Reclaiming Memories: An Atlas of Palestinian Diaspora in Canada

Some 5 million people live in the Palestinian diaspora today, including over 50,000 individuals in Canada, as the prospects of a possible return to their ancestral homeland become ever more complicated with the realities of protracted occupation and exile. The thesis envisions a diasporic space that would illuminate the diasporic identity of Palestinians living in Canada. The process of propositional space-making is underpinned by core concepts of oral history and collective identity, reterritorialization, belonging and geography, as well as transnational and intercultural solidarity. The intent of this thesis is to utilize architecture as a form of spatial agency for Palestinians, an apparatus for engaging diaspora as an operative process of common memory production. Building on existing literature and case studies, as well as firsthand Canadian fieldwork and interviews, this thesis explores a series of interventions to interrogate the network of relations that would construct a space of diasporic connectivity.