Israa Hatem Aljaish

Israa Aljaish is a PhD researcher in Social Anthropology at the University of St Andrews. Her work examines how the academic communities sustain higher education and collective well-being under prolonged disruption and genocide caused by the Israeli Occupation Forces in Gaza. Drawing on her own experience within Gaza’s universities, she explores the ways scholars and students transform adversity into spaces of intellectual continuity, solidarity, and cultural renewal.

Before joining research, Israa worked in higher education and community development, supporting student engagement. Her broader interests include the anthropology of education, steadfastness, social repair, and the cultural dimensions of endurance and hope.

Israa’s doctoral project, “Higher Education Agency and Mental Well-Being: Strategies for Academic Continuity in Gaza,” examines how universities and their communities sustain learning, knowledge, and meaning under genocide. Through ethnographic engagement, she explores the moral and cultural foundations of perseverance, how collective care, belonging, and intellectual commitment enable education to endure the unmaking of everyday life.

Her research contributes to global discussions on education as a site of steadfastness, identity, and renewal amid long-term oppression and the ongoing impacts of the Israeli Occupation Forces