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Rana B. Khoury

@rbkhoury.bsky.social
3.2K followers 1.1K following 171 posts

assistant prof of political science at Illinois researching wartime activism, displacement, humanitarianism, and all things Syria. mama to the greatest second grader. www.ranakhoury.com

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Rana B. Khoury @rbkhoury.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
I am honored and thrilled to have received APSA MENA Section's Book Award for a junior scholar! It means a lot for this community to see fit to award Civilizing Contention, especially as there were some excellent books published last year. So many thanks to the committee and section 🙏
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Rana B. Khoury @rbkhoury.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
I'm teaching undergrad course on Forced Migration & Refugees next year, and am interested in reading recs on U.S. asylum policies and practices. I want to meet student interest but can use more orientation to this scholarship. Preference is for political science. Thanks!
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Rana B. Khoury @rbkhoury.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
Not at ISA? Or, like me, not there yet? Cornell has a "virtual booth" with 40% off and free shipping--the same deal enjoyed by folks (already) there in person 🤓https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/our-isa-2026-books-on-display/
cornellpress.cornell.edu
ISA 2026 Books on Display
In coordination with the International Studies Association annual convention in Columbus, Ohio we’ve created this online portal so you can take advantage of the book deals normally only given to physi...
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Rana B. Khoury @rbkhoury.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
This is one of the best podcasts I've listened to lately, a deep dive into a community and conflict with rich, granular insights.
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Rana B. Khoury @rbkhoury.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
I'm heading to two beloved alma maters for book talks! Feb 23: Northwestern MENA Monday talk @ noon 💜https://planitpurple.northwestern.edu/event/638111 April 1: Georgetown CCAS @ 2pm 💙https://events.georgetown.edu/.../36741-book-talk... More soon on events at GWU and UW!
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Rana B. Khoury @rbkhoury.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
Angst over AI and student writing has been roiling me at an increasing strength lately. Because I haven't stopped assigning essays. I just got student evals for last semester, and I can breathe. Maybe I'm just so overwhelmed by their positive input, but... 1/6
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Rana B. Khoury @rbkhoury.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
The regimes that fight imperialism by fighting the people have lost the plot.
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Rana B. Khoury @rbkhoury.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
Kind of surreal to be discussing my new book on my favorite podcast for learning about new books. Marc as always knows so much about the topic; it's a real privilege (if intimidating) to be in conversation with him.
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Rana B. Khoury @rbkhoury.bsky.social · 22/12/2025
I'm honored that Civilizing Contention is on @abuaardvark.bsky.social's list of best books of 2025, and among such a stellar group. abuaardvarkghost.ghost.io/best-of-2025...
abuaardvarkghost.ghost.io
Best of 2025
I've just returned from a whirlwind trip to Denmark and Norway, where I gave four book talks – a million thanks to the University of Copenhagen and DIIS, Aarhus University, NUPI and the University of ...
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APSA MENA Politics Section @apsamena.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
One year after toppling of Bashar Assad's regime, we've got a variety of insights on prospects for Syria's future. Check out the 7-piece symposium on Syria co-edited by @rbkhoury.bsky.social and Sefa Seçen in our latest APSA MENA Politics Newsletter. apsamena.org/mena-politic...
apsamena.org
MENA Politics Newsletter 8(2) – Fall 2025 - APSA MENA POLITICS
Welcome to the APSA MENA Politics Newsletter, Volume 8, Issue 2, Fall 2025. Download the Newsletter Here
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Rana B. Khoury @rbkhoury.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
On this first anniversary of the stunning fall, I'm proud to be in @pomeps.bsky.social just-released collection on Syria with an essay on The Question of Return. Despite its liberatory potential, the regime’s end also exposes the deep vulnerability of Syrian refugees pomeps.org/the-question...
pomeps.org
The Question of Return - Project on Middle East Political Science
Rana B. Khoury, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign [1]   For more than a decade, most Syrian refugees have not reached a “durable solution” to their displacement: neither resettlement in a third ...
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Rana B. Khoury @rbkhoury.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
Cornell's got a winter sale, 44% all books! Code: 09WINTER Great time to give loved ones, and yourself, a title or two from their excellent selection for the holidays. Perhaps even mine! (Their publications in conflict studies are top notch.) www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501...
cornellpress.cornell.edu
Civilizing Contention by Rana B. Khoury | Paperback | Cornell University Press
In Civilizing Contention, Rana B. Khoury asserts that to understand civilian and refugee activism in war, we must regard the international actors and organizations that enter the scene to help. When.....
