Zeina Al-Azmeh, "Syrian Intellectuals in Exile: The Dilemmas of Revolution and the Cost of Leaving" (Cambridge UP, 2026)

About this episode

The episode discusses Zeina Al-Azmeh's book on Syrian intellectuals in exile and their complex relationship with the revolution and their new homes in the West.

Zeina Al-Azmeh’s Syrian Intellectuals in Exile: The Dilemmas of Revolution and the Cost of Leaving (Cambridge UP, 2026) captures a group of intellectuals forced to leave Syria, primarily after the events of 2011. Having wound up in either Paris or Berlin these intellectuals are forced to reconsider their relation to their homeland, including the ongoing revolution, while navigating their new Western homes. As Al-Azmeh shows, this creates a diverse intellectual field which, while shaped by different intellectual and personal positions shares the need to navigate how they think of the revolution and the expectation of their hosts. In the course of the book, Al-Azmeh shows us a group of intellectuals who, while adopting a ‘double gaze’ of critiquing and at points valuing the West increasingly (though not wholly) adopt a position of ‘radical embeddedness’ towards the revolution, giving their role as leaders and instead seeing themselves as followers of the people. In the podcast we discuss the process that led these intellectuals to this position and the problems it posed for their relevance. We also discuss the contributions Al-Azmeh makes across the sociology of intellectuals…

People in this episode

Host: Matt Dawson

Guest: Zeina Al-Azmeh

Topics covered

• Syrian intellectuals
• exile
• revolution
• postcolonial theory
• sociology of intellectuals
• trauma work

Keywords

• Syrian intellectuals
• exile
• revolution
• postcolonial theory
• sociology
• trauma work
• Matt Dawson

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Cambridge UP

Places: Syria, Paris, Berlin, Glasgow

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