Shows
CBRL SoundLearning from the Levant - Episode 2: Shaddin AlmasriLearning from the Levant
Episode 2: Shaddin Almasri
In this episode of Learning from the Levant, host Shatha Mubaideen welcomes Dr. Shaddin, a Research Fellow at CBRL and postdoctoral researcher at Danube University Krems. Shaddin’s research focuses on inequalities between refugee and migrant groups, particularly in the SWANA and East Africa regions.
Together, they discuss the evolving refugee policies in Jordan and the Levant, the challenges of aid distribution, and the long-debated ‘durable solutions’ of resettlement, local integration, and return. With shifting political realities, questions arise about the future of Syrian refugees, international funding, and the broader implications for displaced commun...2025-06-2411 min
CBRL SoundLearning from the Levant - Episode 1: Jane HumphrisLearning from the Levant
Episode 1: Jane Humphris
In this first episode of Learning from the Levant, a Podcast Series by the Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL), Shatha Mubaideen hosts Dr Jane Humphris, CBRL Director. Together, they discuss Dr Humphris' career in archaeology, her new role at CBRL, and the organisation’s mission to promote interdisciplinary research and cultural heritage preservation in the Levant region in 2025 and beyond.2025-04-2917 min
CBRL SoundJerusalem: From Arab world metropolis to divided cityJerusalem: From Arab world metropolis to divided city
Dr Mansour Nasasra shares his insights into the complex history of Jerusalem. He looks back to the British occupation of the city by General Edmund Allenby in 1917 and the unstable years that followed, the division of the city in 1948 between Israel and Jordan and Israel’s capture of East Jerusalem in the 1967 Six Day war.
He recalls how Jerusalem was a hub for the Arab world with flights to all over the region from the former Jerusalem International Airport at Qalandia, now better known as the site of the Israeli checkpoint between th...2024-09-2640 min
CBRL SoundKashmir-Palestine Scholars Solidarity Network LaunchPalestine and Kashmir are two of the most longstanding unresolved geopolitical puzzles resulting from the end of the British Empire. They share an unenviable list of commonalities in their historical conditions: from the legacies and vestiges of British colonial partition, to the large refugee populations and extensive diasporas they produced. Their struggles for national self-determination are also repeatedly shaped by the prominent influence of regional actors. More recent history has witnessed even more linkages emerging as a product of the post-Cold war detente between India and Israel; their military, political and economic cooperation; ideological affinities between Hindutva and Zionism; aspirations...2022-11-1749 min
CBRL SoundKnowing about Earthquakes in the Mandatory Levant I Sarah Irving I October 2022When an earthquake shook Palestine, Transjordan and the south of Lebanon and Syria in 1927, terms such as the Richter scale or plate tectonics which we now use to talk about seismic events were still a thing of the future. In global science, scholars were debating what caused earthquakes and were trying to work out how to measure their power and impacts. This lecture looks at how local scientists, journalists and government officials in the 1920s Levant thought about and reacted to earthquakes and how they fit into the broader cultural and political discourses of the day.
About the speaker:
Sarah...2022-11-1642 min
CBRL SoundThe Victorians in Palestine: Laying Colonial Foundations I Gabriel Polley I October 2022This talk considers British involvement in and attitudes towards Palestine during the so-called “Peaceful Crusade” of the nineteenth century. Polly presents aspects of his book Palestine in the Victorian Age, arguing that Britain’s occupation, and the Zionist movement’s settler-colonisation, were significantly prefigured by Victorian Britons. Drawing on Evangelical Christian discourses around the Holy Land and the Jewish people and the geopolitical rivalries of the Eastern Question, these individuals created expectations for Palestine’s future which were then put into practice from 1917 to 1948 and beyond.
Polley also undertakes a historiographical consideration of nineteenth-century Palestine. Narratives beginning in 1917 not only elide the...2022-11-1633 min
CBRL SoundJerusalem: Old City Perspectives from W/out & Within I Matthew Teller & Bisan Abu Eisheh I Sept 2022In Jerusalem, what you see and what is true are two different things. Maps divide the walled Old City into four quarters, yet that division doesn’t reflect the reality of mixed and diverse neighbourhoods. Beyond the crush and frenzy of its major religious sites, much of the Old City remains little known to visitors, its people overlooked and their stories untold.
