Archiving the future: Syrian archival activism in times of displacement

Archival practices take on a particular urgency when societies experience rupture. 

Under conditions of political repression, war, and displacement, archives are not simply repositories of the past. They become tools through which communities attempt to preserve fragments of collective life, document experiences of violence and loss, and safeguard materials that might otherwise disappear.

In the Syrian context, archival work has long been shaped by constraint, from censorship and limited access to official records to the reliance on privately held materials. The events following 2011 further unsettled this landscape, even as they prompted new efforts to document experiences, preserve cultural traces, and engage with questions of memory and loss across dispersed communities.

This public event brings together Syrian initiatives engaged in different forms of archival practice, from documenting prison histories to tracing the afterlives of violence, as well as preserving agricultural and environmental knowledge and the lived realities of displacement.

The panel will explore why these projects were created, the challenges they face, and how displacement has shaped their work.

The event is organised as part of Archives of Solidarity, a research initiative collaboratively building a digital archive of acts of solidarity between refugees and citizens in Turkey and the United Kingdom, while exploring how archival activism emerge in contexts of displacement and collective memory-making.

Join us for this special evening to discuss and reflect together. All are welcome.

Registration

This event is free to attend, but registration is required. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.