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Wendy Pearlman, Norhtwestern University: Understanding Syria through Refugee Stories: We Crossed A Bridge and It Trembled: Voices from Syria

Prof. Dr. Wendy Pearlman Associate Professor at Northwestern University Alexander-von Humboldt-Fellow (mit Co-Gastgeber EUME/Berlin), Juni bis August (2016-2021)

Veranstaltungsdaten

02. July 2018 16:15 – 02. July 2018 17:45
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Centrum für Nah- und Mittelost-Studien, Deutschhausstraße 12, Raum 00A23

How can we make sense of the tragedy in Syria? Wendy Pearlman has conducted open-ended interviews with more than 300 displaced Syrians across the Middle East and Europe from 2012 to 2017. She has brought together these personal stories in the new book, We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled: Voices from Syria (HarperCollins 2017), called “essential reading” by the New York Times and longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence. In this talk, Pearlman will share a selection of voices from the book, along with her own commentary and analysis, to explain the origins and evolution of the Syrian conflict, as well as what it has been like for the ordinary people who have lived its unfolding. Her talk will paint a portrait of silence and intimidation under an oppressive authoritarian regime before 2011, expresses the euphoric experience of participating in protest against that regime, conveys the resilience of communities enduring unspeakable violence thereafter, and offers a window into the challenge of becoming and being a refugee. This talk will offer a humanistic interpretation of the current conflict in Syria and how it has transformed those who have experienced it.

Wendy Pearlman is the Martin and Patricia Koldyke Outstanding Teaching Associate Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University, where she specializes in Middle East politics.
She is the author of three books, We Crossed A Bridge and It Trembled: Voices from Syria (HarperCollins 2017), Violence, Nonviolence, and the Palestinian National Movement (Cambridge University Press, 2011) and Occupied Voices: Stories of Everyday Life from the Second Intifada (Nation Books, 2003), and dozens of popular essays, academic articles, or book chapters.
Her current research, building on interviews that she has conducted with hundreds of displaced Syrians across the Middle East and Europe since 2012, explores questions of identity, belonging, and self-realization among Syrians in exile. She earned a Ph.D. from Harvard University, an MA from Georgetown University, and a BA from Brown University.

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