This webinar highlights voices of the communities of the Old City by bringing into dialogue the writings of author/journalist Matthew Teller and artist/academic Bisan Abu Eisheh.
Teller’s latest book ‘Nine Quarters of Jerusalem’ is a highly o...2022-11-1653 min
CBRL SoundRebel Populism: Revolution and Loss Among Syrian Labourers in Beirut I Philip Proudfoot I Sept 2022Rebel populism tells the story of the Syrian uprising through the eyes of migrant workers in Beirut. Workers from Syria have maintained a presence in Lebanon for decades. There was a time when their wages stretched further back home. However, from the mid-2000s, liberalising reforms saw accelerating levels of poverty. Migration shifted from an ‘opportunity’ to a survivalist strategy.
But in 2011, revolution came to Syria. Rural towns and villages – the birthplaces of this book’s principal characters – exploded in revolt. Several men returned, some later joining armed militias, but even those who remained abroad found means to protest at a distance. This...2022-11-1636 min
CBRL SoundDigital mapping, heritage management and archaeological research in the Levant I Panel I June 2022CBRL & EAMENA webinar: Digital mapping, heritage management and archaeological research in the Levant: synergism and future directions
Archaeology has undergone a digital revolution that has transformed working practices across the globe and hugely increased the amount of data available for research. Many initiatives exist that try to organise and make sense of the influx of data, further contributing to creating more digital data in the process. The Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa (EAMENA) project, which was the subject of a recent Special Issue of Levant that explored the research potential of the EAMENA database, is one...2022-11-1646 min
CBRL SoundChallenging the Kyl-Bingaman Amend: opening access to satellite imageryI Michael Fradley I July 2022This is a joint lecture in partnership with the Palestine Exploration Fund held in honour of Andrea Zerbini.
Access to satellite imagery has enabled major advances in archaeology and other disciplines studying the Middle East and North Africa. A comparable impact had not been realised over Israel and Palestine, where U.S. restrictions known as the Kyl-Bingaman Amendment limited imagery resolution over this area. This paper will present the work of Michael Fradley and Andrea Zerbini (1984-2019) to remove these restrictions, culminating in the reduction on limits in June 2020, but also considering how structural barriers remain in place. As well...2022-11-1042 min
CBRL SoundBRISMES – CBRL mentoring event: Getting published in an academic journal I Panel I April 2022The British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES) together with the Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL) are pleased to announce their second joint mentoring webinar for our members. Targeting postgraduate students and early career researchers, these on-line events offer practical advice and support from specialists, equipping the next generation of Middle East scholars with the insights needed to get ahead in their research and careers.
This event features a line-up of academic journal editors from diverse disciplinary backgrounds providing insight and feedback on the process of getting published in today’s competitive academic environment.
Article write-up and pe...2022-11-101h 14
CBRL SoundUsing the master's tools to dismantle the house: I Law & Palestinian Liberation I Ralph Wilde I 2022Using the Master’s Tools to Dismantle the Master’s House: International Law and Palestinian Liberation
It is commonplace to seek to enforce international law as a means of vindicating the rights of the Palestinian people, including, fundamentally, the right to liberation. Legal “tools” deployed to dismantle the “master’s house” of colonial oppression, to borrow from Audre Lorde. But the international legal system is embedded with the ideology and techniques of imperialism and colonialism. Is international law not, then, part of the “master’s house”? Would the implementation of international law necessarily bring about Palestinian liberation?
The lecture, based on a new article in...2022-06-0628 min
CBRL SoundThe politics of heritage; case studies from Jordan I Panel I March 2022The heritage agenda in the Levant, whether focused on tourism, local communities, or sustainability, has typically been set by external agents. This event addresses this issue through presentations and discussion from two previous winners and co-authors of CBRL’s Contemporary Levant best paper prize – Christina Luke, 2021 – and Shatha Abu-Khafajah, 2019. The discussion will be chaired by cultural heritage specialist, Paul Burtenshaw.
