Can Refugees Save the World? Lessons in Community-based Development from Palestinian Refugee Camps

This project seeks to challenge colonial narratives that depict refugee camps as spaces of exception, dispossession, and waiting. Drawing on my lived experience as a stateless Palestinian refugee born and raised in Bourj Albarajenah camp in Beirut, the research redefines refugee camps not as sites of suffering but as dynamic places of care, solidarity, and community development. It advances critical studies that dismantle the portrayal of refugees as dependent aid recipients, offering a decolonial framework that acknowledges their agency and resourcefulness.