Resilience in the service of resistance: SUMUD of Gaza’s higher education

• In Event: Methods That Matter: Rethinking How We Study Education in Crisis

Proposal

Abstract
This study presents the Islamic University of Gaza (IUG) as a case study to explore the challenges it has encountered, and to examine how it continues its academic mission amid the ongoing genocidal war. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with eight key informants from the IUG’s top management, our thematic analysis identified six major categories of challenges: contextual, academic, financial, technical, human capital, and political. In attempts to navigate these challenges, the findings revealed that IUG’s persistence rested not only on practical measures (e.g., flexible online teaching, emergency committees and collaborating with outsiders), but also on deeply rooted values (institutional loyalty, national identity, and collective resistance). Together, these values and actions/measures constitute IUG’s embodiment of sumud. This study provides insights into higher education resilience in war zones, with implications for institutional policies, crisis management, and future research, while calls for international solidarity and targeted academic support for Gaza’s universities.

1. Introduction
Resilience is often linked to crisis—but crises differ. An earthquake shakes for seconds, a hurricane lasts for days, and a pandemic diffuses over months or few years. In Gaza, however, crisis has become the norm (Järvi, 2025): a more than of 77 years of Israeli occupation, nearly two decades of blockade, and over 19 months of genocidal war at the time of this study. Higher education, although often a low post-war reconstruction priority, can catalyse sustainable recovery (Milton and Barakat, 2016). This paper examines how the IUG navigated the challenges to sustain its academic mission amid ongoing genocide.
2. Theoretical Framework
Institutional Resilience refers to an institution’s capacity to anticipate risks, respond to crises, and adapt to change, fostering transformation (Duchek, 2020). It can be conceptualized as:
• Outcome: where organizations maintain functionality under stress;
• Process: emphasizing the stages and mechanisms of adaptation;
• Capacity: a bundle of internal and external resources enabling endurance.
Higher Education resilience remains underexplored. COVID-19 studies highlight anticipatory exchanges, crisis management, technology integration, and collegial decision-making as best practices (Krsmanović et al., 2024), but war zones present far more complex dynamics.
A socio-ecological perspective situates resilience within cultural contexts (Ungar, 2012). In Palestine, sumud —steadfast perseverance— embodies both rootedness and resistance to occupation (Marie et al., 2018). We conceptualize sumud as “resilience in the service of resistance,” transcending passive coping to include active defiance and attachment to the land (Shwaikh, 2023). Palestinian universities have long served as sites for nurturing national identity, political pluralism, and community engagement (Bruhn, 2006; McGahern 2025).
3. Methods
IUG as a multidisciplinary institution with 16,000 students across 11 faculties served as our case. We conducted semi-structured interviews (66–94 min) in Arabic with eight senior IUG leaders. Ethical approval was granted by the University of Glasgow. Transcripts were analyzed in ATLAS.ti using an inductive-deductive thematic approach (Braun & Clarke, 2006), iteratively coding and grouping data into themes.
4. Results
4.1 Challenges
Six interrelated challenge categories shaped IUG’s crisis response:
• Contextual: prolonged siege, infrastructure destruction, displacement, resource shortages, and insecurity.
• Financial: blockade-induced funding shortfalls predated the war; no salaries for employees, lack of tuition fees, and collapsed external aid.
• Academic: emergency online teaching despite technological and pedagogical burdens.
• Political: anti-Palestinian propaganda hampered academic solidarity.
• Technical: campus bombings destroyed servers; electricity cuts and internet blackouts disrupted teaching and administration.
• Human Capital: targeted killings, brain drain, and marginalization of staff/students with disabilities.
4.2 Values
Three higher-order intangible value themes underpinned IUG’s sumud: (1) Institutional loyalty: faculty and staff viewed IUG as a moral mission, motivated by sense of belonging and a belief in education as essential to societal survival, (2) Collective resistance: a caring culture emphasized service to society, ethical responsibility, and mutual support, and (3) National identity: commitment to Palestinian rights, historical rootedness, and a future vision for Palestine anchored academic perseverance.
4.3 Resilience measures
IUG’s tangible coping measures:
• Initial startup: an environmental scan assessed displaced staff and resource needs. The university rented internet-equipped facilities for teaching and provided solar-powered internet to IT personnel.
• Human resources: proactive employees formed eight emergency committees. Outside Gaza academics and volunteers offered technical and instructional support, while the staff union mediated resource allocation.
• Administrative coping: IUG loosened hierarchical controls by delegating decision-making to emergency committees, recruiting volunteers, and activating its external office in Turkey.
• Academic coping: teaching resumed with general requirement courses online; the semester was restructured, and exam periods extended. Moodle materials from COVID-19 were repurposed and postgraduate supervision continued virtually. Psychosocial support and flexible course completion policies addressed student needs.
5. Discussion
This case study demonstrates that, in Gaza’s genocidal context, resilience transcends traditional models of anticipation and recovery. While IUG’s administrative and academic coping measures were vital, it was the intangible values of institutional loyalty, collective resistance, and national identity that animated and sustained these actions. Sumud emerges as a hybrid of resilience and resistance, rooted in cultural and moral commitment. Our findings extend Duchek’s institutional resilience framework by integrating values as critical resilience enablers under extreme adversity. For higher education in conflict zones, this suggests that policy and crisis management must bolster both structural capacities and the cultural pillars of steadfastness. Future research should explore how universities can systematically cultivate such values, and donors must recognize that support for academic institutions under siege requires both financial aid and solidarity with their moral mission.

Author

• Tahani Z. Aldahdouh, Tampere Uiversity