RWU Professor Adam Braver and RWU graduate Abby DeVeuve edited new book, which will benefit Scholars at Risk Emergency Fund

Fitzpatrick, Edward

English

HELIN Digital Commons

“We Are Syrians” Provides First-Hand Accounts of Battle Against Tyranny

DOCS@RWU

Roger Williams UniversityDOCS@RWUFeatured News Story The Week at Roger7-31-2017“We Are Syrians” Provides First-Hand Accounts ofBattle Against TyrannyEdward FitzpatrickRoger Williams UniversityFollow this and additional works at: https://docs.rwu.edu/weekatroger_featured_newsPart of the Higher Education CommonsThis News Article is brought to you for free and open access by the The Week at Roger at DOCS@RWU. It has been accepted for inclusion in FeaturedNews Story by an authorized administrator of DOCS@RWU. For more information, please contact mwu@rwu.edu.Recommended CitationFitzpatrick, Edward, "“We Are Syrians” Provides First-Hand Accounts of Battle Against Tyranny" (2017). Featured News Story. 276.https://docs.rwu.edu/weekatroger_featured_news/27611/8/2018 “We Are Syrians” Provides First-Hand Accounts of Battle Against Tyranny | Roger Williams Universityhttps://www.rwu.edu/news/news-archive/we-are-syrians-provides-first-hand-accounts-battle-against-tyranny 1/3 News Archive“We Are Syrians” Provides First-Hand Accounts ofBattle Against TyrannyRWU Professor Adam Braver and RWU graduate Abby DeVeuve edited newbook, which will bene t Scholars at Risk Emergency FundRWU Professor Adam Braver (right), along with recent RWU graduateAbby DeVeuve, edited a new book of  rst-person narratives fromSyrian dissidents.July 31, 2017 Edward FitzpatrickBRISTOL, R.I.  – A new book edited by a Roger Williams University professor and a recent RWUgraduate o ers a trio of compelling  rst-person narratives from Syrian dissidents who fought to try tosave their country from authoritarian rule.When the Assad government wanted to silence them, student organizer Sana Mustafa, theaterdirector Naila Al-Atrash and intellectual Radwan Ziadeh refused to stop making their voices heard.They organized, they protested, they made art.The book, “We are Syrians,” was edited by RWU Associate Professor of Creative Writing AdamBraver and 2016 RWU graduate Abby DeVeuve, who worked with Braver in the Scholars at RiskNetwork, which advocates for imprisoned scholars and defends academic freedom. The bookstems from an RWU Student Advocacy Seminar, which partnered with Scholars at Risk to provideundergraduates with practical human rights advocacy experience. All author proceeds from thebook will go to the Scholars at Risk Emergency Fund. 11/8/2018 “We Are Syrians” Provides First-Hand Accounts of Battle Against Tyranny | Roger Williams Universityhttps://www.rwu.edu/news/news-archive/we-are-syrians-provides-first-hand-accounts-battle-against-tyranny 2/3Abby DeVeuve '16, a co-editor, accepted the Courageto Think Award at theScholars at Risk WorldCongress in 2016.“We were trying to show the human side of what essentially has been a tragedy – a tragedy o entold just in statistics and quick stories,” said Braver, the University Library Program Director and theNortheast chairman of the Scholars at Risk U.S. Steering Committee. “We want to show the humantoll of what’s been going on in Syria through three generations of people – not just the current newscycle.”The younger generation is represented by Mustafa, who as a university student in Damascus tookpart in many of the early peaceful protests against the Assad regime. In 2013, she came to RWU inan exchange program called the Middle East Partnership Initiative. And while sitting in a classroomat RWU, she received a message on her phone saying that her father had been detained in Syria andthat the rest of her family was  eeing to Turkey. In an instant, Mustafa found herself unable to return home, with barely any money and only asuitcase packed for the six-week exchange program. Eventually, she was granted political asylum inthe United States. She completed her education at Bard College. And last September, she spoke atRWU as part of a year-long series called “The Quest for Refuge.” Her father’s fate remains unknown.The book also tells the story of Naila Al-Atrash, granddaughter of the famed general Sultan Pasha Al-Atrash, hero of the  rst Syrian revolution. Her plays have been banned numerous times by the Assadgovernment. Now a visiting professor at New York University, she spoke at RWU in June as part of aNortheastern regional meeting of Scholars at Risk.The book also tells the story of Radwan Ziadeh, one of the prominent intellectuals in the  rstDamascus Spring in 2000. He is now one of the most wanted men by both ISIS and the Assadgovernment.11/8/2018 “We Are Syrians” Provides First-Hand Accounts of Battle Against Tyranny | Roger Williams Universityhttps://www.rwu.edu/news/news-archive/we-are-syrians-provides-first-hand-accounts-battle-against-tyranny 3/3DeVeuve, who now works for Cengage Learning, said she worked on the book as part of her seniorcapstone project at RWU, aiming to demonstrate what she had learned while also making an impacton the community.The combined stories of Mustafa, Al-Atrash and Ziadeh span nearly 50 years of Assad family rule andcitizens’ attempts to resist authoritarian government. “You get the whole cascade of how it allbegan and up to today and how it’s a ecting them currently,” DeVeuve said. But she was particularlystruck by Mustafa’s story. “She was a college student at the time, too, and I was just imagining whatshe went through in an unknown country,” she said.The book represents the latest installment in the “Broken Silence” series published by UNO Press.Copies are available at unopress.org and all the usual bookselling outlets.ACADEMICS ALUMNI FEINSTEIN SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES, ART AND EDUCATION

https://docs.rwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1274&amp;context=weekatroger_featured_news

“We Are Syrians” Provides First-Hand Accounts of Battle Against Tyranny

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

HELIN Digital Commons

DOCS@RWU