Protecting Iraq's Modern Cultural Heritage: Modern Art, Historic Architecture, and Documentary Collections
March 3, 2021
Continuing with the series TARII began in late 2020, this discussion was held on the protection and preservation of Iraq’s modern cultural heritage, which was moderated by Dr. Peter Wien, TARII’s President. We were pleased to welcome Maysoon Al-Damluji, Dr. Geraldine Chatelard, Dr. Saad Eskander, Dr. Caecilia Pieri, and Dr. Nada Shabout to this group discussion.
During this event, the scholars considered:
The importance of art, intangible heritage, and recorded memory in strengthening Iraqi communities on the national, regional, and local levels
The state of museums, libraries, and documentary collections in Iraq
Capacity building for curators, librarians, and archivists
Ways for Iraqi and international scholars to collaborate
Iraqi archives outside of Iraq
Due to high interest in this series, we built in extra time for questions from the audience and further discussion.
DR. PETER WIEN, MODERATOR
Dr. Peter Wien is President of TARII and Professor for Modern Middle Eastern History at the University of Maryland in College Park. He received his PhD in 2003 from the University of Bonn, Germany, and Master’s degrees from the University of Oxford, UK, and the University of Heidelberg, Germany, in 1999. He taught at Al-Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco, and was a fellow of the Centre for Modern Oriental Studies in Berlin. His publications include the books Arab Nationalism: The Politics of History and Culture in the Modern Middle East (London: Routledge, 2017), and Iraqi Arab Nationalism: Authoritarian, Totalitarian and Pro-Fascist Inclinations, 1932-1941 (London: Routledge, 2006).
MAYSOON AL-DAMLUJI
Maysoon Al-Damluji is a liberal politician who studied at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London and practised as an architect until 2003. She served as Deputy Minister of Culture (2003- 2006) in Iraq, was a Member of the Iraqi Parliament for 3 terms (2006- 2018), and chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee for Culture and Media. Her main focus is cultural issues and women's rights in Iraq. Currently, she is Adviser of Culture and Reconstruction Affairs for President Barham Saleh.
DR. GERALDINE CHATELARD
Dr. Geraldine Chatelard is head of the Middle East program, department of international engagement, at the National Library of France (BnF) and projet manager of the digital platform Libraries of the Middle East. A social historian and anthropologist of contemporary Arab societies by training, with degrees in English and Arabic, a doctorate from the School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS, Paris, 2000) and numerous academic publications, she has lived and conducted research in the Middle East for over 25 years mostly as a fellow and associate of the French Institute in the Near East (IFPO), Jordan and Iraq branches. Additionally, over the past decade, she has been extensively involved in initiatives in favor of Iraqi heritage as a UNESCO staff member in charge of the culture portfolio for Iraq (2011-2014) and eventually as an expert advising the Iraqi ministry of culture, tourism and antiquities, ministry of water resources and administration of the Holy Shrine of Imam Hussein on several dossiers submitted to UNESCO for inclusion of the World Heritage and Intangible Cultural Heritage lists. Among other projects she has carried out in Iraq, she has commissioned an assessment of private library collections in the South of the country, organized training sessions in preventive conservation of books and manuscripts, and edited volumes in English and Arabic about the history and heritage of the city of Najaf.
DR. SAAD ESKANDER
Dr. Saad Eskander is the Cultural Heritage Advisor at the Ministry of Culture in Iraq. Beginning in 2003, Dr. Eskander was the Director General of the National Library and Archive, where he spent 12 years. Before he joined the Ministry of Culture in 2020, Dr. Eskander spent five years as a Cultural Heritage Consultant at the Zheen Centre for Documentation and Research. Dr. Eskander received his doctorate in International History at the London School of Economics (LSE) in 1999.
DR. CAECILIA PIERI
Dr. Caecilia Pieri is Associate Researcher at the French Institute of the Near-East (IFPO), Beirut, where she was formerly Head of the Urban Observatory (2011-2015). She works on a comparative approach to the field of modern urban history and urban anthropology in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern areas. She received her PhD at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, on the subject of the modernization of Baghdad, where she has been conducting fieldwork since 2003. Dr. Pieri is particularly concerned with cities in conflict, and the use of heritage as a social marker and tool for politics. She was the leading coordinator of a research program within IFPO/AUF (2015-2017) about “Heritage at War in the Mediterranean Region”, with partnerships in Lebanon, Algeria, Egypt, Turkey, Bosnia, and Italy (2016-2018). A member of ICOMOS - International and of DOCOMOMO -Lebanon, Dr. Pieri is also an expert within the UNESCO (World Heritage) steering committee for the safeguard of modern heritage in the Arab World. Among her publications as an author or scientific editor: Baghdad Arts Deco, 1920-1950 (American University of Cairo Press, 2011), The Le Corbusier Gymnasium in Baghdad (co-authored with Mina Marefat and Gilles Ragot), and the recent book based on her PhD: Bagdad. La construction d’une capitale moderne, 1914-1960 (November 2015, Presses de l’Ifpo).
DR. NADA SHABOUT
Dr. Nada Shabout is a Professor of Art History and the Coordinator of the Contemporary Arab and Muslim Cultural Studies Initiative (CAMCSI) at the University of North Texas. She is the founding president of the Association for Modern and Contemporary Art from the Arab World, Iran and Turkey (AMCA). She is the author of Modern Arab Art: Formation of Arab Aesthetics, University of Florida Press, 2007; co-editor of New Vision: Arab Art in the 21st Century, Thames & Hudson, 2009; and co-editor of Modern Art in the Arab World: Primary Documents, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2018. She is also founding director of Modern Art Iraq Archive. Notable among exhibitions she has curated: Sajjil: A Century of Modern Art, 2010; traveling exhibition, Dafatir: Contemporary Iraqi Book Art, 2005-2009; and co-curator, Modernism and Iraq, 2009. Major awards of her research include: Getty Foundation 2019; Writers Grant, Andy Warhol Foundation 2018; The Academic Research Institute in Iraq (TARII) fellow 2006, 2007, Fulbright Senior Scholar Program, 2008. She is currently working on a new book project, Demarcating Modernism in Iraqi Art: The Dialectics of the Decorative, 1951-1979, under contract with the American University in Cairo Press. Dr. Shabout is also on the Board of TARII.
Banner photo: Freedom Monument by Jawad Salim, Tahrir Square, Baghdad
