Dr. Sardar Saadi is the director of the institute of social sciences at the University of Rojava. He is also one of the co-founders of the Center for Solidarity and Cooperation with Universities of North and East Syria (CSCUNES) that is based in Paris. At the same time, he is a postdoctoral fellow at Wageningen University. Dr. Saadi graduated from the doctoral program in Sociocultural Anthropology at the University of Toronto in 2020. His PhD research examines urban dynamics of the Kurdish struggle for self-determination in Diyarbakir, Kurdistan. He has published in different journals and online publications, and he has been interviewed by Canadian, Kurdish and Persian media. He is the host and producer of a podcast called The Kurdish Edition.
The University of Rojava was founded in Qamişlo in 2016, in the midst of the war, conflict, and extraordinary situation in Syria, in particular in Rojava/North and East of Syria. In this regard, it is an outcome of the Rojava Revolution. The university offered an opportunity to students who had to suspend their education programs due to the conflict in Syria and geographical disconnection. Since then the university’s faculties and departments have welcomed more than 1500 students.