I once ran a workshop on applying to graduate schools in the U.S. and Canada for Palestinian students in which I had to field questions like, how do I explain that I am 35 and still working on a BA because my university was closed for five years and I was imprisoned for two? How do I explain that I can’t get a letter of recommendation because my professor was killed? As we encounter frustrations like too-large seminars and inadequate teaching support, North American academics may have difficulty imagining such dire circumstances as the stuff of daily life.

Margaret Aziza Pappano, “Academic Freedom Threatened in Ontario Universities”