Mudar Al-Khufash is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher aiming to merge art, activism, and pedagogy with his practice. His work explores implicit violence in infrastructures of coloniality, power, and heteronormativity while proposing fugitive modes of being. He is the founder and creative director of awāhm, an annual print magazine that archives and amplifies counter-normative epistemologies, providing platforms for dissenting queer and feminist thought. Through multimodal performances, he stages embodied critiques that blur the boundaries between art and political action, transforming spectators into collaborators.
He is currently pursuing a PhD in Media Studies at the University of Groningen, where his research investigates the formation of Palestinian masculinities, care and intimicy as they emerage through settler-colonial violence. His practice remains itinerant, rooted in diasporic consciousness and guided by an ethics of refusal.
EDUCATION
EDUCATION
University of Groningen Present
PhD
Humboldt University of Berlin June 2025
MA Cultural Studies (With Distinction)
University of the Arts Berlin February 2025
MA Art in Context (With Distinction)
Art Academy Berlin Weissensee July 2022
BA Visual Communication (With Distinction)
Al-Ittihad High Schools for Boys, Amman, Jordan June 1999
AWARDS & GRANTS
Unity Theatre Trust London January 2025
Awarded for the production costs of a lecture performance
Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Study Stipend Berlin
April 2020 – March 2025
Awarded for academic excellence and research potential
Rosa Luxemburg Foundation International Research Grant October 2024 – March 2025
Support for innovative research initiatives
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Guest Lecturer
University of Cincinnati
“Palestine from a Palestinian Perspective” October 2024
- Moderated a session with the Palestinian director of two early 1980s documentary films from the DEFA Film Library
- Explored archival practices
Guest Lecturer
Art Academy Berlin Weissensee
“Art as Resistance” May 2024
- Engaged students in discussions on how art is inherently political because politics decide the art
- Led discussions on art pedagogy and political agency
Facilitator April 2024
Bard College at Spore Berlin
“The News We Want: Speculative Writing Workshop”
- Facilitated workshops focused on speculative writing and publishing as tools for reimagining marginalized narratives
Workshop Facilitator
Various Organizations
“Homonationalism Workshop” October 2020
- Conducted a youth workshop on Homonationalism in collaboration with Queer History Matter e.V. and Critical Queer Solidarity e.V.
“Was Geht?” July 2019 - Facilitated a youth workshop introducing video as an art form with Kulturnetzwerk Neukölln e.V.
“Against the Odds: Exploring the Potentiality of Zines” June 2019 - Facilitated a youth workshop introducing video as an art form with Kulturnetzwerk Neukölln e.V.
Tutor
Art Academy Berlin Weissensee
Foundation Class October 2019 – March 2020
- Facilitated workshops and portfolio reviews for students applying to German art/design academies or film schools
- Contributed to the collective exploration of artistic and design practices while fostering a safe and inclusive learning environment
- Worked on initiatives to uncover and address systemic discrimination in art institutions
- Computer Studio March 2017– October 2019
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
“Mediatizing the Palestinian Homeland” October 2025
Lightning Talks: Negotiating Identities in Digital Media Spaces
Netherlands Media Studies Conference (RMeS)
- Presentation of the four-year research project Mediatizing the Homeland (2025–2029)
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
Researcher Assistant June 2023–ongoing
Humboldt University’s Cluster of Excellence: Matters of Activity
- Worked with anthropologist Maxime Le Calvé on multimodal methods, including digital drawing and virtual reality curation.
