Sectarianization of the Syrian Uprising: Why, Who, and How?
Join Duke History, DUMESC and DISC for a public talk and conversation from 4:30 - 5:30 PM with Dr. Basileus Zeno titled "Sectarianization of the Syrian Uprising: Why, Who, and How?"
Dr. Basileus Zeno is Sessional Assistant Professor in the Department of Politics at York University. He is also a MESA Global Academy Fellow (2021-2023). His work has combined research, advocacy and policy work on political violence, international security, religion, human rights, forced migration, and interpretive, decolonizing methodologies. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 2021. Following that, he was awarded Karl Loewenstein Fellowship in Political Science at Amherst College. Basileus also holds a B.A. (2006) and M.A. (2011) in Classical and Islamic Archaeology from Damascus University (Syria), and M.A. (2015) in Political Science and International Relations from Ohio University (USA).
His writing has been published in academic as well as public-facing outlets, including Nations and Nationalism, Middle East Law and Governance, Digest of Middle East Studies, and The Washington Post. His article on the sectarianization of the Syrian uprising won the 2019 Best Graduate Student Paper in Religion and International Relations Award from the International Studies Association. Additionally, Dr. Zeno received grants from major international institutions, including the Open Society Foundations, Carnegie Corporation of New York, and London School of Economics and Political Science.
He is strongly committed to public engagement and serves as a co-editor of the Syria Page at Jadaliyya, an independent, critical ezine produced by the Arab Studies Institute; and a founding member of Security in Context, a project challenging dominant paradigms and practices that seeks to produce and disseminate new thinking about (in)security, geopolitics and global political economy. He also worked as a consultant on policy projects with several international organizations including The Carter Center's Conflict Resolution Program; the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UN-ESCWA); The Syrian Center for Policy Research (SCPR) and KnowWar project, and American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Maine and the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project (ILAP).
