a people who still dare to plant seeds in scorched earth, still sing lullabies beneath shattered ceilings, and still believe, despite everything, that tomorrow holds light.'

A photo of the author and their biography, which reads: 'Alaa Ashraf El-Qarra is a 25-year-old educator and English language specialist from Gaza. She holds a Bachelor's degree in English Language and Teaching Methodologies from Al-Aqsa University. Over the past three years, she has worked at a private learning centre. She has also served as a volunteer teacher in partnership with UNICEF, providing psychosocial and educational support to displaced children in government schools and tent classrooms.'

Brief Encounters Journal @chasebejournal.bsky.social · 8mo ago

From ‘A Saturday with No Sunday: The Struggle for Existence’ by Shams Mazen Rajab In reflective prose, Shams describes the realities of living under siege. Read now in the Special Issue: briefencounters-journal.co.uk/article/id/2... #Gaza #Resilience #صمود #AlAqsa_University #فلسطين #Hope

A quote which reads: '‘The laughter of children playing in the alleyways, despite the shadows of conflict, is perhaps one of the most poignant manifestations of this collective spirit. Their innocent joy, nurtured and protected by the community, is a powerful symbol of resilience and a defiant affirmation of life in the face of adversity’.

A photograph of the author and their biography which reads: 'Shams Mazen Rajab is in her final semester of a degree in English Language and Teaching Methods at Al-Aqsa University. She has a great passion for
creative writing and translation.

In July 2025, Shams volunteered with a French educational platform aimed at high school students in Gaza. She has also volunteered as a Conversation Leader in English Language Teaching and taught Arabic to foreign students.'

Brief Encounters Journal @chasebejournal.bsky.social · 9mo ago

From ‘A White Stain in Endless Dark’ by Maha Muhammad Al-Farra In a poem written from within the reality of war, Maha calls for justice & sends a message of resilience. Read now in the Special Issue: doi.org/10.24134/BE.... #EducationMatters #Gaza #Resilience #صمود #AlAqsa_University #فلسطين

A quote which reads: 'Let this life be renewed – / not for power, / not for pride – / but for the children, / the elders, / and all who ask for a quiet simple joy.'

A photograph of the author, accompanied by their biography which reads: 'Maha Muhammad Al-Farra is a 22-year-old student from Gaza City, currently in her fourth year of studying English Language and Literature at Al-Aqsa University. Poetry is her greatest passion. Maha writes in both Arabic and English and finds strength and healing through creative expression. She believes that art and literature can carry the truth in ways nothing else can.'

Brief Encounters Journal @chasebejournal.bsky.social · 9mo ago

The first pieces for our issue on Pedagogical Resilience, Challenges and Adaptive Strategies, created by students & faculty of the English Department at Al-Aqsa University, are now live! www.briefencounters-journal.co.uk/BE/issue/12/... #EducationMatters #Gaza #Resilience #صمود #Palestine #فلسطين

Brief Encounters Journal @chasebejournal.bsky.social · 9mo ago

“It is high time; I need to dance to the rhythm of the Dhol”. From “‘Off Leisurely Confrontations’ – a Dhol Reconnaissance by Sehr Jalil and Roberto Prestia. Watch the full piece now in Issue 9! briefencounters-journal.co.uk/article/id/2... #Kathak #ImperialWarMuseum #WWII #India #Dance

A quote which reads: “It is high time; I need to dance to the rhythm of the Dhol”.

Brief Encounters Journal @chasebejournal.bsky.social · 9mo ago

From “Reading Borges in Edinburgh” by Eiji Yasuhara Read the full piece now in Issue 9! briefencounters-journal.co.uk/article/id/2... #WorldLiterature #LatinAmerican #Japanese #Borges #Edinburgh

A quote which reads: “Nobody saw the beauty of the streets / Until when, frightening in clamour, / The verdant sky collapsed / In the fall of water and shadow”.

Brief Encounters Journal @chasebejournal.bsky.social · 9mo ago

“‘Don’t you find human imagination fabulous?’ he asked her, gently jumping off the book in her hand”. From “Lilliput” by Zizhu Wang Read the full piece now in Issue 9! briefencounters-journal.co.uk/article/id/2... #Fiction #War #InternationalRelations #Realism

A quote which reads: “‘Don’t you find human imagination fabulous?’ he asked her, gently jumping off the book in her hand”.