In the presentation based on her and Lynn Meskell’s paper, ‘Developing Petra: UNESCO, the World Bank, and America in the desert’, Christina Luke charts the nascent development agendas for archaeological heritage and tourism at Petra, Jordan. Findings reveal that saving Petra...2022-03-221h 08
CBRL SoundInterview with Andrew Arsan: Democracy in the Levant 1936-58 I Andrew Arsan I March 2022February 2022
In this interview, CBRL’s Director Carol Palmer speaks to Andrew Arsan about his research on the twentieth century history of the Levant with a focus on the potential for Arab democracy.
About the speaker:
Andrew Arsan is Professor of Arab and Mediterranean History in the Faculty of History, University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of St John’s College. A political, cultural, and intellectual historian of the modern Middle East, he is the author of Lebanon: A Country in Fragments (2018) and Interlopers of Empire: The Lebanese Diaspora in Colonial West Africa (2014), and the editor, with Cyrus Schayegh, of the...2022-02-1433 min
CBRL SoundUnfree labour and refugee workers in Middle Eastern agriculture I Panel I December 202101 December 2021
This lecture revisits the notion of “unfree labour” through the study of refugee workers in Middle Eastern agriculture. It presents findings from the Refugee Labour under Lockdown project, drawing on interviews with 80 Syrian agricultural workers, 20 intermediaries, and 20 employers in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria. The International Labour Organisation’s definition of “forced labour” does not capture Syrians’ experience of “unfreedom” - born out of the interplay of neoliberal businesses, with their need for cheap, mobile labour, and restrictive asylum policies in Middle Eastern host countries - which produce these workers. Through an anthropological lens, we see that refugees are recruited into g...2021-12-031h 29
CBRL SoundThe metamorphising struggle for Syria I Raymond Hinnebusch I November 2021Syria’s conflict has metamorphised into a hybrid: a partially frozen proxy war over territory combined with a battle over sanctions and reconstruction. This lecture will explore three aspects of this contest. The lecture will look at the stalemated proxy war; the effort of the regime to use reconstruction to consolidate its power and marginalize opposition and the US effort to obstruct this. At stake is whether Syria’s sovereignty will survive and in what form or whether it’s statehood will further fail, with likely waves of spill-over to neighbours. But Syria is also a test case of the global...2021-11-231h 34
CBRL SoundDesert Insurgency: Archaeology, T. E. Lawrence and the Arab Revolt I Nicholas J Saunders I Nov 2021For 10 years, between 2005 and 2014, the ‘Great Arab Revolt Project’ (GARP) investigated the remains of the 1916-1918 Arab Revolt in southern Jordan, from Ma’an to Mudawwara.
Expecting initially to survey and excavate the mainly ruinous Hejaz Railway stations for perhaps three years, events soon changed this to a 10-year project. The stations were investigated, but it was the unexpected discovery of conflict landscapes in-between the stations and farther out in the desert that required more investigation and was added to by the discovery of over 100 pre-Revolt construction-era camps built by and for the labour gangs who constructed the railway. Discoveries includ...2021-11-181h 32
CBRL SoundLiving Emergency: Israel's Permit Regime in the Occupied West Bank I Y Berda & R Hammami I May 2018Living Emergency: Israel’s Permit Regime in the Occupied West Bank
Dr Yael Berda (Harvard) in conversation with Professor Rema Hammami (Birzeit University)2021-10-2957 min
CBRL SoundHamas Contained: the Rise and Pacification of Palestinian Resistance I Tareq Baconi I October 2019Book launch in partnership with the Educational Bookshop, the American Colony Hotel and Stanford University Press presented by the author Tareq Baconi in conversation with Jose' Vericat.2021-10-2652 min
Talks at the Kenyon InstituteHamas Contained: the Rise and Pacification of Palestinian Resistance (2019)30 October 2019 Book launch in partnership with the Educational Bookshop, the American Colony Hotel and Stanford University Press presented by the author Tareq Baconi in conversation with Jose' Vericat.2021-10-2652 min
CBRL Sound'From the River to the Sea_ Palestine and Israel in the Shadow of “Peace” I Panel I November 2019From the River to the Sea: Palestine and Israel in the Shadow of ‘Peace’ provides original analyses of how different coping strategies were developed as well as new forms of political expression, interaction, and mobilization since the 1993 peace deal between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel. Its premise is that an historical realism is essential in order to develop a route out of the post-Oslo impasse that extended and solidified the power imbalance under the auspices of ‘peace’.2021-10-1256 min
