Simmons University School of Library and Information Science welcomes Dr. Karen E. Fisher, professor at the University of Washington Information School and an internationally renowned expert on public libraries, trauma and resilience, and everyday life information behavior, including the Arab World. As the 2025 Allen Smith Visiting Scholar, Karen will spend a week at Simmons SLIS in October sharing her research around public libraries, trauma and resilience, and everyday life information behavior. Karen's keynote and panel discussion will take place on October 20th and October 23rd in room C-220 and C-503 of the Management and Academic Building respectively. Both events will conclude with a small reception.
Countering Domicide: Preserving Indigenous Knowledge using Large-Scale Ethnography and Participatory Design
Can you imagine fleeing the brutality of the Syrian War to live in a refugee camp surrounded by desert? Living without modern conveniences, not knowing your future, drawing on centuries-old knowledge to survive? On the Jordanian-Syrian border lies Za’atari Camp, little Syria. A refuge for people from primarily Dara’a (the Cradle of the Revolution), Za’atari is a closed, high security, high constraint, low resource camp. In this talk I share the making of “Zaatari: Culinary Traditions of the World’s Largest Syrian Refugee Camp” (Goose Lane Editions, Canada, 2024). Initially envisioned as a cookbook, the Zaatari book became a living testament where refugees tell their own story of surviving domicide, of preserving indigenous knowledge and way of life, of rebuilding community while promoting human dignity and livelihoods. In a twisted way, leaving Syria and surviving the war meant returning to Syria, preserving Syria’s ancient cultural knowledge and food practices for the world.