Brief Encounters Journal @chasebejournal.bsky.social · 9mo ago

From “Integrating Young Refugees and Asylum Seekers Through Theatre: A Case Study of Compass Collective” by Ellen Frances Wagstaff Read the full piece now in Issue 9! briefencounters-journal.co.uk/article/id/2... #YouthTheatre #Refugee #Drama #Wellbeing #Solidarity

A quote which reads: “Solidarity is not just about the spaces we create; it is equally about the support we provide and the communities we build”.

CHASE DTP @chase-dtp.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Thank you for being part of #CHASEEncounters2025! Stay tuned for post-conference resources and reflections soon. linktr.ee/AutumnEncoun...

Brief Encounters Journal @chasebejournal.bsky.social · 9mo ago

From “The spiritual-artistic practice of Hilma’s Ghost: towards a theory of material solidarity” by Alex Bispham Read the full piece now in Issue 9! briefencounters-journal.co.uk/article/id/2... #Spirituality #Materiality #ContemporaryPainting

A quote which reads: “Like the occult traces of a spiritual practice, and the hidden stories of forgotten artists and techniques, the intensely pigmented surfaces of the Automatic Theorem Paintings leave no trace of the medium that binds them”.

Brief Encounters Journal @chasebejournal.bsky.social · 9mo ago

From “Solidarity and the Group Ego: a Psychosocial Exploration of Solidarity in Times of Crisis” by Daphne Kalogeropoulou Read the full piece now in Issue 9! briefencounters-journal.co.uk/article/id/2... #Solidarity #Freud #Einstein #Psychology #Correspondence

A quote which reads: “The Einstein-Freud exchange remains marked by the very limitations it attempts to diagnose — detached from the material realities of violence and insulated by the privilege of its authors”.

Brief Encounters Journal @chasebejournal.bsky.social · 9mo ago

From “‘Never Has There Been a Greater Need for Pooled Intelligence’: Maintaining International Solidarity in the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, 1939-1946” by Emily Chambers Read the full piece in Issue 9! briefencounters-journal.co.uk/article/id/2... #Pacifism #WWII #Archive

A quote which reads: “The [Women’s International League’s] wartime pacifism, though privileged, remained active, politically significant, and historically important”.

Brief Encounters Journal @chasebejournal.bsky.social · 9mo ago

From “Solidarity and ecological balance: global perspectives on revaluing eco-human kinship” by Marta Simonetti. Read the full piece now in Issue 9: briefencounters-journal.co.uk/article/id/2... #EnvironmentalJustice #Sustainability #DeGrowth #Ubuntu #BuenVivir #Swaraj

A quote which reads: “Fostering the idea of ecological balance as a means for promoting environmental governance and rights paves the way towards alternative models that are truly pluralistic, value a variety of knowledge systems, and see all elements of life (material, social, and spiritual) as interconnected”.

Brief Encounters Journal @chasebejournal.bsky.social · 9mo ago

From “Poet, friend and activist: Stanley Richardson and the Arden Society for Artists and Writers Exiled in England, 1938–40” by Harriet Truscott. Read the full piece now in Issue 9! briefencounters-journal.co.uk/article/id/2... #Exile #SpanishCivilWar #LGBTQIA+ #Fascism #Resistance

A quote which reads: "Richardson believed that poetry was a social endeavour, one that brought people together, and that could speak for those who were misrepresented elsewhere".

Brief Encounters Journal @chasebejournal.bsky.social · 9mo ago

An extract from “Jennifer C. Nash, How We Write Now: Living with Black Feminist Theory” by Foluke Taylor. Read the full piece now in Issue 9! briefencounters-journal.co.uk/article/id/2... #Feminism #BlackFeminism #BlackStudies #Loss #Writing

A quote which reads: "As the routinisation of spectacular violence carries it ever closer—or even in—to the realm of the ordinary, I begin to wonder: Could there be such a thing as writing that is too beautiful? Could beauty become a valve through which a reader's affect—rapt in intrapsychic experience—is funnelled away from urgent realities of an antiBlack now?"