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Rana B. Khoury @rbkhoury.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
Excited/nervous to be giving a book talk tomorrow at Illinois. My 2nd grader anticipates it will be about 5% boring. Come for the 95%! calendars.illinois.edu/detail/779/3...
calendars.illinois.edu
Book Talk: "Civilizing Contention: International Aid in Syria's War." Dr. Rana Khoury
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Rana B. Khoury @rbkhoury.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
In this symposium on Syria contributors paint nuanced, grim, but clear-eyed pictures of multiple transitional challenges. Comparisons to other cases and situation in poli sci lit remind us Syria's not terribly unique. Amazingly, they all suggest ways through the obstacles. zenodo.org/records/1745...
zenodo.org
MENA Politics, Fall 2025
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Diana B. Greenwald @dbgreenwald.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
3) A symposium on Syria's transition co-edited by @rbkhoury.bsky.social and Sefa Secen, featuring thought-provoking interventions from Tiina Hyyppä, Sumaya Malas, Salam Said, Emily K. M. Scott, Sefa Secen, and Ammar Shamaileh; and
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Diana B. Greenwald @dbgreenwald.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
I am delighted to share the fall issue of the APSA MENA section newsletter, co-edited by @sebnemgumuscu.bsky.social, @samershehata.bsky.social, and me, available for download here: zenodo.org/records/1745...
An image of a crowd celebrating the fall of the Asad regime in Syria, with many waving the new Syrian flag, and a visible sign that says "thuwar bab Allah" (revolutionaries are the gateway to God).
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Rana B. Khoury @rbkhoury.bsky.social · 27/10/2025
Can folks suggest books or writings by Moroccan or Egyptian activists involved in social movements? For an undergraduate thesis student who is eager to learn how the people on the ground understood their own undertakings. English or Arabic. Thanks!
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Rana B. Khoury @rbkhoury.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
To celebrate the upcoming release of my book, and to support emerging scholars, I'd like to buy and mail copies to ten graduate students. If you’re a grad student who’d like a copy, reply or DM me! www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501...
cornellpress.cornell.edu
Civilizing Contention by Rana B. Khoury | Paperback | Cornell University Press
In Civilizing Contention, Rana B. Khoury asserts that to understand civilian and refugee activism in war, we must regard the international actors and organizations that enter the scene to help. When.....
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Rana B. Khoury @rbkhoury.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
To celebrate the upcoming release of my book, and to support emerging scholars, I'd like to buy and mail copies to ten graduate students. If you’re a grad student who’d like a copy, reply or DM me! www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501...
cornellpress.cornell.edu
Civilizing Contention by Rana B. Khoury | Paperback | Cornell University Press
In Civilizing Contention, Rana B. Khoury asserts that to understand civilian and refugee activism in war, we must regard the international actors and organizations that enter the scene to help. When.....
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Rana B. Khoury @rbkhoury.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
I often encounter the idea that interviews are qualitative analysis, akin to comparative method or process tracing. But I understand interviews as a method of data collection, for data to be used in comparative, within-case, or interpretive analyses. What do you all think?
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Rana B. Khoury @rbkhoury.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
So excited to hold my book! You can do so too in November! Leila Khoury's cover art captures the story of a contentious movement becoming something like a civil society in the depths of Syria's war. @cornellupress.bsky.social designed it beautifully. www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501...
Rana Khoury holding her book, Civilizing Contention: International Aid in Syria's War
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Søren Torbjørn Svendsen @sorentsvendsen.eurosky.social · 09/09/2025
Excellent dive into the possible future of the new Syria. From "The People, Power, Politics" podcast in cooperation with @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social
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Rana B. Khoury @rbkhoury.bsky.social · 01/09/2025
A published paper in a journal has cited a real chapter of mine, but in a hallucinatory way: a parenthetical citation is repeatedly used for content that is completely off the mark. Completely. So.... that's disturbing.
