Knowledge Production at a Time of Pandemic – Navigating Between Syria and the UK

The COVID-19 pandemic put a strain on international research by limiting scholars’ ability to travel and increasing the uncertainty they face when working on foreign territories. While volatile environments and safety concerns that predate the pandemic have been strong predicaments to researching the Middle East, I argue in this chapter that COVID-19 may have provided an opportunity for fairer, more equally weighted research practices. Notably, practical constraints and forced immobility highlighted the crucial skills and relevance of local researchers and communities and created prospects for participatory and inclusive collaborative projects and co-production of knowledge. These reflections build on my experience as an early career researcher in the UK and emerged from remote investigation in northern Syria during the first year of COVID-19. I highlight the opportunities and challenges of collaborative research between Europe and the Middle East – focusing on issues of privilege, inclusion and positionality – in the process of creating ‘glocal’ and balanced knowledge. Beyond Syria, this chapter is meant to contribute to the nascent scholarship about the role and impact of European research on knowledge production about Middle Eastern societies.