In 2011, Syrians took to the streets demanding freedom. Brutal government repression transformed peaceful protests into one of the most devastating conflicts of our times, killing hundreds of thousands and displacing millions.
The Home I Worked to Make: Voices from the New Syrian Diaspora (Liveright, 2024) takes Syria’s refugee outflow as its point of depar ... Show More
Apr 2025
Amy Zhang, "Circular Ecologies: Environmentalism and Waste Politics in Urban China" (Stanford UP, 2024)
After four decades of reform and development, China is confronting a domestic waste crisis. As the world's largest waste-generating nation, the World Economic Forum projects that by 2030, the volume of household waste in China will be double that of the United States. Starting in ... Show More
1h 7m
Yesterday
Elizabeth Anne Davis, "The Time of the Cannibals: On Conspiracy Theory and Context" (Fordham UP, 2024)
In 2009, the body of a former president of the Republic of Cyprus, Tassos Papadopoulos, was stolen from his grave. The Time of the Cannibals reconsiders this history and the public discourse on it to reconsider how we think about conspiracy theory, and specifically, what it means ... Show More
1h 30m
Nov 23
Sarah Hoiland, "Righteous Sisterhood: The Politics and Power of an All-Women's Motorcycle Club" (Temple UP, 2025)
A righteous sister identifies herself as a biker. She might wrench, or maintain, her own bike, and she prefers to ride with other righteous sisters. Righteous Sisterhood: The Politics and Power of an All-Women's Motorcycle Club (Temple UP, 2025) is Dr. Sarah Hoiland’s insightful ... Show More
44m 53s
Mar 2021
The price of freedom: Syrians fight displacement and poverty after a decade of war
10 years ago this month, protesters took to the streetss broke out across Syria the country demanding an end to the rule of Bashar Al-Assad. Inspired by similar protests in Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria and across the region, Syrians sought a democratic and just society, free from oppr ... Show More
38m 45s
Feb 2023
A Crisis Within a Crisis in Syria
<p>When a 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit Syria and Turkey last week, it killed thousands and created a crisis within a crisis.</p><p>International aid began pouring into Turkey, but northwestern Syria, which was also hard-hit, received only a trickle. It was a bitter blow for Syria ... Show More
26m 28s
Mar 2024
Thirteen years later, has the world forgotten Syria?
<p>Thirteen years ago, Syrians took to the streets to stand up against the government of Bashar al-Assad. The war that followed has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced more than 12 million. Today, al-Assad is still in power. Has the world abandoned Syria?</p> <p><strong>In ... Show More
17m 18s
Feb 2023
Natasha Hall: The Aftermath of Earthquakes in Syria
This week, in a special episode of Babel, Jon Alterman speaks with Middle East Program senior fellow Natasha Hall about the aftermath of the recent earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. They talk about the aid response, how governments are instrumentalizing the aid response to advance ... Show More
29m 13s
Jun 2023
Syrie: la normalisation amorcée?
Le 19 mai 2023, le sommet de la Ligue arabe à Djeddah a marqué le retour en grâce de Bachar el-Assad auprès de ses pairs du Proche-Orient. Tapis rouge pour un président que l’organisation avait exclu, fin 2011, pour sa répression sanglante du soulèvement démocratique en Syrie, da ... Show More
50 m