Maryam Griffin’s book reviewed in Public Books

Maryam Griffin’s book, Vehicles of Decolonization: Public Transit in the Palestinian West Bank (Temple University Press, 2021) has been reviewed by Dr. Eman Ghanayem for Public Books. Dr. Ghanayem wrote about the book alongside three other recent monographs that approach Palestine through the lens of indigeneity, movement/crossing, and land.

About Griffin’s book, Ghanayem writes, “ In her social study and movement through everyday life in Palestine, Griffin shows that the colonized are constantly outgrowing their enclosure. I say outgrowing not as mere metaphorical play but to emphasize creativity as part and parcel of Palestinian refusal, life, and resistance. It grows beyond its confines.

“Drivers represent a great example of that growth. But Griffin, again, moves us between the literal and figurative, discussing art and communal projects that equally represent rich modes of living and self-determination. […]

“These activities, as Griffin beautifully puts it in her conclusion, altogether represent ‘a moving map of active decolonization’ guided by a motive to maintain our relationship to land. They are ‘a repertoire of decolonization’ or ‘repertoires of self-determined mobility’ and ‘self-determined presence.’”