Iraq: Rising from the ashes

Mosul University’s English department is rebuilding itself after years of terror, with help from researchers at Lancaster

Just two months after the Iraqi city of Mosul was freed from the clutches of the so-called Islamic State, senior lecturer Ashraf Abdullah returned to see what was left of its university.

It was September 2017. After three years of occupation by Isis, and a prolonged battle to liberate the city, the once-thriving institution was barely recognisable.