Talks at the Kenyon Institute'From the River to the Sea_ Palestine and Israel in the Shadow of “Peace” (2019)28 November 2019Authors in conversation with Toufic HaddadFrom the River to the Sea: Palestine and Israel in the Shadow of ‘Peace’ provides original analyses of how different coping strategies were developed as well as new forms of political expression, interaction, and mobilization since the 1993 peace deal between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel. Its premise is that an historical realism is essential in order to develop a route out of the post-Oslo impasse that extended and solidified the power imbalance under the auspices of ‘peace’.2021-10-1256 min
CBRL SoundNazareth_ The City that Survived the Nakba I Leena Dallasheh I December 2017In the wake of the Nakba, and the destruction of much of Palestinian society and its major cities, Nazareth remained almost intact. As the dust of the war settled, this heretofore small town turned into the only Palestinian city to survive the events of 1948, and became the cultural and political centre for the Palestinians that remained as a minority in the new self-identified Jewish state. In this lecture, Dr Leena Dallasheh (Humboldt State University, California), traces how the city survived and persevered, despite immense challenges.2021-10-1250 min
Talks at the Kenyon InstituteNazareth_ The City that Survived the Nakba (2017)11 December 2017By Dr Leena DallashehIn the wake of the Nakba, and the destruction of much of Palestinian society and its major cities, Nazareth remained almost intact. As the dust of the war settled, this heretofore small town turned into the only Palestinian city to survive the events of 1948, and became the cultural and political centre for the Palestinians that remained as a minority in the new self-identified Jewish state. In this lecture, Dr Leena Dallasheh (Humboldt State University, California), traces how the city survived and persevered, despite immense challenges.2021-10-1250 min
CBRL SoundPalestine Ltd. Neoliberalism & Nationalism in the Occupied Territory I Toufic Haddad I December 2016'Palestine Ltd' by Toufic Haddad explores how neoliberal frameworks have shaped and informed the common understandings of international, Israeli and Palestinian interactions throughout the Oslo peace process. Drawing upon more than 20 years of policy literature, field-based interviews and recently declassified or leaked documents, he details how these frameworks have led to struggles over influencing Palestinian political and economic behaviour, and attempts to mould the class character of Palestinian society and its leadership. In this book launch event, Dr Haddad will show us how a dystopian vision of Palestine emerges as the by-product of this complex asymmetrical interaction, where nationalism, neo-colonialism...2021-10-1252 min
Talks at the Kenyon InstitutePalestine Ltd_ Neoliberalism and Nationalism in the Occupied Territory (2016)7 December 2016Toufic Haddad'Palestine Ltd' by Toufic Haddad explores how neoliberal frameworks have shaped and informed the common understandings of international, Israeli and Palestinian interactions throughout the Oslo peace process. Drawing upon more than 20 years of policy literature, field-based interviews and recently declassified or leaked documents, he details how these frameworks have led to struggles over influencing Palestinian political and economic behaviour, and attempts to mould the class character of Palestinian society and its leadership. In this book launch event, Dr Haddad will show us how a dystopian vision of Palestine emerges as the by-product of this...2021-10-1252 min
CBRL SoundThe Arab Architectural Renaissance in the Western Part of Occupied Jerusalem I Panel I May 20199 May 2019
Adnan Abdelrazak, in conversation with Raja Khalidi, discusses the new era of urban development in Jerusalem brought about by the replacement of the Ottoman Empire’s rule over Jerusalem by British forces in 1917 and by the imposition of a British Mandate on Palestine by the League of Nations in 1921.2021-10-121h 10
Talks at the Kenyon InstituteThe Arab Architectural Renaissance in the Western Part of Occupied Jerusalem (2019)9 May 2019Adnan Abdelrazak, in conversation with Raja Khalidi, discusses the new era of urban development in Jerusalem brought about by the replacement of the Ottoman Empire’s rule over Jerusalem by British forces in 1917 and by the imposition of a British Mandate on Palestine by the League of Nations in 1921.2021-10-121h 10
CBRL SoundFinding Jerusalem: Archaeology Between Science and Ideology I K Galor & N Jubeh I August 201728 August 2017
Book launch with Katharina Galor and Nazmi Jubeh.
