Seit April 2022 Freie Universität Berlin: Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin am Institut für Islamwissenschaft

2019 - 2021 Universität Hamburg: Geschichte (M.A.)

2015 - 2019 Universität Hamburg: Hauptfach Geschichte, Nebenfach Philosophie (B.A.)

Sommersemester 2023

14302 Umstrittene Historiographien: Syrien im 20. Jahrhundert

Remembering Damascus in the 1970s. Refugees’ Perspectives on a City in Transition

Starting from the question of how Syrian Refugees remember Damascus in the 1970s, Christin Sanders dissertation project asks how oral history can enrich Syrian historiography on Hafiz al-Asads authoritarianism rule. The individual experiences of living under Asad are barely addressed. This is either due to explanatory perspectives of research or the difficulty in accessing citizen's perspectives. Authoritarianism impedes individual agency and discussion but never erases it. Using oral history sources, asking how Syrians perceived their life and intra-society relations before the forced migration in Damascus in the 1970s – or remember it today –, Christins approach aims to explore the possibilities of refugee's memory for Syrian historiography. She hopes to determine how these new research sources can enrich or question existing structurally oriented social history of sectarianism and its role in authoritarian power resilience.