Cara Syria Online Symposium – Voices from the Syrian Academic Community: Unique local insights and contributions to research, policy and practice

The Council for At-Risk Academics (Cara), with the support of The British Academy and the Royal Society, has announced a five-day online Syria Programme Symposium, "Voices from the Syrian Academic Community: Unique local insights and contributions to research, policy and practice" (6 – 10 December 2021). The symposium provides a platform for Syrian academics to showcase and share their research with a wider audience from the academic and humanitarian sectors, highlighting the importance of local knowledge, expertise and networks. This will facilitate academics in forming new partnerships, engaging funders with follow-on work and working to get Syrian higher education back on the international agenda.

The objectives of the symposium are:

• To give voice to Syrian academics and allow them to share their research findings and recommendations with an audience from the academic and humanitarian sectors
• To highlight the importance of their unique insights, given local knowledge, expertise and connections
• To prompt discussion on the issues raised and what needs to be done next and by whom
• To prompt new partnerships and engage funders in follow-on work
• To get Syrian higher education and its tertiary educators back on the international agenda

Welcome and keynote speakers:

Professor Simon Goldhill FBA, Foreign Secretary of the British Academy

Professor Sir Malcolm Grant CBE, Cara President

Professor Robin Grimes FRS FREng, Incoming Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society

Dr Flavia Schlegel, International Science Council Special Envoy for Science in Global Policy

Professor Jim Al-Khalili CBE FRS, Theoretical physicist, author and broadcaster

Session chairs and speakers across the five-day symposium include:

Professor Jen Baird, University of Birkbeck

Professor Lisa Boden, University of Edinburgh

Professor Dawn Chatty FBA, University of Oxford

Professor Christine Chinkin FBA, London School of Economics and Political Science

Dr Maggie Grant, University of Stirling

Professor Joanna Haigh CBE FRS, Imperial College London

Dr Kristen Hopper, University of Durham

Dr Bahriye Kemal, University of Kent

Professor Colleen McLaughlin, University of Cambridge

Dr Juliet Millican, Institute of Development Studies

Professor Mark Pelling, King's College London

Professor Robin Perutz FRS, University of York

Professor Ann Phoenix FBA, University College London

Dr Fateh Shaban, Florida Atlantic University

Professor Sir Tom Shakespeare FBA CBE, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Professor Elaine Unterhalter FBA, University College London

Professor Michael Worton CBE, (retired) University College London

Organised by Cara, with support from the Royal Society and the British Academy. Other collaborators include the universities of Edinburgh and Sussex.