A joint event between the Kenyon Institute, the Educational Bookshop and Dar al-Tifel al-Arabi.
This event will bring author Dr Katharina Galor (Humboldt University, Berlin) into discussion with Dr Nazmi Jubeh (Birzeit University, Palestine) about the findings of her new book: Finding Jerusalem: Archaeology Between Science and Ideology. Bridging the gap between popular coverage and specialized literature, Finding Jerusalem provides a comprehensive tour of the politics of archaeology in the city.2021-10-1252 min
Talks at the Kenyon InstituteFinding Jerusalem: Archaeology Between Science and Ideology (2017)28 August 2017Book launch with Katharina Galor and Nazmi Jubeh.A joint event between the Kenyon Institute, the Educational Bookshop and Dar al-Tifel al-Arab. This event will bring author Dr Katharina Galor (Humboldt University, Berlin) into discussion with Dr Nazmi Jubeh (Birzeit University, Palestine) about the findings of her new book: Finding Jerusalem: Archaeology Between Science and Ideology. Bridging the gap between popular coverage and specialized literature, Finding Jerusalem provides a comprehensive tour of the politics of archaeology in the city.2021-10-1252 minCBRL SoundFrom Ferguson to Palestine: State Control and Oppression I Marc Hill & Sarah Francis I July 201931 July 2019
Book launch with Professor Marc Lamont Hill and Attorney Sarah Francis.2021-10-1235 min
Talks at the Kenyon InstituteFrom Ferguson to Palestine: State Control and Oppression (2019)31 July 2019Book launch with Professor Marc Lamont Hill and Attorney Sarah Francis.2021-10-1235 min
CBRL SoundCitizen Hariri: Lebanon’s Neoliberal Reconstruction I Hannes Baumann and Toufic Haddad I August 201715 August 2017
Book Launch with Hannes Baumann and Toufic Haddad.
Joint event between the Kenyon Institute, the Educational Bookshop and Dar al-Tifel al-Arabi.
This book assesses the legacy of the man dubbed 'Mr Lebanon' and charts the social and economic transformations his rise represented. At this event, author Hannes Baumann (Liverpool University, UK) will be in discussion with Taufic Haddad (independent Palestinian-American researcher) who will draw out how similar social and economic transformations have taken place in the occupied Palestinian territory.2021-10-1253 min
Talks at the Kenyon InstituteCitizen Hariri: Lebanon’s Neoliberal Reconstruction (2017)15 August 2017Book Launch with Hannes Baumann and Toufic Haddad.Joint event between the Kenyon Institute, the Educational Bookshop and Dar al-Tifel al-Arabi.This book assesses the legacy of the man dubbed 'Mr Lebanon' and charts the social and economic transformations his rise represented. At this event, author Hannes Baumann (Liverpool University, UK) will be in discussion with Taufic Haddad (independent Palestinian-American researcher) who will draw out how similar social and economic transformations have taken place in the occupied Palestinian territory.2021-10-1253 min
CBRL SoundThe politics of water scarcity in the Levant I Panel I September 202129 September 2021 | The politics of water scarcity in the Levant
The Middle East is the most water scarce region in the world. In this webinar we will consider the causes and consequences of this water scarcity. We will discuss how climate and management of water resources impacts this water crisis.
Three speakers will provide perspectives from the Levant: an exploration of the politics behind policies of water allocation in the case of Jordan, thoughts on food security in water scarce regions whilst protecting the livelihoods of farmers, and discussions on the implications of water scarcity on vulnerable communities in the Levant.
