The Home I Worked to Make: Voices from the New Syrian Diaspora

Book talk with Wendy Pearlman from Northwestern University at PRIF

Join us for a book talk with Wendy Pearlman from North­western University, who will present her la­test book “The Home I Worked to Make: Voi­ces from the New Syrian Dias­pora”. In her book, the author ex­plores how vio­lence not only forced millions of Sy­rians from their homes but also com­pelled them to re­think the meaning of home it­self. As follow-up to her book “We Crossed A Bridge and It Trembled: Voi­ces from Syria”, this new collec­tion is based on origi­nal inter­views with more than 500 dis­placed Syrians on five conti­nents. 

The book is a tapes­try of testi­monials that begins with sto­ries of leaving Syria and follows refu­gees’ journeys around the world as they re­flect on losing home, sear­ching for home, and de­riving broader lessons about mi­gration, iden­tity, and belonging. In sharing and re­flecting on a selec­tion of these personal stories, this presen­tation puts the current Syrian political tran­sition in a broader con­text and reminds us what is at stake, in human terms. 

Wendy Pearlman is the Jane Long Pro­fessor of Arts and Scien­ces and professor of po­litical science at North­western University, and Co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal “Perspec­tives on Poli­tics”. A scholar of Middle East poli­tics, social move­ments, conflict processes, and forced mi­gration, she is the author of six books and more than 40 journal articles or book chapters.

  • When? July 1, 2025, 4:00–5:30 pm
  • Where? Con­ference Room, PRIF, Baseler Str. 27-31, 60329 Frank­furt, with an online option

The event will be mo­derated by Regine Schwab (TraCe). To register, please email Cornelia.Hess(at)prif.org and indicate whether you will participate at PRIF or online.

Download: Flyer (PDF)