International Conference: A Century of Revolutions - Centennial of the Great Syrian Revolt (1925-2025)
8-9 December 2025, Maison méditerranéenne des sciences humaines et sociales/Mmsh, salle Georges Duby, 5 rue du Château de l'Horloge, Aix-en-Provence
Organising committee: Vanessa Guéno, Luca Nelson-Gabin, Michael Provence, Mehdi Sakatni
Scientific committee: Fârès Gillon, Vanessa Guéno, Luca Nelson-Gabin, Thomas Pierret, Michael Provence, Mehdi Sakatni
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PROGRAM
MONDAY 8 DECEMBER
9:30-10:00 - Reception and welcome: Mehdi Sakatni (IREMAM) and Luca Nelson-Gabin (IREMAM)
10:00-11:00 - Introduction: Michael Provence (University of California, San Diego, USA)
11:00-12:30 - 1. Global solidarities
Chair: Thomas PIERRET (CNRS-IREMAM)
Reem BAILONY, “A Tale of Two Rebellions: The Rif War and The Great Syrian Revolt”, Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia - English
Michael BATTALIA, “The Hijaz War (1924-26) and the Great Syrian Revolt (1925-27): Saudi-Hashemite Politics Between Two Wars and the Istiqlālī Network”, Princeton University, USA - English
Burak SAYIM, “In the Belly of the Beast: European Anti-militarism, Middle Eastern Anti-colonialism, and the Comintern”, University of Basel, Switzerland - English
12:30-14:00 - Lunch
14:00-15:30 - 2. Situated histories and expressions
Chair: Mehdi SAKATNI (IREMAM)
Seda ALTUG, “Syrian Jazira and the Druze Revolt (1923-1925)”, Institut français d’études anatoliennes, Turkey - English/French
Cyma FARAH, “Baalbek’s Forgotten Rebel: A Memoir of the Great Syrian Revolt Across Colonial Borders”, Oxford, UK - English
Katharina LANGE, “Reverberations of Revolt. Remembering anti-French uprising(s) in Kurd Dagh/Afrin”, Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Germany - English
15:30-16:00 - Coffee break
16:00-17:30 - 3. Outsiders and rebelling from the outside
Chair: Juliette HONVAULT (CNRS-IREMAM)
Randi DEGUILHEM, “The Narrative of the Great Syrian Revolt (1925) in the Contemporary French Press”, CNRS, TELEMMe-MMSH, Aix-Marseille University, France - English
Hanna JANATKA, “The internationalization of the Great Syrian Revolt in Europe”, Berlin Graduate School of Muslim Cultures and Societies, Germany - English
Kirwin SHAFFER, “Heroic but Misguided: The 1925-27 Great Syrian Revolt in the Eyes of Latin American Anarchist Anti-Imperialists”, Pennsylvania State University, USA - English
19:30-21:00 - Dinner
TUESDAY 9 DECEMBER
9:00-11:00 - 4. Archives and memory
Chair: Vanessa GUENO (CNRS-IREMAM)
Ammar AL SAMAR, "الأرشيف السوري على مفترق طرق" [“The Syrian Archive at a Crossroads”], Archivist, Syria - Arabic
Jack McGINN, “Revolutionary Inheritance: Traces of 1925 in 2011 and Trans-Mediterranean Lineages of Revolt”, London School of Economics, UK - English
Hratch TOKATLIAN, “Selim Tabrizi, un photographe sous le mandat français en Syrie et au Liban, 1890-1974” [“Selim Tabrizi, a Photographer During the French Mandate in Syria and Lebanon, 1890-1974”], Université Saint-Joseph, Liban - French
Stefan WINTER, “Les archives militaires turques comme source pour l'histoire des résistances locales en Syrie du Nord contre l'occupation française, 1918-1921” [The Turkish Military Archives as a Source on Local Resistance Movements against the French in Northern Syria, 1918-1921], Université du Québec à Montréal / Koç University, Istanbul - French/English
11:00-11:30 - Coffee break
11:30-13:00 - 5. Political agencies
Chair: Luca NELSON-GABIN (IREMAM)
Aaron BERMAN, “Unexpected Allies: Americans and the Great Syrian Revolt: The Case of Charles Crane”, Hampshire College in Amherst, USA - English
Victoria ABRAHAMYAN, “The Armenian Refugees and the Great Syrian Revolt, 1925-1927”, University of Geneva, Switzerland - English
Joel VELDKAMP, “The 1926 Elections in Aleppo and the Great Syrian Revolt”, Graduate Institute in Geneva, Switzerland - English
13:00-14:30 - Lunch
14:30-16:00 - 6. (Dis)continuities in a post-ottoman world?
Chair: Stefan KNOST (Universität Bamberg)
Muhammed ASLANER, “The Kemalist Movement and Anti-colonial Struggle in Syria after the First World War”, Oxford, UK - English
Fatima AL HAJJI, “مصطفى الحاج حسين: القيادة المحليّة والحامل الاجتماعي-الوطني بين عالمين (1918–1946)” [Mustafa al-Haj Hussein: Local Leadership and Socialist-Nationalist Between Two Worlds (1918–1946)], NGO (Idlib/You are Life and Peace), Syria - English/Arabic
Ayşegül KOCA, “Yūsuf al-ʿAzma (1884–1920): A Biographical Reinterpretation Through the Lens of His Military Peers”, University of Munich, Germany - English
16:00-16:30 - Coffee break
16:30-17:15 - Conclusion and discussion: Simon JACKSON (University of Birmingham)