Marcelle Shehwaro is a Syrian feminist writer from Aleppo, Syria. In 2015, her online series Dispatches from Syria, which documented daily life and activism in Aleppo, received an Online Journalism Award for Online Commentary. Her nonfiction work explores women’s lives, political struggle, and the intimate textures of public life in Syria. Her writing has appeared in international publications and anthologies, and she has spoken and taught in academic, cultural, and civic spaces.
Author – Obvious as the Sun (forthcoming memoir)
Creative-nonfiction work chronicling life in wartime Aleppo and the moral complexities of survival and resistance during the Syrian revolution.
EDUCATION
- Honorary Doctorate in Human Rights – University of Essex, UK (2025)
Awarded for contributions to human-rights advocacy and accountability work in Syria. - MFA in Nonfiction Creative Writing – Columbia University, USA (2018 – 2022)
- MA in Human Rights and Cultural Diversity – University of Essex, UK (2012 – 2013)
Thesis: Truth in Transitional Justice Process in Syria - B.A. in International and Diplomatic Relations (incomplete) – Damascus University, Syria (2010 – 2012)
Completed three years of study before interruption due to security persecution by the Syrian regime. - DDS in Dentistry – University of Aleppo, Syria (2002 – 2010)
AWARDS & FELLOWSHIPS
- Graduate Teaching & Fellowship Award – Columbia University (2021 – 2022)
- Full Scholarship – Columbia University (2018 – 2020)
- Chevening Scholar – UK FCDO (2012 – 2013)
- Online Journalism Award – Global Voices (2015)
Marcelle Shehwaro 