Press Release | Syrian Scholars Gathered in Cambridge to Examine Knowledge, Memory and the Aftermath of Conflict
Cambridge — Syrian academics and researchers from across the UK and beyond gathered at the University of Cambridge on 17–18 September 2026 for a major interdisciplinary conference that examined the intellectual, social and institutional questions emerging from Syria's transition.
Organised by the Syrian Academics and Researchers' Network (SARN UK) with the support of the Margaret Anstee Centre for Global Studies at Newnham College, Cambridge, Syria in Transition: Knowledge, Memory and the Everyday Aftermath brought together more than 40 researchers working across the social sciences, humanities, architecture and cultural practice.
The conference came at a critical moment for Syrian scholarship. As political transition creates new possibilities for research, teaching and international academic collaboration, it also raises difficult questions about how knowledge about Syria is produced: whose experiences become part of the scholarly record, how the legacies of violence and authoritarianism continue to shape intellectual life, and what role Syrian academics can play in rebuilding the country's universities and research cultures.
“The transition has opened possibilities that many of us could scarcely imagine when SARN began, but it has also made the work of critical scholarship more rather than less important,” said Dr Zeina Al-Azmeh, Co-Chair of SARN UK. “A transition is not simply something we observe; it is also a period in which categories, narratives and institutions are being made and remade. One of SARN's central ambitions has been to create spaces in which Syrian academics participate not simply as sources of knowledge about Syria, but as producers of knowledge and theory in their own right.”
“Four years ago, this was a network held together by goodwill and a shared sense of isolation that both came together and manifested themselves in a strong sense of determination. Today we are a registered UK charity, taking part in high-level HE-centred policy discussions, holding its second annual conference and electing its first Board – and that permanence is the point,” said Dr Feras Alkabani, Co-Chair of SARN UK. “It means that Syria scholarship in this country no longer depends on any single project or grant, and it means we can turn outwards: towards colleagues rebuilding universities inside Syria, and towards the early-career researchers who will carry this work long after the rest of us have stopped.”
Across two days, researchers addressed questions ranging from the reimagining of the Syrian state and transitional justice to memory, displacement, education, intellectual life, architecture, urban reconstruction and belonging. A roundtable on the “Anthropology of and from Syria” considered the genealogies and geopolitics of ethnographic knowledge and the possibilities for renewed fieldwork and knowledge production in and about Syria.
The conference's keynote address, “On Method”, was delivered by Syrian writer and intellectual Yassin al-Haj Saleh. Drawing on the experience of the Syrian struggle over the past fifteen years, al-Haj Saleh reconsidered the relationship between thought, emotion, embodiment and lived experience, asking how extreme experiences become available to thought and what happens when inherited forms of knowledge become detached from experience.
The programme also looked directly towards the reconstruction of Syrian academic and institutional life. A session on “Reclaiming Urbanism: Pedagogies of Architecture and the City in Syria” explored new approaches to architectural and urban education, while a roundtable with Dr Moustafa Sayem El Daher, President of Damascus University, provided an opportunity to discuss the future of higher education and academic collaboration in Syria.
Alongside the academic programme, Syrian artist Sa'ad Choeb presented a multimedia installation exploring grief, displacement, embodiment and historical rupture, extending the conference's concern with different forms through which experience can become knowledge.
The Cambridge meeting also marked an important institutional transition for SARN itself. Established through a series of gatherings of Syrian academics in the UK beginning in 2022, SARN has developed into a cross-disciplinary network supporting research, collaboration and intellectual exchange among Syrian scholars and those working on Syria. Following its registration as a UK charity in 2025, SARN held its Annual General Meeting during the conference and announced its first elected Board of Trustees.
Early-career researchers featured prominently throughout the programme, reflecting SARN's commitment to supporting emerging scholars and creating intellectual connections across disciplines, institutions and career stages.
“SARN began from a relatively simple need: for Syrian academics scattered across different institutions and disciplines to encounter one another as colleagues,” Al-Azmeh said. “What has developed since then is a broader platform for thinking collectively about knowledge production, higher education and Syria's future. At this moment of profound change, preserving spaces for independent, rigorous and sometimes uncomfortable intellectual inquiry matters enormously.”
The conference took place at Newnham College, University of Cambridge, on 17–18 September 2026.
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Notes for editors
The Syrian Academics and Researchers' Network (SARN UK) is a UK-registered charity bringing together Syrian academics and researchers and scholars working on Syria. It supports scholarly exchange, collaboration, research and engagement around Syria and Syrian academic communities.
Syria in Transition: Knowledge, Memory and the Everyday Aftermath took place at Newnham College, Cambridge, on 17–18 September 2026, with support from the Margaret Anstee Centre for Global Studies.