Syrian Voices

Syrian Voices is a participatory community history project which records the testimonies of Syrian refugees now re-settled across the UK. This project explores what it means to be a refugee in the UK today, as well as how new transnational identities are constructed.

A core aim of the Syrian Voices project is to build networks of support and skill-sharing between participants, NGOs, voluntary organisations and members of the wider community. We invite new Syrian participants from all backgrounds and walks of life.

We hope to create a lasting institutional archive of around 50 recorded interviews for future historians and researchers using filmed testimonies, zoom recordings and photos. We will also hold termly seminars and events with our collaborators. A series
of short documentary films illustrating individual stories will be posted on our TORCH website going forward. Get in touch with us there if you’d like to find out more and join our project!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/ED0EmbvvuAI?controls=0

Acknowledgements: Project collaborators: Mehreen Saigol (Filmmaker and Community Sponsorship organiser) and Elisabeth Bolorinos Allard (Co-Convenor on the Conversations on Identity, Ethnicity and Nationhood TORCH/Stanford House seminar Series). We are very grateful for the recent funding provided by the TORCH Humanities Cultural Programme. The project would not have been able to get off the ground without the practical and moral support of Meryem Kalayci, Chaplain of St Hilda’s College, Nikki Carter and Holly Knights of TORCH. The project has also received the kind support of Lyndal Roper, Martin Conway, John Watts and Priya Atwal of the Oxford History Faculty. External supporters include Hannah Feldman (Sponsor Refugees; Citizens UK) and Gilberto Estrada Harris (Oxford Asylum Welcome), Elizabeth Parker (Getting Court) and producer/film cameraman Nick London and Stephanie Solywoda of Stanford University in Oxford. Also, Amanda Waggot and Anthony Biggs of the Playground Theatre, London;Charlotte Eagar and William Stirling of The Trojan Women’s Project; and Joe Murphy of the Good Chance Theatre. Asylum Welcome and Citizen’s UK supported the project from the outset and introduced us to many participants.

Syria and Silence

The Silence Hub and the Oxford Network for Armenian Genocide Research invited ten individuals to talk about what the ongoing war means to them. Two questions were asked: 1. Where were you/what were you doing when you realised that Syria had turned from demonstrations to war/conflict? 2. What do you want to happen now/how do you want people to engage with the situation?

Syrian Voices: Individual perspectives on the Syrian diaspora

March 2021 marked the 10-year anniversary of the conflict in Syria. Since 2011, more than 12 million people have left the country and around 30,000 individuals have resettled in the UK. Amid the devastation of the pandemic, the world has forgotten these refugees.