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CBRL Webinar Series 2021The politics of water scarcity in the Levant29 September 2021 | The politics of water scarcity in the Levant The Middle East is the most water scarce region in the world. In this webinar we will consider the causes and consequences of this water scarcity. We will discuss how climate and management of water resources impacts this water crisis. Three speakers will provide perspectives from the Levant: an exploration of the politics behind policies of water allocation in the case of Jordan, thoughts on food security in water scarce regions whilst protecting the livelihoods of farmers, and discussions on the implications of water scarcity on vulnerable...2021-10-051h 29
CBRL SoundA History of False Hope I Lori Allen I June 2021In this speaker event, Lori Allen will present on her latest book, A History of False Hope:
Investigative Commissions in Palestine, in conversation with Toufic Haddad.
Based on archival and ethnographic research, this book examines a history of international investigative commissions in Palestine as liberal performances and enactments of international law. A History of False Hope offers new perspectives on Palestinian political history, and a novel methodology bringing anthropology to the archives and the history of international law.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Lori Allen is Reader in Anthropology at SOAS University of London. Her work has focused on Palestinian society, politics...2021-07-061h 18
CBRL SoundOlga Tufnell's Perfect Journey - Book Launch I Panel I June 2021This lecture, in partnership with CBRL and UCL Press, provides an opportunity to summarize, share insights, and discuss the recently published volume: “Olga Tufnell’s ‘Perfect Journey’: Letters and photographs of an archaeologist in the Levant and Mediterranean.”
Olga Tufnell (1905–85) was a British archaeologist working in Egypt, Cyprus and Palestine in the 1920s and 1930s, a so-called golden age of archaeological discovery. Based largely on letters and photographs from the Olga Tufnell archive at the Palestine Exploration Fund, the book sheds light on personal experiences of travel and dig life at this extraordinary time.
The letters offer insights into the social and p...2021-06-291h 27
CBRL Webinar Series 2021Olga Tufnell's Perfect Journey - Book LaunchThis lecture, in partnership with CBRL and UCL Press, provides an opportunity to summarize, share insights, and discuss the recently published volume: “Olga Tufnell’s ‘Perfect Journey’: Letters and photographs of an archaeologist in the Levant and Mediterranean.”Olga Tufnell (1905–85) was a British archaeologist working in Egypt, Cyprus and Palestine in the 1920s and 1930s, a so-called golden age of archaeological discovery. Based largely on letters and photographs from the Olga Tufnell archive at the Palestine Exploration Fund, the book sheds light on personal experiences of travel and dig life at this extraordinary time. The letters offer insigh...2021-06-291h 27
CBRL SoundEastern Christianity in Syria and Palestine and European cultural diplomacy | Panel | May 2021A Christian ‘Oriental question’ or an ‘Orient belonging only to Easterners’?
In this webinar, the panellists will discuss European cultural diplomacy in Ottoman and Mandate Syria and Palestine, how it impacted the cultural identification of indigenous Christians, and the variety of Christian Arab agendas towards such policies, relying predominantly on unpublished sources.
They will present some of the conceptual and archival challenges, and link the study of the micro-scale level of everyday cultural and religious life to the macro-narratives of global change affecting Christian communities, in a connected perspective.
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With:
Karène Sanchez Summerer
Konstantinos Papastathis
Lora Gerd
Dimitrios M. Kontogeor...2021-05-251h 27
CBRL SoundHow to get published in a Middle East journal | 28 April 2021Are you interested in getting your research published in a leading peer-reviewed journal focused on the Middle East? Join us for a conversation with the editors of four prominent international journals who share their perspectives and advice on how to get your research published. Our panellists share their insights on the publishing process and provide tips for what they are looking for in their submissions.
