Syrian Studies Association

To encourage and promote research and scholarly understanding of Syria. Affiliated with @MESA_1966.

Read the SSA Bulletin:

[Syrian Studies Association @SyrianStudies]

The Syrian Studies Association is pleased to announce the winner of our 2025 prize for Best Article or Book Chapter about Syria:

Victoria Abrahamyan, "Loyalty at Stake: Armenian Refugees and the Syrian Great Revolt 1925-1926."

[Syrian Studies Association @SyrianStudies]

ICYMI:

Former SSA president Keith Watenpaugh's letter from Alepo

https://t.co/AkZcLDFw9L

[Syrian Studies Association @SyrianStudies]

Former SSA President and Prof. of Human Rights Studies at UC Davis Keith David Watenpaugh has recently returned from a research visit to Aleppo and Northern Syria.  He has written about the visit, including practical details, and has imagined what the opening of Syria could mean for our field.

Below is link to his essay.  A Letter from Aleppo: Mourning, Rebuilding, and a New Syrian Studies

His substack also includes several essays on an early January trip to the country.

https://t.co/PdjcHMzncP

[Syrian Studies Association @SyrianStudies]

We are happy to share work from SSA members on our social media channels. Feel free to reach out to us, or tag us.

[Syrian Studies Association @SyrianStudies]

Former SSA President and Prof. of Human Rights Studies at UC Davis Keith David Watenpaugh has recently returned from a research visit to Aleppo and Northern Syria.  He has written about the visit, including practical details, and has imagined what the opening of Syria could mean for our field.

Below is link to his essay.  A Letter from Aleppo: Mourning, Rebuilding, and a New Syrian Studies

His substack also includes several essays on an early January trip to the country.

https://t.co/PdjcHMzncP

[Jihad Yazigi @jihadyazigi]

We are making available free of charge our latest map of Syria's oil and gas fields. Don't hesitate to download it and use it as a reference. This map came with an extensive interview we did with SPC officials who gave us a detailed breakdown of the status of all the fields that the government took control of in the past week. @TheSyriaReport . The Syria Report has more than 900 articles on Syria's energy sector, including 48 articles in the past year alone (one evry week!).

[Syrian Studies Association @SyrianStudies]

Keith Watenpaugh on his recent visit to Syria.

"In this second essay on the formation of historical narrative and memory in post-civil war Syria, I consider a banner draped across a hospital destroyed by Russian planes in Syria’s Palestinian Yarmouk Refugee Camp and the way it tells a complex and complicated story of resistance, complicity and the high-stakes problem with historical endings."

https://t.co/TMn8gsEEm8

[Syrian Studies Association @SyrianStudies]

Congratulations, Mr. Aslaner!

Read the full article here:

https://t.co/MVSlj7eqbY

[Syrian Studies Association @SyrianStudies]

Honorable Mention for our 2025 prize for Best Article goes to Muhammed Aslaner (@Aslanermuhammed), for his article, “Responding to the Arab Revolt: The Circassian Volunteer Cavalry and the Defence of Ottoman Transjordan in the First World War.”

[Syrian Studies Association @SyrianStudies]

About Aslaner's article, our prize committee (Michael Provence, Dawn Chatty, and James Reilly) says:

"Muhammad Aslaner has written a graceful, sophisticated analysis based on Ottoman sources countering the “accepted” historical record based on British military memoirs and personal notes, which held that the Ottoman Army was not capable of dealing with or responding to unconventional “Bedouin” warfare. It is another example of historical analysis based on Ottoman sources challenging accepted mainstream historiography."

[Syrian Studies Association @SyrianStudies]

Dr. Abrahamyan's article appears in Microhistories in Armenian Studies, ed. Barlow Der Mugrdechian, Ümit Kurt, and Ara Sarafian, Fresno: California State University Press, 2025.

Congratulations, Dr. Abrahamyan!

https://t.co/Dr68vv9jXd

[Syrian Studies Association @SyrianStudies]

The Syrian Studies Association is pleased to announce the winner of our 2025 prize for Best Article or Book Chapter about Syria:

Victoria Abrahamyan, "Loyalty at Stake: Armenian Refugees and the Syrian Great Revolt 1925-1926."

[Syrian Studies Association @SyrianStudies]

About Dr. Abrahamyan's article, our prize committee (Michael Provence, Dawn Chatty, and James Reilly) says:

"Dr Victoria Abrahamyan has written a new and fascinating reappraisal of a familiar episode during the Great Syrian Revolt. Using French, Armenian, and Communist (local and in the Soviet Union) sources...the article convincingly revises a number of influential works on the revolt."

[Syrian Studies Association @SyrianStudies]

MESA attendees - please join us for our annual meeting!

Monday night at 6 pm in Redbud. We are looking forward to seeing you!

@MESA_1966

[MESA @MESA_1966]

The countdown has started! In just 10 days, we'll be welcoming you to the Middle East Studies Association Annual Meeting in Washington, DC.

We can't wait to see you there!

[Dr. Noor @ngaswad]

My book is finally out in the world! I can hold it in my hands and take it places🧡

You can purchase your copy on amazon: https://t.co/iM2EibEiW4

[Syrian Studies Association @SyrianStudies]

Please consider running for our board! 🗳️

[Reem @r_bailony]

The @SyrianStudies Board is seeking nominations for 5 (!) board positions to begin in January 2026: President-Elect, Member-at-Large, Treasurer, Prize Committee Chair, & Graduate Student Representative. Please help me spread the word & help us build a dynamic team! Details below-

[Reem @r_bailony]

The @SyrianStudies Board is seeking nominations for 5 (!) board positions to begin in January 2026: President-Elect, Member-at-Large, Treasurer, Prize Committee Chair, & Graduate Student Representative. Please help me spread the word & help us build a dynamic team! Details below-

[Syrian Studies Association @SyrianStudies]

🏆 Nominations sought for 2025 Syria Studies Association Prizes 🏆

Dear SSA members,

Please submit dissertations or articles / chapters for this year’s Syrian Studies Association Prizes for Outstanding Dissertation and Article on Syria!

To promote and highlight excellence in research, the Syrian Studies Association awards annual prizes for the best writing on the region known as Bilad al-Sham until 1918 and Syria in the period following.

In 2025, the SSA seeks submissions for the most outstanding dissertation completed between July 1, 2023 and July 1, 2025, and the most outstanding article or book chapter published between July 1, 2024 and July 1, 2025.

Submissions are due by September 10, 2025.

To be considered for the prize, candidates must be active members of the Syrian Studies Association. Information about the Syrian Studies Association is available at the following website: https://t.co/9FylF6T6kj.

Please send PDFs to [email protected].

Thank you,

Michael Provence
Syrian Studies Association Prize Chair

[Syrian Studies Association @SyrianStudies]

Stanford University Press is having a 50% sale on all of their books!

Including last year's SSA Prize Winner:

States of Cultivation by Elizabeth Williams:

https://t.co/mEd4cqv79F

And our runner-up, Famine Worlds, by Tylor Brand
(@_Khayyat_):

https://t.co/aoD1U3TOC9

[Aaron Y. Zelin @azelin]

From Idlib’s Friday Pulpits to Damascus’ Umayyad Mosque: How Religious Programming Shaped Syria’s Liberation (2019-2024) - Muhammed Fatih, Syrian Studies Association Bulletin: https://t.co/riNzCy3IlP