The Political Fairytale: Little Red Riding Hood in Palestine: This study aims to analyze the adaptations of Little Red Riding Hood within Palestinian critical and subversive discourse. Despite its conventional portrayal as a children's story, Little Red Riding Hood is frequently employed by various media sources as a tool for social and political critique of Palestinian society and Israeli policies towards Palestinians.

Loaay Wattad's research on the topic constitutes an archival study aimed at establishing an exhaustive database encompassing all works of Palestinian children's literature in the last century (1920-2020). Employing innovative digital humanities methodologies and a blend of sociological approaches, the researcher subjects the compiled book corpus to interpretive, thematic, and computational analyses. The creation of an archival database serves as a foundational step, allowing for an exploration of the literature's positioning within the realms of world literature, minor literature, and its role in political resistance within literary spaces.

Loaay Wattad is an EUME-Berlin fellow, a literary scholar and critic of performance arts and literature. He earned his Ph.D. from the Department of Sociology and the School of Cultural Studies at Tel Aviv University. Loaay actively participates in the Maktoob translators' circle, dedicated to translating literary works from Arabic to Hebrew. Additionally, he serves as the editor-in-chief of the Hkaya-Journal for Arabic children's literature.

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The Kalīla and Dimna research colloquium promotes a number of international guest speakers in alternation with close reading sessions on manuscript editing and presentations of the team’s research topics. Discussion of methodological approaches and digital humanities issues are at the center of attention.

Colloquium sessions are being held in a hybrid fashion: while the personal encounter is possible again, the advantages of remote access will not be lost. Participants meet every Thursday from 12:15 to 1:45 pm (CET). Colleagues, visiting scholars, and students (Arabic Studies or related disciplines) are cordially invited to participate.

We especially welcome researchers based elsewhere than Freie Universität Berlin to join us for any one (or more) sessions.

For registration and session link, please mail to: jan.van.ginkel@fu-berlin.de