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Rana B. Khoury @rbkhoury.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
A conversation that grew out of work w @wendy-pearlman.bsky.social alongside Daniel Neep, hosted by @emilykmscott.bsky.social. Recorded 2 months ago, but holds up and helps think about roles of state and society in Syria's future. open.spotify.com/episode/3yIo... podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...
podcasts.apple.com
Syria After Assad
Podcast Episode · New Books in Political Science · 08/29/2025 · 41m
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Rana B. Khoury @rbkhoury.bsky.social · 07/08/2025
I would love for someone who has experience in a social movement to zoom into my undergrad class this fall and share. Minimal prep: orient us 5-10 min, then Q&A. In past, we learned about participation in uprisings in Syria and Hong Kong, and US labor (during a strike!). Thanks!
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Rana B. Khoury @rbkhoury.bsky.social · 07/08/2025
I would love for someone who has experience in a social movement to zoom into my undergrad class this fall and share. Minimal prep: orient us 5-10 min, then Q&A. In past, we learned about participation in uprisings in Syria and Hong Kong, and US labor (during a strike!). Thanks!
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Rana B. Khoury @rbkhoury.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
Folks, are you using or have you considered using AI for transcription of interviews? I haven't seen much discussion or info re how one protects the data through the many apps/sites/clouds. Like this is from OpenAI's transcribe to text privacy policy:
To provide our transcription services, we may collect and process the audio or video files you upload, as well as any text data derived from those files (the “Transcription Data”).
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Rana B. Khoury @rbkhoury.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
The adoption of AI into Canvas is framed here as reducing faculty workload and making students' lives easier. Not about student learning. A feature for creating "flashcards for students to review," e.g., ignores that making flashcards *is* the learning. www.chronicle.com/article/inst...
chronicle.com
Instructors Will Now See AI Throughout a Widely Used Course Software
New features integrated into Canvas include a grading assistant, a discussion-post summarizer, and even a way to pair assignments with generative AI tools.
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Rana B. Khoury @rbkhoury.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
The proofs are in. It has a website. It has blurbs from amazing scholars. So I guess my book is real, and @cornellupress.bsky.social must agree! Civilizing Contention: International Aid in Syria's War is coming out later this year 🤓 www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501...
cornellpress.cornell.edu
Civilizing Contention by Rana B. Khoury | Paperback | Cornell University Press
In Civilizing Contention, Rana B. Khoury asserts that to understand civilian and refugee activism in war, we must regard the international actors and organizations that enter the scene to help. When.....
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Rana B. Khoury @rbkhoury.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
👇call for Syria papers
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Rana B. Khoury @rbkhoury.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
Those emails with good news and updates from students and former students... they're sparkles and rainbows for profs ✨
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Liz Sly @lizsly.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
Incredible scenes in Syria as people celebrate the surprise lifting of US sanctions, the chief impediment to recovery after the fall of Assad. “There were fireworks over Damascus, and people danced in the streets.” Over to the Syrians. By @leloveluck www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...
washingtonpost.com
Syrians rejoice after Trump pledge to lift crippling sanctions
For more than a decade, U.S. restrictions have barred nearly all trade with Syria. Now, Syrians are daring to hope for better lives.
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Rana B. Khoury @rbkhoury.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
Explain to me like I'm someone who doesn't subscribe to Orientalist tropes why it was the plane that broke them.
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Rana B. Khoury @rbkhoury.bsky.social · 13/05/2025
Make Syria Great Again
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CSIS Middle East @mideast.csis.org · 25/04/2025
Upcoming Event | @natashahall.bsky.social joins @rbkhoury.bsky.social and Ibrahim al-Assil for a panel discussion at the Baker Institute about #Syrian displacement and return. 🕔 5:30 PM CDT 📆 April 29, 2025 📍 In-person at Rice University, online Register: www.bakerinstitute.org/event/syrian...
bakerinstitute.org
Syrian Displacement and the Prospects of Return | Baker Institute
On Dec. 8, 2024, the world watched as Bashar al-Assad’s regime fell following the takeover of Syria by the opposition group led by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham. The 2011 uprising and subsequent 13-year civil...
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Alexander Kustov @akoustov.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
As I pre-registered back in July, the public opinion thermostat is kicking in—Trump is making American immigration attitudes great again, again. And to be honest, I don’t think it has much to do with Democratic messaging right now.
