25 February 2025, Tuesday

14.00-15.30

Istanbul Bilgi University

santralistanbul Campus, E5-103

Understanding Syria through Syrian Voices: Stories of Revolution, War, and the Struggle for Home

Wendy Pearlman

Northwestern University

Abstract

Over 13 years, Prof. Wendy Pearlman has interviewed more than 500 displaced Syrians around the world about their experiences of a brutal authoritarian regime, the popular uprising against it, and the subsequent war and refugee crisis. In this presentation, she shares and explores their stories collected in her two books, We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled: Voices from Syria (available in Turkish as Bir Köprüden Geçtik: Suriyeli Direnişçiler Anlatıyor) and the newly published The Home I Worked to Make: Voices from the New Syrian Diaspora. These oral histories help explain the origins and trajectory of the Syrian conflict and the lived experience of displacement, while also shedding light on the dramatic questions currently facing Syrian refugees in Turkey and also offering broader lessons about migration, belonging, and the search for dignity.

Biographical note

Wendy Pearlman is the Jane Long Professor of Arts and Sciences and professor of political science at Northwestern University, and Co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal Perspectives on Politics. A scholar of Middle East politics, social movements, conflict processes, and forced migration, she is the author of six books and more than 40 journal articles or book chapters.

Notice: Participants to enter the santralistanbul Campus should use the Visitors' Gate (Ziyaretçi Girişi) located at the end of the parking lot. 

• Poster-Seminar 25 Feb 2025