Dr. Alachkar will prepare three dishes (Mujaddarah, Kubbeh, and Freekeh with chicken); the three dishes are made from different kinds of wheat, which is an essential ingredient of Syrian daily meals.  Amal will share her thoughts on the impacts of the Syrian war on ingredients of daily Syrian meals, particularly the besieged cities in Syria. As well, she will discuss how the Syrian crisis helped thrive Syrian-food worldwide, as Syrian refugees introduced flavors of their home into their new resettlement countries.

Amal Alachkar is a Syrian professor of Neuroscience and Pharmacology in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Her research focus is to understand the neurobiological mechanisms of psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, depression, and postpartum depression in order to develop more effective therapies. She is particularly interested in how prenatal aversive conditions such as stress and malnutrition program brain development and shape emotional and cognitive functions. She left Syria in 2011 after her life was endangered by her support of the student movement demanding dignity, freedom of speech, and justice for all Syrians.

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