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Adam Harris @adamhsays.com · 23/04/2025
The U. of Toledo is suspending nine undergraduate programs in response Ohio's new higher ed law: Africana studies, Asian studies, data analytics, disability studies, Middle East studies, philosophy, religious studies, Spanish, & women’s & gender studies ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/04/23/u...
ohiocapitaljournal.com
University of Toledo suspending nine undergrad programs in compliance with Ohio higher ed law • Ohio Capital Journal
The University of Toledo is suspending nine undergraduate programs in response to a controversial new higher education law that is set to take effect this summer.
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Rana B. Khoury @rbkhoury.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
Are other folks reading Przeworski's substack? Oof. Deep breath.
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Rana B. Khoury @rbkhoury.bsky.social · 20/04/2025
"Here’s the uncomfortable truth: If your humanitarian mission dies when the money dries up, it was never a mission, it was a business."
thenewhumanitarian.org
What if we stopped aid altogether?
The future of refugee aid work is that INGOs need to ditch their egos and self-interest, and work honestly and collaboratively with refugee leaders.
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Rana B. Khoury @rbkhoury.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
I had a friend in college who was hit by a speeding truck while biking. The truck bolted, leaving him mangled, broken on the road. A passerby saw my destroyed friend, and stole his wallet; threw in a few kicks to his battered face, just in case. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/03/w...
nytimes.com
Israel Hits Syria With New Strikes and Ground Raid as Tensions Soar
Israel defended the moves as necessary security measures, but Syria accused it of trying to destabilize the country.
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Rana B. Khoury @rbkhoury.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
Welp.
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Emily K. M. Scott @emilykmscott.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
In this new article 📖 ✍️, @adamkochanski.bsky.social, Jennifer Welsh, and I talk ALL about localization, and kick off the Localization in World Politics Special Forum! Dive in open access @gsqjournal.bsky.social #OxfordUniversityPress @isanet.bsky.social 1/ doi.org/10.1093/isag...
doi.org
Localization in World Politics: Bridging Theory and Practice
Abstract. This Introduction and Special Forum highlight the importance of localization for the study of world politics, both as a theoretical concept in in
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Rana B. Khoury @rbkhoury.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
New @wendy-pearlman.bsky.social and I argue in @jodemocracy.bsky.social that we must look to civil society as Syria's strongest asset for inclusive change and a better future. But, you might ask: Against these odds? And what civil society, anyway? 🧵1/5 muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...
muse.jhu.edu
Project MUSE - Why Syria's Civil Society is the Key
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Rana B. Khoury @rbkhoury.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
The US has been bombing Yemen for literal decades and as @abuaardvark.bsky.social points out recently: "Again and again, American policy in Yemen harms Yemeni civilians and strengthens the targeted adversaries." US media isn't just "burying the lead."
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Rana B. Khoury @rbkhoury.bsky.social · 25/03/2025
Speculation has suggested this could have been much worse. This is do-able. www.reuters.com/world/us-gav...
reuters.com
Exclusive: US gave Syria list of conditions for partial sanctions relief, sources say
The United States has handed Syria a list of conditions that it wants Damascus to fulfill in exchange for partial sanctions relief, six people familiar with the matter told Reuters, including ensuring foreigners are not in senior governing roles.
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Rana B. Khoury @rbkhoury.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
Awesome new Arabic language newsletter by @arabpsn.bsky.social collating and suggesting abstracts of recently published social science academic articles about MENA. First issue is here: alzad.substack.com/p/1
alzad.substack.com
نشرة الزاد | العدد 1
أهلاً بكم في العدد الأول من نشرة "الزّاد" التي تصدر عن الشبكة العربية للعلوم السياسية. نهدف في كل عدد إلى انتقاء مجموعة من الأبحاث والمقالات الأكاديمية الصادرة حديثاً باللغة العربية أو الإنجليزية، ونت...
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Rana B. Khoury @rbkhoury.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
Dear 2025, You're a lot. Best, A Syrian-American
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Sam Stein @samsteindc.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
NEWS: The USAID official put on leave for disseminating two memos about Rubio's failure to push through life-saving foreign aid was in the process of writing a THIRD memo when fired. We obtained it. It's far more alarming than the first two. www.thebulwark.com/p/what-a-wee...
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Rana B. Khoury @rbkhoury.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
Love this note from my copy editor: "<AU: I removed the note here—arak is in Merriam-Webster and thus does not need an explanation> " 🥛🧿
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