One student requested anonymity due to fears of losing visa status and losing their ability to enter Israel. The pseudonym Sage and gender-neutral pronouns were used to protect the source’s identities and to improve readability.

Firas Abuzaid ’13 M.S. ’15 Ph.D. ’22 almost didn’t go to Stanford. 

Born to Palestinian parents, Abuzaid carefully evaluated universities based on their opportunities to explore research about the Middle East. Stanford, he said, offered very little. 

“I had research projects that I was interested in exploring about Palestine, and I just couldn’t find faculty to sponsor them,” he said. “And if I thought I found the faculty, they would sort of ignore me.”

At Stanford, Abuzaid encountered few courses on the Middle East and said the University has deprioritized Middle Eastern studies and representation. He said students still struggle to find resources, faculty support in studying the region and a sense of community.

The Muslim, Arab and Palestinian (MAP) report, Rupture and Repair, was published in May 2024 following the University’s response to the ongoing war in Gaza. According to the report, only 2.42% of staff members who completed Stanford’s IDEAL survey identified as part of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) category. The MAP report stated that “MAP staff are somewhat under-represented in senior positions.” 

Palestine was not listed as a country of origin for any faculty members in the IDEAL survey results. There are currently no tenured Arab faculty in the humanities or social sciences departments, according to Alexander Key, associate professor of comparative literature and co-chair of the MAP Communities Committee, which drafted the report. The committee, which was formed to produce the report, has since been disbanded.

Stanford’s lack of Arab and Palestinian faculty has created significant gaps in academic representation, students said, leaving them without mentors who understand their cultural or political identities and limiting opportunities for critical engagement with Middle Eastern studies. As the University struggles to address these disparities, students, faculty and alumni say that addressing these disparities is essential to building a more inclusive and comprehensive approach to Middle Eastern and Arab studies. 

Searching for a support system

This academic year, Stanford lost its only Palestinian professor in the humanities whose primary research was focused on Palestine: Theater and Performance Studies Assistant Professor Samer Al-Saber moved to Williams College. Key called the departure “a disaster” and said it reflects poorly on the University for failing to retain him. Al-Saber declined to comment.

Efforts to improve the representation of Arabs and Palestinians at Stanford have been minimal, according to Abuzaid. In the 26 years that Ramzi Salti, Advanced Lecturer for the Arabic Program, has taught at Stanford, he has not noticed any significant change or efforts to hire more Arab professors. 

While Arab lecturers like Salti — who was born and raised in Lebanon — are present, Salti stressed the importance of having professor role models who have the time and resources to support students.

Arab students “are desperately looking for a support system,” Salti said. “They’re looking for role models. They’re looking for people who look like them, who they can go to to speak.”

For Sage, a second-year Ph.D. student from Palestine who requested anonymity for fear of losing their visa status, the need for institutional support became more acute after Oct. 7 and as a result of feeling distanced from their community at home.

“I needed to see some, not just community support with other students, but also institutional support,” Sage said. “And I struggled with that a lot last year.”

Key noted that the few Arab and Palestinian staff members at Stanford are often overburdened and expected to take on projects related to the Arab region in addition to regular responsibilities, even when that is not the focus of their research. 

“This is a difficult conversation because you end up implying that someone’s identity would then force them, as it were, to make a certain contribution to the discourse,” Key said. 

Sage said they felt the consequences of this firsthand. They will likely need to find a Palestinian or Arab scholar outside Stanford to be on their dissertation committee. The lack of Palestinian faculty members at Stanford has shown Sage that there is a need for Palestinian scholars, which motivated them to focus more of their studies on Palestinian literature. 

In contrast, UC Berkeley launched an endowed program and chair in Palestinian and Arab studies in the autumn of 2024, which Abuzaid said was major news in the Palestinian community. Stanford lacks a similar department, which Abuzaid said leaves a void and places Stanford behind peer institutions like Berkeley. 

“It’s not just a matter of catering or placating to a small minority of folks,” Abuzaid said. “I think [an Arab Studies department] can have benefits across the spectrum…I think it’s a really important resource that Stanford should provide for its community.”

Abuzaid acknowledges the value of the Markaz Resource Center, established in 2013 to engage with the Cultures and Peoples of the Muslim World, but emphasized that it cannot replace the need for an Arab Studies department. Establishing such a department at Stanford, he believes, requires significant courage from the administration, especially given the pushback against tenuring pro-Palestinian faculty, as seen at Depaul University and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The first step is hiring qualified faculty to teach about the region, Abuzaid said. The next step is granting them tenure to ensure academic freedom. 

