SARN UK’s Organising Committee (L-R): Roua Al Taweel, Dr Azzam Al Kassir, Dr Zeina Al-Azmeh, Oudai Tozan, Dr Haian Dukhan, Dr Feras Alkabani, Dr Mohammed Ateek, Dr Rahaf Aldoughly.

Dr Feras Alkabani has 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). The network was launched, along with its first annual conference, at Pembroke College (University of Cambridge) back in September.

Over a period of 18 months starting in Spring 2024, the AHRC grant will fund 4 events:

• 2 collaborative workshops in Cambridge, 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
• and culminating in an international conference, co-sponsored by the Middle East and North Africa Centre at Sussex (MENACS), to be held here at the University of Sussex in Autumn 2025.

The conference will showcase the Network’s research outputs and creative connections and feature the latest scholarship on Syria by international experts; the conference will conclude with an artistic performance by SACF and a roundtable discussion of the role of art in storytelling and documenting culture and history at times of conflict.

Feras would like to thank Professor Lizzie Thynne, Director of Research and Knowledge Exchange at MAH, and Dr Sarah Frisby-Osman, Research Development Manager, for their invaluable support throughout the application process.

Feras also explained: "Sussex has been my adopted home since I came here as a student in 2007, and it is good to see the University has now become a base for a wider Syrian academic project with potential for real impact."