Rana B. Khoury
@rbkhoury
assistant prof @IllinoisPolSci researching wartime activism, displacement, humanitarianism, and all things Syria. mama to the greatest 1st grader.
In war, civilians act to survive: flee, join, etc. Sometimes they also protest, help others, organize themselves. What’s the scope of such efforts? Where, when & why do they happen? In @PoPpublicsphere @aasiegel and I looked to Syria's war for answers 🧵cambridge.org/core/journals/…
This is a full-throated acknowledgment and denunciation of the horror in Gaza, penned with a deep self-reflexivity. It is also a careful account of deadly biases in an academic community. nytimes.com/2025/07/15/opi…
It's hard to articulate what it's like to watch a country unravel. Yeats could.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The thing about fragility is-with every crack, the structure becomes more irreparable.
I’ve just arrived back from Syria, I’ve intended to post reflections after some rest. One of which would have been: the country feels fragile—a lot is going super well, but cracks are latent. Minorities expressed to me their hopes but also fears 1/2
Using the pretext of creating a temporary "buffer zone" around its occupied Golan Heights, Israel is seizing territory in Syria. There is no reason to believe that this is anything but another land grab. npr.org/2025/01/23/g-s…
The proofs are in. It has a website. It has blurbs from amazing scholars. So I guess my book is real, and @CornellPress must agree! Civilizing Contention: International Aid in Syria's War is coming out later this year 🤓 cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/978150178…
Syria was in a water crisis before these devastating fires. The lack of rain this winter and spring was said to be behind the worst drought since the 1980s. In the south, meanwhile, Israel has extended its occupation over key sources of water and is purportedly withholding flow.
Since June 30, wildfires have raged in Syria’s Latakia and Tartous governorates. One major fire has been burning for five days. More than 10,000 hectares have burned, accounting for over 3% of Syria’s forests. Around 1,120 people have been displaced. Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, and…
Everyone’s talking about Zohran Mamdani possibly becoming NYC mayor, but the real headline is that a Syrian will be the First Lady of New York.
👇call for Syria papers
POMEPS Call for Papers: Syria after Assad Workshop. We seek papers on topics related to understanding Syria today that will be discussed at a virtual workshop on Sept. 19th. The deadline to apply is July 21st. For more info on how to apply: pomeps.org/call-for-paper…
I dunno. On the Middle East, I think he kinda gets it. youtu.be/xKwL6rOl2Z8?si…
1/ A suicide bombing during Sunday mass at St. Elias Church in Damascus marks one of the deadliest attacks on civilians in the Syrian capital in recent years. It raises urgent political and security questions in post-Assad Syria. 🧵
I was recently in a situation in which people were sharing business cards. I wondered when was the last time I carried one. It was neat to find.
Syrian Network for Human Rights, after 14 years of tireless work, opens its offices in Damascus. All the best to you @FADELABDULGHANY and your colleagues @snhr