We are joined by Joel Gordon, Editor of the International Journal of Middle East Studies; Noha Mellor, Associate Editor of the British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies; and Salim Tamari, Editor of Jerusalem Quarterly. The...2021-04-291h 12
CBRL Webinar Series 2021CBRL Skills Sessions: How to get published in a Middle East journal28 April 2021Are you interested in getting your research published in a leading peer-reviewed journal focused on the Middle East? Join us for a conversation with the editors of four prominent international journals who will share their perspectives and advice on how to get your research published. Our panellists will share their insights on the publishing process and provide tips for what they are looking for in their submissions.We will be joined by Joel Gordon, Editor of the International Journal of Middle East Studies; Noha Mellor, Associate Editor of the British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies; an...2021-04-281h 12
CBRL Sound"Neither Settle nor Native" – In conversation with Dr Mahmood Mamdani | 14 April 2021The Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL), in partnership with the Educational Bookshop, are pleased to share this discussion with Dr Mahmood Mamdani about his new book “Neither Settler nor Native: The Making and Unmaking of Permanent Minorities.”
The book offers original arguments regarding the co-constitutive relationship between the nation-state and the colonial state. According to the book’s description, “[i]n case after case around the globe – from the New World to South Africa, Israel to Germany to Sudan – the colonial state and the nation-state have been mutually constructed through the politicisation of a religious or ethnic majority at...2021-04-1445 min
CBRL SoundLooking forwards backwards | 31 March 2021Current global climatic and ecological changes present a profound threat to the long-term wellbeing of humanity. Solutions to mitigate against or adapt to society’s grand sustainability challenge will come from many quarters – science and technology, humanities and the creative arts, health, business and education – but the historical sciences of archaeology and geology also offer important past perspectives.
This webinar will explore the role and responsibility of geo-archaeological science in addressing fundamental aspects of sustainable development, including water, mineral resources, energy, and disaster risk. Prof. Iain Stewart will begin with a keynote presentation, before bringing in the perspectives of our panell...2021-04-011h 34
CBRL Webinar Series 2021"Neither Settler nor Native": In conversation with Dr Mahmood Mamdani22 March 2021The Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL), in partnership with the Educational Bookshop, are pleased to invite you to the Jerusalem book launch of Mahmood Mamdani’s latest title “Neither Settler nor Native: The Making and Unmaking of Permanent Minorities.”This “genealogy of political modernity” offers original arguments regarding the co-constitutive relationship between the nation-state and the colonial state. According to the book’s description, “[i]n case after case around the globe – from the New World to South Africa, Israel to Germany to Sudan – the colonial state and the nation-state have been mutually construct...2021-03-2245 min
CBRL SoundFeminist art in the Middle East and Turkey | 4 March 2021This webinar, co-hosted by the Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL) and the British Institute at Ankara, will showcase the latest debates and scholarship on modern and contemporary feminist art practices and histories from the Middle East and Turkey.
The panellists will share their perspectives on feminist art in Syria, Turkey and Palestine. Dr Charlotte Bank will discuss feminist approaches in works by Syrian women artists and how they have been a vehicle for social change; Dr Ceren Özpınar will examine how the history of feminist art in Turkey has been commonly told and why that should be...2021-03-051h 21
CBRL Webinar Series 2021Feminist art in the Middle East and Turkey4 March 2021 This webinar, co-hosted by the Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL) and the British Institute at Ankara, will showcase the latest debates and scholarship on modern and contemporary feminist art practices and histories from the Middle East and Turkey.The panellists will share their perspectives on feminist art in Syria, Turkey and Palestine. Dr Charlotte Bank will discuss feminist approaches in works by Syrian women artists and how they have been a vehicle for social change; Dr Ceren Özpınar will examine how the history of feminist art in Turkey has been commonly to...2021-03-041h 21
CBRL SoundUnderstanding the development of complex societies in Lebanon during the EBA | 17 February 2021This webinar will investigate the development of complex societies in the Lebanese coastal zone during the Early Bronze Age (EBA). New evidence shows that coastal Lebanon, with its unique mountainous setting and ample water resources, developed a distinct pathway to complexity. Dr Kamal Badreshany will discuss ceramic and architectural evidence from recently excavated sites in the region to assess the economic underpinnings of EBA communities. He will examine the distribution of EBA settlement in coastal Lebanon with a view to understanding the underlying logic, and to contrast the distribution of EBA settlements with that documented for other parts of the...2021-02-181h 14
CBRL SoundWomen's activism in the Levant | 14 January 2021In this roundtable event, Islah Jad, Sara Ababneh and Nicola Pratt discuss women’s activism in the Levant, with a focus on Palestine, Jordan and Lebanon.
