The Question of Syria Story of Aleppo

At the beginning of the Syrian uprising, Aleppo symbolized dissent to Assad rule culturally, with its unique plethora of artistic, cultural and civil society initiatives. The very same city that once represented hope is now the site of violence and despair.

The story of Aleppo needs to be told. Only by making sense of what happened to Aleppo and its people can we make sense of the lasting impact this loss for civilization will have in the world.

In its third annual edition, The Question of Syria will tell the Story of Aleppo during two days of talks, panel discussions, short film screenings, and music bringing together academics, activists and artists who will talk and reflect on Aleppo.

Program

Speakers

Lina Sergie Attar

Syrian-American architect and writer from Aleppo. Currently living in the US, she is the co-founder and CEO of Karam Foundation. Attar frequently travels to the Syrian border in southern Turkey to run Karam’s Smart Aid programs. Her articles and essays have been published in the NYT, Foreign Policy, Politico, and BBC. Attar is a co-founder of the How Many More? project and serves on the Board of Directors of The Syria Campaign.

Karam Nachar

Executive Director of AlJumhuriya.net, an online journal that covers Syrian politics and culture, and a Lecturer at Isik University, Istanbul. Nachar completed his PhD in Modern History at Princeton University in 2014, with focus on Cultural and Intellectual History of Modern Syria and Lebanon. Nachar holds a Masters in Modern Middle Eastern Studies from Oxford University.

Annika Rabo

Professor in Social Anthropology at Stockholm University. Rabo received her Ph.D. in Social Anthropology in 1986 after completing a thesis on the political and social effects of a gigantic irrigation scheme along the Euphrates in northeast Syria. From the end of the 1990s she has worked on traders in the Aleppo bazaar, which resulted in the book A Shop of One’s Own Independence and Reputation among Traders in Aleppo.

Mohamad Katoub

Dentist and medical worker from Douma. Since the start of the Syrian uprising, Katoub has worked on the provision of emergency medical care and helped establish several field hospitals in Douma and nearby communities. In 2014 he escaped from Douma with his family and fled to Turkey, where he continued to support the medical sector in the besieged Eastern Ghouta. Katoub works as Advocacy Manager for the Syrian American Medical Society, a humanitarian organization harnessing the talents of Syrian-American health care professionals to provide medical relief.

Leila Nachawati

Spanish-Syrian writer and storyteller. She is a communications officer at the Association for Progressive Communications and a Professor of Communications at Madrid’s Carlos III University. She is co-founder of the news portal on Syrian civil society SyriaUntold and has just published her first novel on citizen mobilisations and the Arab Spring, Cuando la revolución termine (When the revolution is over).