- Applied these methods in ethnographic research
PROJECTS
Gruppe Wissenslücke October 2024–ongoing
Weekly Symposium on Palestine-Related Topics at the University of Arts Berlin
- Co-led workshops, such as those at Bard College Berlin, critiquing German media bias and envisioning solidarity futures
- Organized thematic sessions and coordinated speakers for weekly symposium discussions
The Whole Life Academy: Life Stories and Archives October 2021–March 2022
Participant, Hau der Kulturen der Welt
- Conducted archival research within a collaborative, interdisciplinary team
Engaged with innovative nomadic educational methods to explore archival practices
awhãm Magazine October 2017–ongoing
Publisher and Creative Director
- Founded an annual print publication focused on migrant, queer, and feminist sensibilities
- Directed editorial processes, conceptual development, and community events like performances and readings
LECTURE PERFORMANCES
Dialectics of Erasure June 2025
Site-Specific Lecture Performance
Developed during a residency at Béznă Theatre, integrating Forum Theatre methods and urban landscapes
Space Evocations March 2024
Quiz Performance at Emergent Spaces Festival
- Explored narratives of resistance in the Palestinian diaspora and beyond through interactive, conceptual tasting experiences
Crossing to the Realm of Manifestation February 2024
Site-Specific Walking Performance and Video
- Juxtaposed various spatialities and temporalities, connecting locations such as Amman, the East Bank of the Jordan River and Spree River, and the Kindertransport monument in Berlin. I wove ancient narratives, biblical lore and mid-20th-century events.
Vegetal Mythologies July 2023
Lecture over a Dinner and Video Installation with Febrayer e.V.
- Developed as part of a master’s thesis project, this multimodal performance combined storytelling, video, and food to explore memory and identity through the lens of Palestinian resistance to settler-colonial environmental policies
PANALIST / SPEAKER
“Jenin, Jenin” – Palestine Cinema Days November 2025
RKZ Bios, Groningen
- Invited speaker for a post-screening discussion of Mohammad Bakri’s Jenin, Jenin, organized by RKZ Bios, Palestine Cinema Days, and the Faculty of Arts at the University of Groningen.
- Contributed analysis on testimonial filmmaking, censorship, and the politics of visual memory in occupied Palestine, situating the film within broader decolonial debates on witnessing and media sovereignty.
“Born in Gaza” – Cinema Politica Screening November 2025
Groningen
“My Eye Is A Glass Prism Excavating Beyond The Ruins” June 2024
Flutgraben e.V., Berlin
- Guided a Palestinian film screening featuring White Oil (Judy Rabinowitz Price), Canada Park (Razan Al-Salah), Foragers (Jumana Manna), and Stone of Hell (Tekla Aslanishvili & Giorgi Gago Gagoshidze).
- Introduced and contextualized the films through a decolonial lens, linking their visual strategies to extractivism, displacement, and memory politics in Palestinian cinema.
“Random Security Check Podcast × Emergent Spaces” March 2024
Refuge Worldwide Radio, Berlin
- Participated as a panelist discussing student activism and the political climate in Germany during the Gaza genocide, reflecting on the intersections between academic censorship, solidarity movements, and media responsibility.
“HIT THE CITY – Intersections of Everyday Life” December 2022
About Subversive Knowledge Transfer
Deutsches Architektur Zentrum (DAZ), Berlin
- Participated as a panelist discussing the activist role of independent media and participatory knowledge exchange in cultural and urban contexts.
PUBLICATIONS & MEDIA FEATURES
Contributor
Takseer w/ Moraya, Hong Kong Community Radio November 29, 2023
- Featured speaker presenting excerpts from a self-organized university symposium
- Discussed historical and theoretical frameworks surrounding the Nakba and settler-colonialism
Featured Publisher and Interviewee
“Exil et universalité” by Elsie Cohen, Minor Universality, De Gruyter 2023
- Highlighted contributions through awhãm Magazine, discussing its mission to challenge orientalist narratives and promote marginalized perspectives
RESIDENCIES
Béznă Theatre, London October 2023–March 2025
- Explored settler-colonialism and Indigenous resistance through intermedial performance techniques
Ausland, Berlin June 2024
- Resident Artist with Gruppe Wissenslücke as part of “All the Rivers” residency series
- Developed archives and speculative media resistance projects
- Compiled terminologies for publication in readers/glossaries
- Culminated the residency with a public performance and screening
EXHIBITIONS
Common Grounds May 2023
Group Exhibition at University of the Arts Berlin
- Exhibited “When Stating the Obvious Becomes Radical,” a work exploring themes of visibility, resistance, and the radical act of highlighting suppressed narratives