Through Performance, Musician Takes Up a Cultural Rescue Mission

“My goal is to preserve the music of a city that is dying as we speak.”

Syrian-born Mohamed Alsiadi’s commitment to his heritage goes beyond his position as director of Fordham’s Arabic studies program.

Alsiadi is helping to archive the musical arts of his birthplace of Aleppo, which has been under constant siege since the Syrian war began and has recently faced intense shelling.

Alsiadi was raised in Aleppo and received his bachelor’s degree from the Damascus Music Conservatory, specializing in lute performance and conducting. He moved to the United States in 1996 and joined the Fordham faculty in 2010.

In his eight years at Fordham, the Arabic Language, Literature, & Culture program has flourished. Alsiadi created an Arabic minor studies program, adding courses such as Music & Nation in the Arab World; Arab Spring in Arabic Literature; and Arab Cinema: History & Cultural Identity. He founded the Arabic Club, and he and a colleague helped design Fordham’s first Arabic study-abroad program to Morocco.