Nominees for the BRISMES Council (2025-2028)

Zeina Al Azmeh 

Zeina Al Azmeh is a political sociologist at the University of Cambridge, serving as Research and Teaching Associate in Political Sociology at the Department of Sociology and a Fellow of Selwyn College. Her research focuses on the cultural sociology of exile, the political sociology of knowledge production, and the dynamics of revolutions, particularly in the contemporary Middle East. Since 2024, Zeina has co-chaired the Board of  Trustees of the Syrian Research and Academic Network (SARN). In 2023, she co-received an AHRC research networking grant to build the Network, which supports educational reform and reconstruction in Syria and fosters academic collaboration for Syrian scholars in exile. Her forthcoming book with Cambridge University Press, Syrian Intellectuals in Exile: The Dilemmas of Revolution and the Cost of Leaving, along with articles in journals like Cultural Sociology, the International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society and Theory and Society, reflect her intellectual contributions to her field. Her work also engages with impact and policy, including co-authored reports on Syrian higher education for the British Council and Council for At-Risk Academics. Zeina earned her PhD in Sociology from the University of Cambridge in 2021, focusing on exiled Syrian intellectuals in the Syrian Revolution. Before moving to the UK in 2016, Zeina lectured in medical humanities at Qatar University, where she held leadership roles from 2005 to 2016, first as Director of External Relations and later as AVP for Strategic Communications and Outreach. This experience would be particularly valuable for her proposed role at BRISMES.