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Sociology Research

 

Zeina Al Azmeh

Zeina Al Azmeh is the Centenary Research Fellow at Selwyn College, Cambridge, and a guest lecturer at the Department of Sociology. She is also a research associate at the Centre for Governance and Human Rights, University of Cambridge. With a multidisciplinary approach that bridges cultural and political sociology, Zeina's research centers on the experiences of academics and intellectuals in exile. Her expertise lies in the political sociology of knowledge production, memorialization, and migration, particularly focusing on migrations resulting from revolutions and counterrevolutions.

In addition to her academic pursuits, Zeina is also a trained musician, holding a bachelor's degree in piano performance and a master's degree in composition. She completed her PhD in Sociology from the University of Cambridge in 2021, where she conducted an in-depth investigation into the role of exiled Syrian intellectuals in civil resistance since 2011.

Research Interests

Zeina's research interests revolve around the intersections of cultural trauma, forced migration, and the sociology of intellectuals, with a particular emphasis on the role of exiled intellectuals in shaping political subjectivities, especially within revolutionary movements. In her previous work, Zeina focused on the empirical context of the Syrian Uprising in 2011. Her research delved into the intricate relationship between "nomadic subjectivity" and the concept of home as a fixed place, particularly within the contexts of exile and forced displacement. Her current project takes a comparative approach in examining the impact of the outcomes of a revolutionary movement on knowledge productions processes particularly as they relate to the formation of political subjectivities in exile.

Teaching

Zeina’s teaching experience extends over 20 years gained in a variety of diverse environments, in the global north and south.  She was a guest lecturer at the University of Cambridge’s department of sociology in 2022/23 where she taught ‘Theories of Modernity’ as part of the department’s Introduction to Sociology. Over the past 7 years, she has also supervised undergraduate courses at the Cambridge's Department of Sociology. Her teaching aims to expand on the theoretical cannon to include previously marginalised scholarship where relevant to enrich students' learning and classroom discussion.  In 2016 and 2017, she taught an undergraduate course in the medical humanities titled Medicine and the Arts engaging 2 cohorts of medical students at Qatar University using problem-based learning (PBL) and conducted a pedagogical study published as a chapter on the usefulness of arts-based methods in professional education (Palgrave, 2017).  In her early career and for 3 years, she was a lecturer in music theory at the Higher Institute of Music in Damascus, Syria.

Publications

PhD Dissertation:
Al Azmeh, Z. (2021). The Cost of Leaving: A Cultural Sociology of Exiled Syrian Intellectuals (Doctoral dissertation) https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.71951

 

Journal articles:
Baert, P. and Al Azmeh, Z. (Forthcoming). Stop the Performance! Intellectuals in the Context of “Cancel Culture”.  In I Jijón, N Rudas, and J Pérez-Jara (Eds.), Dramatic Intellectuals. Palgrave Cultural Sociology Series.

Al Azmeh, Z. and Baert, P. (2024) Trauma work as hindrance to political praxis during democratisation movements. Theory and Society. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-023-09540-5

Dillabough, J. and Al Azmeh, Z. (Forthcoming) Beyond Victim and Perpetrator Working in the Grey Zone of the Modern Academy: the paradoxical problem spaces of the post-colonial scholar in exile. Forthcoming in Qualitative.

Al Azmeh, Z. and Dillabough, J. (2023). Authorial Power, Authoritarianism, and Exiled Intellectuals: Syria and Turkey. International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10767-023-09455-0 

Al Azmeh, Z. (2022). The Right to Meaning: A Syrian Case Study. Cultural Sociology, 16(3), 402–422. https://doi.org/10.1177/17499755211052361

Al Azmeh, Z., Dillabough, J., Fimyar, O., McLaughlin, et al. (2021). Cultural trauma and the politics of access to higher education in Syria. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 42(4), 528-543, https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2020.1715922 

Baert, P. and Al Azmeh, Z. (2021). Intellectuals. In L. Spillman (Ed.), Oxford bibliographies. Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/OBO/9780199756384-0261

McLaughlin, C., Dillabough, J., Fimyar, O., Al Azmeh, Z. et al. (2020). Testimonies of Syrian academic displacement post-2011: Time, place and the agentic self. International Journal of Educational Research Open. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedro.2020.100003

Dillabough, J., Fimyar, O., McLaughlin, C., Al-Azmeh, Z. et al. (2018). Conflict, insecurity and the political economies of higher education: The case of Syria post-2011, International Journal of Comparative Education and Development, 20(3/4), 176-196. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCED-07-2018-0015 

Al Azmeh, Z. (2014). Nomadic Feminism: Four Lines of Flight. European Scientific Journal, ESJ, 10.

 

Book Chapters:
Al Azmeh, Z. (2023) Exilic narrations: from a politics of being perceived to a politics of perceiving. In J Parpart & A Khalid (Eds.), Silence, Voice and the In-Between: exploring a world in flux. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003349945 

Al Azmeh Z., Du X. (2018) Arts and Medicine: Connecting the arts and humanities to professional education. In: Chemi T., & Du X. (Eds.), Arts-based methods and organizational learning; Palgrave studies in business, arts and humanities (pp. 213-240). Palgrave Macmillan Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63808-9_10  

 

Reports:
Dillabough, J., Fimyar, O., McLaughlin, C., Al Azmeh, Z. & Jebril, M. (2018) The State of Higher Education in Syria Pre-2011. Research report. https://www.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/state-higher-education-syria-pre-2011-english_0.pdf 

Dillabough, J., Fimyar, O., McLaughlin, C., Al Azmeh, Z. & Jebril, M. (2018) Syrian Higher Education post 2011: Immediate and Future Challenges. Research report. https://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/networks/eri/publications/syria/190606-REPORT-2-POST-2011-FINAL-ENGLISH.pdf  

 

Work in Progress

Books:
Al Azmeh, Z. The Cost of Leaving: Syrian intellectuals and the dilemmas of revolution under globalisation. 
Under review for Cambridge University Press.

Peer reviewed journal articles:
Al Azmeh, Z. The Rise of Persecution Capital and Its Elite Capture. In progress.

Rubin, J. and Al Azmeh, Z. Foreign Aid, Higher Education & The ‘Right to Meaning’ in Syria. In progress. 
 

PhD Supervisor

Patrick Baert

Research Groups & Affiliations

Postdoctoral Research Associate at Christ's College, University of Cambridge
(2021-2022)
Research Associate, Centre of Governance and Human Rights, University of
Cambridge

Job Title:
PhD Candidate, Centenary Research Fellow, Selwyn College
Contact Information:
Full CV / Publications:
Microsoft Office document icon Zeina AI Azmeh CV - Apr 2024.doc

Study at Cambridge

About the University

Research at Cambridge