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Lehman’s Christa Salamandra Featured in AP Story on Syrian Drama
February 23, 2026
For an AP story on Syria’s Ramadan television season, Professor of Anthropology Christa Salamandra was asked about the importance of Syrian TV drama. Television, before the fall of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, was “the main sort of platform for freedom of expression and also for employment for artists and intellectuals,” she said—not just entertainment, but one of the country’s longtime spaces and open political speech. Salamandra, who specializes in Arab media and culture, and Syrian television drama in particular, said that the industry became fractured during the civil war, with many creators in exile and others divided along political lines. Now that a new regime is in place, the industry is making a fragile comeback. Exiled artists are returning, former political rivals are working together again, and series are tackling subjects that were once too risky to depict, despite ongoing government censorship concerns and public criticism.