Brief Encounters Journal @chasebejournal.bsky.social · 9mo ago

We are delighted to announce that Issue 9 of Brief Encounters is live! Visit the link to read the full issue: briefencounters-journal.co.uk/issue/9/info/ Image: A women's handicraft workshop supervisor in Sayeda Ayesha, Cairo. Photograph by Dr Maha Gaad, 2022. #Solidarity #Published #Phd

A photo depicting the cover art of issue 9, by Maha Gaad, taken during fieldwork for her PhD in the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, which explores how women working in handicraft workshops in urban Egypt perceive, vernacularise and experience empowerment. Taken in the Sayeda Ayesha neighbourhood of Cairo, one of Egypt’s poorest “shanti towns”, the photograph was taken on a walk between the workshop and local neighbourhood association (gam’eya), which runs a nursery for women while at the workshop. The vibrancy of the image – shown partly by the neon colours painted onto the walls – hints at the possibilities created through these workshops: of sisterhood, collective solidarity and hope.

Brief Encounters Journal @chasebejournal.bsky.social · 12mo ago

We are proud to share Dr Ahmed Kamal Junina’s article, ‘Displaced but not replaced: challenges, adaptations, and resilience of higher education in Gaza in the context of war and scholasticide’, published in ‘Globalisation, Societies and Education’ (July 2025): doi.org/10.1080/1476....

Displaced but not replaced: challenges, adaptations, and resilience of higher education in Gaza in the context of war and scholasticide

The ongoing war on Gaza has led to the systematic destruction of schools and universities, termed scholasticide, severely disrupting higher education. Despite this, universities have shown remarkab...

doi.org

Brief Encounters Journal @chasebejournal.bsky.social · 12mo ago

On 12 April 2025, CHASE-affiliated members of the editorial team, George Clutterbuck and Millie Riddell, were kindly invited to convene with Dr Junina, and current and former members of Al-Aqsa University’s English faculty and student body, to formally announce the call for contributions.

An event poster depicting Ahmed Kamal Junina, George Clutterbuck and Millie Riddell.

Brief Encounters Journal @chasebejournal.bsky.social · 12mo ago

To amplify the voices of students & academics in Gaza, Brief Encounters is collaborating with the English department at Al-Aqsa University to produce a special issue centred on Pedagogical Resilience, Challenges and Adaptive Strategies. #DecolonizeAcademia

A decorative image which repeats the special issue's theme and includes a graphic of both the globe and the Palestinian flag.

Brief Encounters Journal @chasebejournal.bsky.social · last yr.

George Clutterbuck, Submissions Editor, is a PhD student at @sussexresearcher.bsky.social. Her research is about feminist approaches to the study of marginalised women’s artistry and focuses upon the work of Laura (Riding) Jackson, Eva Frankfurther and Anna Mendelssohn.

Brief Encounters Journal @chasebejournal.bsky.social · last yr.

Keiran Wilson, Articles Section Editor, is a PhD student, and lecturer @birkbeckpsychology.bsky.social. He explores how carceral power dynamics manifest in UK mental health law, the space of the psychiatric ward, & queer narratives of detention under the Mental Health Act. keiranwilson.owlstown.net

Keiran Wilson

Keiran is a second-year doctoral researcher in Criminology at Birkbeck, University of London, funded by the Consortium for the Humanities and the Arts South-...

keiranwilson.owlstown.net

Brief Encounters Journal @chasebejournal.bsky.social · last yr.

Introducing Anna Titov, Articles Section Editor! For her PhD at @uniofeastanglia.bsky.social, Anna's research looks at Nietzsche’s middle writings and the development of his notion of ‘overcoming’ as stemming from his depictions of our experiences of nature, particularly our embodied experiences.

Brief Encounters Journal @chasebejournal.bsky.social · last yr.

Continuing our introductions to issue 9's team...! Chris Bates, Review Section Editor, is PhD candidate at the University of Sussex. His research considers how the political economies of wood reveal, and are revealed in, the affective, aesthetic and formal investments of the early American novel.

Brief Encounters Journal @chasebejournal.bsky.social · last yr.

Continuing our introductions to the editorial team of issue 9...! Emily Gresham-Beamer, Creative Encounters Section Editor, is a PhD candidate at @goldsmithsuol.bsky.social. Her research investigates Lidar and photogrammetry image-modelings around contested forest spaces of the Global South.