Stitching from afar. Palestinian embroidery between narration of the self and practice of belonging

This research investigates Palestinian embroidery as a multifaceted cultural practice through which representations of collective memory, identity, and political claims are continuously negotiated. Employing a multi-sited ethnographic approach across Lebanon, Jordan, and digital platforms, the research interrogates how this artisanal practice is articulated within diasporic communities, institutional archives, and the economized frameworks of NGOs. Palestinian embroidery historically shifted from a regional visual language to a national signifier after the Nakba in 1948, and it is continuously evolving as a site to reclaim national belonging, resistance against occupation, and individual forms of identification as Palestinian in diaspora. The aim of the present research is therefore to critically examine the contemporary life of the practice through the tensions between heritage preservation, commodification, and online expression. Within these tensions, embroidery emerges not as a static tradition but as a deeply embedded ‘map’ of Palestinian experience, a site where embodied resistance, intergenerational connection, and a persistent struggle for visibility against ongoing cultural and political erasure take place.