Hannah Stork

Syriac on Site: Connecting Global Students of Syriac with the Communities of Tur Abdin

“During the years that I worked in the Middle East for API, I frequently found myself taking deep dives into the region’s largely unknown strands of history, wishing I had even more time to pursue these historical narratives in all their complex detail. This experience led me to graduate work, where I began to study Syriac heritage. In graduate school, however, I saw that many “experts” in the region had little or no experience hearing from the communities populating the Middle East in the present day.”

The project’s purpose is to establish a network in the Tur Abdin region of Southeast Turkey that will enhance her work to bring a travel course to the region, “Syriac on Site,” highlighting the local communities and their stories—not just the ancient history for which the region is so well known. Scheduled to take place in July 2024, she will bring 18 students from around the world specializing in Syriac Studies to encounter the heartland of Syriac heritage: the Tur Abdin region of Southeast Turkey. 

Participants will gain the ability to contextualize their studies through lived experiences. Further, course participants will gain familiarity with the research being done by scholars in the region and what Western scholars can learn from Middle Eastern scholars specializing in the history of the region, the legacies of generations of orientalist and colonialist scholarship, and begin to give way to a new model for studying the region.