For most of their life, University of Michigan School of Information PhD student Tam Rayan has been trying to rekindle their connection to Palestine. A first generation Palestinian, Rayan is passionate about engaging with Palestinians through storytelling, music and research. 

“Right now, there is no return to Palestine,” Rayan says. “But we have our documents, our people’s stories and the different ways our community is engaged in memory work. This is what’s most exciting to me.” 

Rayan’s research documents how Palestinians in the diaspora, specifically in Southeast Michigan, are engaging in archival work and practices within their own communities amid ongoing repression and distrust in institutions after 9/11. They are a third-year student in UMSI’s PhD in Information program. 

“There’s been a lot of research into how diaspora groups engage in archival work, but not about Palestinians,” Rayan says. “There’s a lot of emphasis in our community on oral histories and storytelling, literature and poetry. These don’t always fit cleanly into one’s idea of an archive.” 

And when it comes to Palestinians specifically, there’s less of a willingness to give up what they have to an archive because it’s a very personal connection to what the family has been able to bring over from Palestine, says Rayan.

“And you can’t go back right now, so you want to give it to your children, not a museum.” 

Typically, archival practices require official, original documentation. These standards have led to an absence of Palestinian archival work and lead to a reliance on oral histories. Much of these stories live at the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, where Rayan has spent much of their time conducting fieldwork. 

“You can tell a story a million times,” Rayan says. “And that could be recorded and documented and put in the museum and that goes in place of archival documents. And in this way, you don’t have to give up family photos, or original thobes that have been passed down, or tatreez patterns.” 

Rayan is working on their dissertation with UMSI associate professor Ricky Punzalan and UMSI assistant professor Patricia Garcia. Before joining UMSI, Rayan completed a bachelor’s degree in music at Laurentian University, and then a master’s degree in ethnomusicology at the University of Toronto. At U of T, Rayan studied how Palestinians in Toronto engage with music to feel a connection to the homeland. 

After completing their first master’s degree, Rayan went on to complete a second master’s degree at the University of Toronto, where they graduated with a Masters in Information. 

“There, I focused on the Israel State Archives and their collection of the Six Day War Files, which at the time, had been newly declassified and was available to the public for the first time since 1967,” Rayan says. “And I was looking at how Palestinians are represented in this collection, because Palestinians don't have their own official documentation of this deeply traumatic, impactful time.” 

This research, Rayan says, is personal. Both of Rayan’s parents are Palestinians who moved to Canada decades ago. As Rayan engages in research and bridges a gap between Palestine and Canada, and Palestine and the United States, they are deeply moved by all the ways Palestinians are holding onto their identities and connections to the homeland. 

“My favorite part is interviewing people,” Rayan says. “Everyone has told me such beautiful stories and fitting all of them into the research is the real challenge.” 

Rayan has found a home and community at UMSI. They love how interdisciplinary the school is, as well as their cohort, who they say they’ve “bonded with really well.” 

“This is my fourth degree,” they say. “And I haven’t had the same experience at any of the programs that I’ve been in before. I entered with a ready-set community and there’s an atmosphere of wanting to support one another that I didn’t expect to find.” 

Rayan’s advice for incoming UMSI PhD students is to be bold about experimenting and figuring out what you want to do. 

“If you have any hesitations or you're feeling imposter syndrome, the PhD program is here for you,” they say. “Don't be afraid to bend it towards what might work for you.”