BRISMES Partnership with First UK Network for Syrian Academics & Researchers

In September 2023, eight UK-based Syrian academics – Dr Rahaf Aldoughly (Lancaster), Dr Zeina Al Azmeh (Cambridge), Dr Feras Alkabani (Sussex), Dr Azzam Al Kassir (London), Roua Al Taweel (Ulster), Dr Mohammed Ateek (Leicester), Dr Haian Dukhan (Teesside) and Oudai Tozan (Cambridge) – came together at Pembroke College (University of Cambridge) to launch the Syrian Academics and Researchers’ Network in the UK (SARN UK), the UK’s first network for Syrian scholars. The launch event also featured the Network’s first conference, with over 40 Syrian participants.

BRISMES Trustee, Dr Feras Alkabani (PI), and BRISMES Member, Dr Zeina Al Azmeh (Co-I), have successfully bid for an AHRC grant (Research Networking Scheme), which will fund the initial phase of the research activities of the Syrian Academics and Researchers’ Network in the UK (SARN UK).

Image: SARN UK’s Organising Committee at the Launch Conference (September 2023): Dr Azzam Al Kassir (University of London); Dr Haian Dukhan (Teesside); Roua Al Taweel (Ulster); Dr Feras Alkabani (Sussex); Dr Rahaf Aldoughly (Lancaster); Dr Zeina Al-Azmeh (Cambridge); Dr Mohammed Ateek (Leicester); Oudai Tozan (Cambridge)

SARN UK brings together UK-based Syrian scholars to build rapport, enable interdisciplinary research collaboration in the Arts and Humanities, Education and Social Sciences to enhance academic and public knowledge about Syria while exploring the role of art and performance in disseminating research in these areas beyond the academy.

SARN UK will be working closely with its external partners – BRISMES, Qisetna and the Syrian Arts and Culture Festival (SACF) – over the next 18 months on four AHRC-funded events (starting in May this year):

2 collaborative workshops in Cambridge (Spring & Autumn 2025), involving Syrian academics and artists, whose work will feature in the Syrian Arts and Culture Festival (SACF) in London (Spring 2025)
an online symposium to connect with scholars in Syria (Spring 2025)
and culminating in an international conference, co-sponsored by the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES) and the Middle East and North Africa Centre at Sussex (MENACS), to be held at the University of Sussex in Autumn 2025.