This post is final part of a three-part photo essay, “The Other Iraq — Erbil, 2013,” by Hakan Özoğlu (All photo credits are Hakan Özoğlu, 2013).
Images of Iraq: The Other Iraq — Erbil, part 2
This post is part of a three-part photo essay, “The Other Iraq — Erbil, 2013,” by Hakan Özoğlu (All photo credits are Hakan Özoğlu, 2013). Part 2 focuses on the markets of Erbil.
Our Institutional Members: Cornell University
Cornell University has a long-standing interest in Mesopotamian studies, recently bolstered by the addition of new faculty in Assyriology and Archaeology, who add to an already diverse faculty in ancient Mediterranean and ancient Near Eastern studies, early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and the modern Middle East. Our principal interest in joining TAARII is to ensure that scholarly relationships between and among American research institutions and our Iraqi colleagues continue. We are also committed to the study of culture and society in early Iraq through the written and material record. In addition, Archaeology faculty from several departments recently created the Cornell Institute of Archaeology and Material Studies to coordinate and promote advanced research and training in those fields.
Images of Iraq: The Other Iraq — Erbil, part 1
This post is part of a three-part photo essay, “The Other Iraq — Erbil, 2013,” by Hakan Özoğlu (All photo credits are Hakan Özoğlu, 2013).
An Update from Amy Gansell (2012 US TAARII Fellow)
Amy Gansell’s project “Dressing the Neo-Assyrian Queen in Identity and Ideology” is quite literally wrapping up! She has been preparing illustrations, based on tomb finds, of the manner in which the deceased queens from Nimrud (c. 9th–8th centuries B.C.E.) were adorned. Many of the ornaments found in the tombs appear to have been garment decorations; therefore, she was also faced with the task of reconstructing a queen’s garment. Only small tufts of fabric were preserved in the tombs, and only profile views of queens are preserved in art. In order to determine what a queen’s garment would have looked like from the front and back, Dr. Gansell worked with two of her students, Rwitobrato Datta and Roscoe K. Franklin, at State University of New York’s (SUNY) Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) to physically reconstruct a garment consisting of drapery over a tunic. Using yards of muslin and lots pins, patience, and creativity they now have a sample.
Rwitobrato Datta and Roscoe K. Franklin of the SUNY Fashion Institute of Technology physically reconstruct the garment (Photo credit: Amy Gansell, 2013)
A work in progress! (Photo credit: Amy Gansell, 2013)
A sample garment of a Neo-Assyrian Queen based on Dr. Gansell’s research (Photo credit: Amy Gansell, 2013)
Dr. Amy Gansell poses with the finished garment (Photo credit: Amy Gansell, 2013)
Our Institutional Members: Georgetown University
The Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS) at Georgetown University is part of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, the oldest school of international affairs in the United States. The Center has established itself as the most comprehensive university-based Arab studies program in the country, offering teaching, scholarship, public events, research, publications, and outreach to the community. The Center’s Master of Arts in Arab Studies (MAAS) program is distinguished by its emphasis on study of the contemporary Arab world and its rigorous Arabic language training, and alumni have distinguished themselves in key areas of economy, culture, and government around the world.
One of CCAS’s faculty, Joseph Sassoon, currently offers a graduate-level course on the modern history of Iraq for MAAS students. The course is designed to provide students with the basic structure of Iraq’s political and socio-economic history from World War I to the present day through readings drawn from some of the most important books and articles written in English. The class examines the main political parties of that period (the Iraqi Communist party and the Ba‘th party), as well as the various sectarian and tribal communities of Iraq and their interaction with elites. The course also considers the 2003 invasion of Iraq and its implications. Examples of student papers (which typically run between 25–30 pages) include research on Ba‘thist economic policy, Nazi Germany and Iraq, Iraqi women since the 2003 invasion, and the trial of Saddam Hussein.
CCAS also has extensive library holdings on Iraq in Arabic, English, French, German, and Spanish. All periods of Islamic history are represented, though the main focus of the collection is on the contemporary Arab world. In addition, there are considerable holdings on the cultural, economic, linguistic, and political aspects of Iraq.
