This summer of 2026 and into September, Professor David Yaghoubian of the CSUSB History Department designed and is teaching a course for 140 students in Gaza. The online course is called “Struggle & Survival in Gaza,” and is a workshop on social biographical research and writing taught remotely in a combination of English and Arabic via the SPOCs for Gaza program. The course provides instruction in social biographical methodology and guidance to students researching the lives of Gaza residents past and present.

As genocidal bombing campaigns and raids by the Israeli military threaten to silence all voices of Gaza, a scholasticide is also underway. By April of 2024, less than one year into the current Gaza War, a United Nations report already estimated that over 80 percent of the schools in Gaza had been damaged or destroyed. In the two years since then, the destruction has continued both of human lives and the records and institutions that preserve them.

Since June, volunteer teaching assistants have supported Dr. Yaghoubian’s workshop, joining the project from several institutions, including graduate students from Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and recent alumni of CSUSB. In the course, students have been taught the rudiments necessary to research and write a social biography, bringing the lives of people close to them into the context of major world events and historical forces through research and interviews. Professor Yaghoubian and the teaching assistants provide the structure and scholarly tools to amplify the voices of students in Gaza today.