Spectres of Time in Space: Tracing Phantom Temporalities with Architectural Methodologies
Special issue launch with keynote by Dr Ammar Azzouz
The special issue is brought into conversation with a keynote lecture by Dr Ammar Azzouz, whose work on war, displacement and architecture in Syria speaks directly to the issue's core concerns.
There are more than 100,000 people still missing in Syria. Their fate remains unknown. For many years at the time of the Assad dictatorship, public grief was prohibited, pain was silenced, and mourning was muted. Those who remembered the disappeared, might too, disappear. But today, with the collapse of the Assad regime, families of the disappeared, and grassroot organisations, are pushing new frontiers to centre the stories of the disappeared. In this event, we visit some of the artistic and architectural efforts that have been uniting people in grief, in order to build a future that brings the past with it in search for justice.
Ammar Azzouz is a Lecturer in Human Geography, and British Academy Research Fellow at the University of Oxford. He founded the course Violence and Cities: From Destruction to Reconstruction, which he teaches at the Refugee Studies Centre, Oxford. His research focuses on war and cities, cultural heritage and art in exile. He is the author of Domicide: Architecture, War and the Destruction of Home in Syria (Bloomsbury, 2023). He has written for a wide range of platforms including the New York Times, Financial Times and the Guardian.
- This event is free and open to all but registration is essential as spaces are limited.
The launch and lecture will be followed by a catered reception.
Friday 22 May 2026, 18:00-20:30
Pavilion Room, Newnham College
University of Cambridge
CB3 9DF
Agenda
6-6.30pm: Introduction to the Special Issue and Overview of Contributions
6.30-7.30pm: Keynote lecture and discussion
7.30-8.30pm: Reception with food and drink
- Photograph by Ammar Azzouz, from his fieldwork in Syria.
