Zeina Al Azmeh

Zeina Al Azmeh is a Research and Teaching Associate in Political Sociology at the Department of Sociology and a Fellow of Selwyn College, Cambridge. 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 centres on the experiences of academics and intellectuals in exile. Her expertise lies in the political sociology of knowledge production, memorialisation, 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 examines 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 and the 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

Courses:

SOC8: Empire, Revolution, and Exile

Graduate supervision availability and interests:

Zeina is available to supervise MPhil students in the following areas: contemporary social movements, sociology of intellectuals, sociology of migration, cultural sociology.

Publications

Books:

Al Azmeh, Zeina. Syrian Intellectuals in Exile: The Dilemmas of Revolution and the Cost of Leaving. Cambridge University Press, under contract.

Journal Articles:

Al Azmeh, Zeina, and Patrick Baert. Forthcoming. "Stop the Performance! Intellectuals in the Context of ‘Cancel Culture’." In Dramatic Intellectuals, edited by Javier Pérez-Jara and Nicolás Rudas. Palgrave Cultural Sociology Series. https://ccs.yale.edu/publications-and-research/cultural-sociology-series-palgrave-macmillan.

Dillabough, Jo-Anne, and Zeina Al Azmeh. 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." Qualitative Inquiry.

Al Azmeh, Zeina, and Patrick Baert. 2024. "Trauma Work as Hindrance to Political Praxis During Democratisation Movements." Theory and Society. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-023-09540-5.

Al Azmeh, Zeina, and Jo-Anne Dillabough. 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, Zeina. 2022. "The Right to Meaning: A Syrian Case Study." Cultural Sociology 16(3):402–422. https://doi.org/10.1177/17499755211052361.

Al Azmeh, Zeina, Jo-Anne Dillabough, Olena Fimyar, Colleen 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, Patrick, and Zeina Al Azmeh. 2021. "Intellectuals." In Oxford Bibliographies, edited by L. Spillman. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/OBO/9780199756384-0261.

McLaughlin, Colleen, Jo-Anne Dillabough, Olena Fimyar, Zeina Al Azmeh, 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, Jo-Anne, Olena Fimyar, Colleen McLaughlin, Zeina Al Azmeh, 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, Zeina. 2014. "Nomadic Feminism: Four Lines of Flight." European Scientific Journal 10.

Book Chapters:

Al Azmeh, Zeina. 2023. "Exilic Narrations: From a Politics of Being Perceived to a Politics of Perceiving." In Silence, Voice and the In-Between: Exploring a World in Flux, edited by J. Parpart and A. Khalid. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003349945.

Al Azmeh, Zeina, and X. Du. 2018. "Arts and Medicine: Connecting the Arts and Humanities to Professional Education." In Arts-Based Methods and Organizational Learning, edited by T. Chemi and X. Du, 213-240. Palgrave Macmillan Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63808-9_10.

Reports:

Dillabough, Jo-Anne, Olena Fimyar, Colleen McLaughlin, Zeina Al Azmeh, and M. Jebril. 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, Jo-Anne, Olena Fimyar, Colleen McLaughlin, Zeina Al Azmeh, and M. Jebril. 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.

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

Research Interests

Teaching

Publications

PhD Supervisor

Research Groups & Affiliations

Study at Cambridge

About the University

Research at Cambridge