Free from the state? Resistance and the possibilities for freedom in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights
Funder: ATHENA SWAN AWARD, Brunel University LondonDuration: January 2022 - December 2022
Can sectarianism exist without the nation-state? Can statelessness open up or inhibit the possibilities of political resistance and freedom? Critical scholarship on sectarianism in the Middle East, including my own book on sectarianism within the pre-war Syrian state, locate sectarian belonging within the contingencies and struggles of modern Middle Eastern state formation. But, contemporary crises, such as the devastating war in Syria, the socio-economic crisis in Lebanon, and the right-wing expansionism in Israel, seem to shake the foundational assumptions of states and belonging in the region. By exploring the political resistance among the stateless Syrians, who belong to the Druze sect, in the Israeli-Occupied Golan Heights, this project turns the question of sectarianism on its head. Stateless since the Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights during the Six-Days War in 1967, the Syrian Druze have persevered dispossession and occupation and they continue to fight for their liberation and return to Syria. Indeed, they appear to be an example of defying sectarian stereotyping, and the contemporary widespread sectarianisation of political belonging in the region and the rise of populism among rural communities world-wide.
People
| Name | Telephone | Office | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Dr Maria Kastrinou Senior Lecturer in Anthropology (Principal investigator)
T: +44 (0)1895 265059
E: maria.kastrinou@brunel.ac.uk |
+44 (0)1895 265059 | maria.kastrinou@brunel.ac.uk | Marie Jahoda 219 |
Outputs
Kastrinou, M. and Knoerk, H. (2024) 'To the future guests of Lesvos: Hospitality and history among Syrian refugees in Greece'. History and Anthropology, 0 (ahead of print). pp. 1 - 16. ISSN: 0275-7206 Open Access Link
Kastrinou, M., Said, S., Jarbouh, R. and Emery, SB. (2023) 'Still There: Politics, Sectarianism and the Reverberations of War in the Presences and Absences of the Syrian State'. Conflict and Society, 9 (1). pp. 147 - 166. ISSN: 2164-4543 Open Access Link
Kastrinou, M., Jarbouh, R., Said, S. and Emery, S. (Accepted) 'Present Absence and Absent Presence: Sectarianism and the State in two Druze regions of Syria', in Hinnebusch, R. and Valbjørn, M. (eds.) Comparing Sectarianism in Syria's Regions. London : Routledge.