Jan Stefan Tarnowski

Jan Stefan Tarnowski is an anthropologist serving as a Researcher at the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies within the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Copenhagen and as an Early-Career Research Fellow at Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge (affiliated with Social Anthropology). His interdisciplinary work bridges media anthropology, political theory, and postcolonial studies, with concentrated focus on the aftermaths of the 2010-11 Arab Revolutions in Syria.

His academic credentials include:

• PhD in Sociocultural Anthropology from Columbia University (2015-2022), dissertation: "Struggling with Images: Revolution, War and Media in Syria"
• BA in Middle East Studies from the University of Oxford (2006-2010)
• Certificate from Columbia University's Institute of Comparative Literature and Society (2015-2022)

Tarnowski's research critically examines how user-generated content functions as evidence in international criminal courts, addressing technical, legal, and political barriers in digital forensics related to Syrian conflict documentation. He explores conceptual frameworks like dignity ("كرامة") in revolutionary contexts, digital diasporic archives, and media representations of political imprisonment. His methodology combines ethnographic fieldwork with archival analysis to interrogate memory construction and narrative formation in post-revolutionary societies, emphasizing the Syrian case as a paradigm for understanding contemporary conflicts.

Analysis of his 2023-2025 publications reveals persistent engagement with Syrian revolutionary legacies across multiple media forms. Key thematic clusters include: digital evidence protocols for international justice (2023-2025), conceptual politics of dignity and revolution (2025), diasporic memory practices (2024), and artistic responses to conflict (2023). His work spans anthropology, cultural studies, and human rights law journals, demonstrating methodological versatility through visual analysis, archival research, and critical theory applications.

His scholarly recognition includes:

• Early-Career Research Fellowship at Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge (2022-2026)

Funded by the University of Copenhagen's 'Views of Violence' project since March 2023, Tarnowski collaborates with legal and digital forensic experts to develop evidentiary standards for user-generated content in international courts. While no formal advisees are documented, his public intellectual contributions through platforms like The New York Review of Books and London Review of Books blog demonstrate significant impact on contemporary discourse about conflict documentation and revolutionary memory.

As a core member of the 'Views of Violence' research team at Copenhagen, he contributes to interdisciplinary efforts examining digital evidence production in conflict zones, working alongside anthropologists, legal scholars, and technologists to address evidentiary challenges in documenting state violence.