Postgraduate research students

This research presents a critical, deconstructive analysis of archaeological practices in post-independence Syria, focusing on the socio-political and structural factors shaping fieldwork. Centered on the period of intensified fieldwork between 1980 and 2011, the research investigates local archaeological dynamics and their complex relationship with state stability, institutional consolidation, and enduring colonial legacies.

Methodologically, the study employs a qualitative approach that cross-examines archival data with oral history testimonies of Syrian archaeologists who managed and practiced fieldwork during that era. To analyze these materials, it integrates postcolonial theory and critical archaeology with Marxist deconstructive methodologies adapted to local liberation and dependency.

Through this framework, the study dismantles archaeological neutrality, showing how archaeology functions as a contemporary colonial tool or as a means to consolidate the narrative of the nation-state. Furthermore, the research deploys the posture of "Refusal" not merely as a passive rejection of foreign archaeological hegemony, but as a generative approach to dismantle intellectual dependency, providing a liberatory theoretical baseline to establish epistemic sovereignty within Syrian archaeological practice.

List by: Type | Date

• Professor Claudia Glatz
• Dr Daniel Calderbank
• Dr Benjamin Thomas White

2025–2029
PhD scholarship funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) & the Scottish Graduate School for Arts & Humanities (SGSAH), AHRC–SGSAH Doctoral Training Partnership, Scotland, United Kingdom.

2026
Conference Attendance and Membership Grant, The British Association of Near Eastern Archaeology-BANEA, to present a paper and membership at BANEA 2026, UCL, United Kingdom.

2025
Research Training Support Grant (RTSG), School of Humanities, University of Glasgow, to present a paper at the Theoretical Archaeology Group-TAG Conference, University of York, United Kingdom.

2025
Engagement Fund awarded by the Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities (SGSAH) for archival fieldwork and key informant interviews at the Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums (DGAM), Syria.

2024
Research Support Grant, Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL), United Kingdom–Jordan, to develop a research paper.

2024
Private research grant from Harris Matrix to create a guidebook on archaeological excavations.

2021–2022
Mellon Fellowship Program, Columbia Global Centers | Amman, in cooperation with the Department of Anthropology, Columbia University, New York, United States.

2008
Small grant from the Council for At-Risk Academics (CARA), United Kingdom, to develop a research paper, Lebanon.

Awwad, T. (2026). The Syrian Archaeological Excavation Practices: Between Colonial Legacy & Present Challenges. The British Association of Near Eastern Archaeology-BANEA Conference 2026, University College London-UCL, United Kingdom.

Awwad, T. (2025). Syrian archaeological excavations after the independence of 1946 to 2024: Archaeological methods, practices, and challenges. The Theoretical Archaeology Group Conference-TAG 2025, University of York, United Kingdom.

Awwad, T. (2022). The relationship between archaeological excavations and local communities in the Eastern Mediterranean: Syria as a case study. The Heritage and Archaeology Diwan Conference 2022, in collaboration with the Institut français du Proche-Orient (IFPO), Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL), and the Global Protection of Iraqi Antiquities (GPIA), German Jordanian University, Amman, Jordan.
Awwad, T. (2021). The relationship between Syrian communities and archaeological sites and its factors. Closed Round Table, Columbia Global Centers | Amman.

Awwad, T. (2021). Challenges facing Early Career Researchers in the Global South [Workshop talk]. Rewriting World Archaeology: Dialogues on the Archaeology of the Global South, Lebanese University & Durham University.