He added, “Without that, you aren’t going to get the full value.” 

Key added that even when there is some representation, Palestinians or allies often remain silent due to fear of backlash. He cited an example where a Palestinian alumnus was discouraged from engaging with the MAP committee due to its controversial nature.

‘No one else can really teach it’

As a result of the Oct. 7 attack, Stanford’s history department requested former history professor Joel Beinin to return from his retirement to resume teaching HISTORY 88: “Palestine, Zionism, Israel: 150 Years of Conflict” in the fall of 2024, a course he previously taught from 1983 to 2018.

According to history professor Mikael Wolfe, “[Beinin] came out of retirement to come and teach this class [due to] the demand and because no one else can really teach it.” 

Beinin, who has lived in Israel and had family there since 1973, said that his niece was taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7. He acknowledged the existence of multiple perspectives on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and expressed sympathy for Palestinian rights. 

The sensitivity of the issue 

Abuzaid took Beinin’s class in his junior year at Stanford. He said the class provided a non-judgemental space to ask any questions about the topic and explore subtopics of personal interest. Abuzaid said the sensitivity of the topic and a general distrust of the media has made it difficult now to have these kinds of spaces. 

That sensitivity related to the Israel-Gaza war has affected Wolfe’s classroom, including HISTORY 200B: “Doing Environmental History: Water Justice.” The course includes a segment examining water issues in Israel and Palestine, but this autumn, a faculty member requested a meeting to discuss balance in Wolfe’s teaching. The request allegedly came on behalf of a student who dropped the class after the first session, claiming Wolfe’s approach was too one-sided. 

“It just goes to show you that this particular issue is really causing people to really go way out of bounds and also what’s ethical, professional, proper at the University,” Wolfe said. 

Wolfe, who identifies as Jewish, said he teaches the Palestinian perspective because “government, academia, media…tend to be much more sympathetic toward the Israeli side, and Palestinians tend to be depicted as inherently violent, or having a violent religion, or not being civilized in some way or another.”

“I don’t even think I’m necessarily being pro-Palestinian to be honest with you,” he said. Wolfe said he wasn’t surprised by the pushback, as he believes professors like himself presenting alternative narratives often face criticism. 

Salti is worried for the mental health of Palestinian students due to the Oct. 7 war, as they have “no apparent resource or support system” at Stanford. Salti said even Arab lecturers like himself feel disconnected from current events in the Middle East while at Stanford.  

Sage has been attending Vaden Health’s Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) to speak with a Palestinian therapist about the current events. They appreciate having someone who already understands the context of the conflict and with whom they can speak in their native Arabic. 

“It feels really good to talk to someone who, even before you say the implications of a certain thing happening to you, already understands,” Sage said.

Sage said that they have experienced professors who don’t allow them to explore Palestine in the classroom or don’t acknowledge or understand their Palestinian identity, which has led them to feel that their perspective was not valued in the class.  

While Salti has seen Arab names in faculty in other departments, he said it is especially important that students feel represented in the humanities, as their heritage often comes into play in their teaching. 

“With everything that’s going on in the world today, [the humanities is] where we need role models,” he said. “We need professors to come from their world and give their side of things, to talk about their narrative.” 

For Sage, representation doesn’t just mean having people from Palestine on campus but also waving the Palestinian flag. Last year, while pro-Palestine protests were active on campus, Sage said seeing their flag was very impactful. 

“Sometimes I would go out of my way just to see [the protests], and then go to class every morning,” they said. “And for me, that was super important, just to feel that my flag can be shown and no one’s going to get arrested or people aren’t gonna tell them to put the flags down.” 

But Sage also emphasized the value of having interactions with people with their same background. They highlighted a meeting with a Palestinian faculty member last year, which made them feel seen. Now, Sage said they no longer have someone like this they can relate to at Stanford. 

“I felt like I was in Jerusalem talking to him over coffee because we knew so many people in common. We knew the same world, so to speak,” Sage said. “And that was such a wonderful moment for me. I remember even telling him, ‘I can’t believe I’m at Stanford, talking to you like this, it feels like I’m at home.’”

In order to cope with ongoing conflicts in the region and media demonizing Arabs, Salti said he tries to share the beauty of the Arab world with students, especially through music. He hosts a radio show called Arabology, which plays Arabic music and airs on KZSU Stanford 90.1 FM. 

“We should be looking for ways to coexist, instead of constantly fighting with each other,” he said.

A previous version of this article misstated the KZSU Stanford 19.1 FM. It is KZSU Stanford 90.1 FM. The Daily regrets this error.