Teaching Through Conflict: A Narrative Exploration of Online Education During the Sudan Crisis

On a humid Thursday in Doha, Qatar, I opened my laptop and waited for undergraduate students to join the online session. The students were enrolled at a Sudanese university, but the class itself was no longer located in one place. Outside my Doha window, life moved calmly. On the screen, the war in Sudan appeared in fragments: a student joining from a dimly lit room in Omdurman, another from the streets of a rural village in South Darfur, one more from a relative’s flat in Cairo, and two young women logging in from a refugee camp in North Kordofan. Many began the session by apologizing in advance for electricity outages and weak network coverage. As each name appeared, relief and worry settled together. Seventy-two students were registered. Were they safe while taking the class? Did they find a quiet corner? Did they have to walk far to find a signal? Was insisting on continuity exposing students to danger?