New Books Network

Zeina Al-Azmeh’s Syrian Intellectuals in Exile: The Dilemmas of Revolution and the Cost of Leaving (Cambridge UP, 2026) captures a group of intellectuals forced to leave Syria, primarily after the events of 2011. Having wound up in either Paris or Berlin these intellectuals are forced to reconsider their relation to their homeland, including the ongoing revolution, while navigating their new Western homes. As Al-Azmeh shows, this creates a diverse intellectual field which, while shaped by different intellectual and personal positions shares the need to navigate how they think of the revolution and the expectation of their hosts. In the course of the book, Al-Azmeh shows us a group of intellectuals who, while adopting a ‘double gaze’ of critiquing and at points valuing the West increasingly (though not wholly) adopt a position of ‘radical embeddedness’ towards the revolution, giving their role as leaders and instead seeing themselves as followers of the people.

In the podcast we discuss the process that led these intellectuals to this position and the problems it posed for their relevance. We also discuss the contributions Al-Azmeh makes across the sociology of intellectuals, postcolonial theory and the idea of ‘trauma work’. There are also reflections on how one navigates one’s participants also being source of literature and what has changed following the fall of the Assad regime.

Your host, Matt Dawson is Professor of Sociology at the University of Glasgow and the author of G.D.H. Cole and British Sociology: A Study in Semi-Alienation (2024, Palgrave Macmillan) and co-editor of The Anthem Companion to Henri Lefebvre (2026, Anthem Press) along with other texts.
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"One in four grades may be wrong."

"25% of exam grades are incorrect."

"Grades are misleading and often wrong."

In Missing the Mark: Why So Many School Exam Grades are Wrong – and How to Get Results We Can Trust (Canbury Press, 2022) Dennis Sherwood discusses the flaws in the UK exam system, highlighting how one in four grades may be wrong and the systemic issues that prevent accurate assessment. He explores the history, current challenges, and potential solutions to ensure trustworthy exam results.

Missing the Mark by Dennis Sherwood

Ofqual Official Website

UK GCSE Exam System Overview

Research on Exam Grading Accuracy (2015)

Parliamentary Education Select Committee Reports

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Written for educators, scholars, graduate students, and readers engaged in Holocaust education, genocide studies, history, ethics, religious studies, and political theory, This Time: Teaching the Holocaust Today (‎iPub Cloud, 2026) treats teaching as a consequential act—one inseparable from the political realities in which it occurs. The volume challenges readers to reconsider what responsible Holocaust education demands now, and what it means to teach when historical memory itself is under strain.
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In an ever-shifting work landscape, leaders can no longer ignore their most overlooked stakeholders—their employees. In The Employee Advantage: How Putting Workers First Helps Business Thrive (PublicAffairs, 2024), behavioral economist Stephan Meier explains why organizations must value their employees as much as—if not more than—their customers: those that pivot toward an employee-centric model will be more profitable, innovative, and appealing to top talent. Through case studies of Fortune 500 companies like Costco, DHL, and Best Buy as well as smaller organizations, Meir shows why employees care about more than just money when it comes to their jobs—the same way customers care about more than just price, what mindset shifts are essential to becoming an employee-centric workplace, and how improving the employee experience benefits the business and bottom line.
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The Great Repair: Emotions, Memory, and the German–Jewish Settlement after the Holocaust (Cornell UP, 2026) explores how Jews and Germans began reparations discussions fewer than seven years after the Holocaust—a momentous achievement relegated to the margins of Holocaust scholarship and memory—and the complexities that emerged from the resulting settlement.

Professor Gideon Reuveni illuminates the swift transition and extraordinary chapter in postwar history from the horrors of the Holocaust to a negotiating table where Germans and Jews discussed reparations. Both sides faced the monumental challenge of addressing the injustices of National Socialism through complex deliberations on compensation for collective and individual losses, restitution of property, support for survivors, and formal acknowledgment of Nazi crimes. These negotiations marked a crucial step toward acknowledging historical responsibility and pursuing meaningful redress.

The Great Repair reveals the events, actors, and decisions that led to the signing of the agreement on September 10, 1952, by West Germany, Israel, and the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. Ultimately, the enactment of this settlement set a global precedent that genocide cannot go unpunished and moral debts must be paid. It was a historic undertaking of immense scope—unmatched in the history of international relations, just as the extermination of the Jewish people was unprecedented in human history.

This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.
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