Based on their respective research in this area, they explore how women’s activism has emerged and changed over time, its relationship to nationalism and state-building, to feminism, international hegemonic discourses on women's rights and development, as well as to other socio-political forces, its goals and its achievements. The panel will consider similarities and differences between different country contexts as well as theoretical, conceptual and methodological issues involved in researching women’s activism in the re...2021-01-152h 04
CBRL SoundJabal Moussa: Archaeology and heritage in the Lebanese mountains | December 2020A projecting western spur of Mount Lebanon adjacent to the Ibrahim or Adonis river, the Jabal Moussa Biosphere Reserve possesses a rich natural and cultural heritage. Given its relative inaccessibility and difficult terrain, what is perhaps most remarkable is the long continuity of human adaptation and occupation of this mountain landscape.
This talk presents the results of an ongoing collaborative project (2018-onwards) between the Association for the Protection of Jabal Moussa (APJM), a Lebanese non-governmental and non-profit organisation, and a team of landscape archaeologists, who have come together to explore the archaeology and heritage of this region, from prehistory to the...2020-12-141h 25
CBRL SoundCBRL AGM Lecture 2020 | Migration diplomacy in the Levant: Lessons from the Syrian refugee crisisWith Dr Gerasimos Tsourapas, University of Birmingham
15 November 2020
How do states’ foreign policy goals affect their policies towards refugees? What is the impact of forced displacement on host states’ political development? Gerasimos Tsourapas draws on elite interviews conducted across Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey in the context of the Syrian refugee crisis to examine the particularities of migration diplomacy in the Levant.
He identifies how the three states sought to secure economic aid from the international community, relying on both bargains and threats, in exchange for hosting Syrian refugees within their borders. In fact, the absence of a functioning global refugee regi...2020-11-191h 16
CBRL SoundA Commerce of Knowledge | November 2020A Commerce of Knowledge, authored by Simon Mills, tells the story of three generations of Church of England chaplains who served the English Levant Company in Syria during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Reconstructing the careers of its protagonists in the cosmopolitan city of Ottoman Aleppo, the book investigates the links between English commercial and diplomatic expansion, and English scholarly and missionary interests: the study of Middle-Eastern languages; the exploration of biblical and Greco-Roman antiquities; and the early dissemination of Protestant literature in Arabic.
Early modern Orientalism is usually conceived as an episode in the history of scholarship. By shifting...2020-11-051h 09
CBRL SoundStealing from the Saracens: How Islamic Architecture Shaped Europe | October 2020A thought-provoking discussion, chaired by Venetia Porter, Curator of Islamic & Contemporary Middle East Art at the British Museum (currently on furlough), with Scott Redford, Professor of Islamic Art & Archaeology at SOAS, and Diana Darke, author of this new book.
Described by The Guardian as “exhilarating and meticulously researched”, the book has created something of a stir, roundly attacked on social media by alt-right groups for whom European architecture represents ‘the pinnacle of civilisation’.
The book uncovers the long yet often overlooked history of architectural ‘borrowing’, revealing the Arab and Islamic roots of Europe’s architectural heritage. Ideas and styles are traced as they...2020-10-081h 10
CBRL SoundGermany and Israel: whitewashing and statebuilding with Dr Daniel Marwecki | September 2020According to common perception, the Federal Republic of Germany supported the formation of the Israeli state for moral reasons—to atone for its Nazi past—but did not play a significant role in the Arab–Israeli conflict. However, the historical record does not sustain this narrative.
Daniel Marwecki’s pathbreaking analysis deconstructs the myths surrounding the odd alliance between Israel and post-war democratic Germany. Thorough archival research shows how German policymakers often had disingenuous, cynical or even partly antisemitic motivations, seeking to whitewash their Nazi past by supporting the new Israeli state. This is the true context of West Germany’s crucial ba...2020-10-011h 13
CBRL Sound20,000 years of impacts, adaptation & vulnerability in the Eastern Levant | Matt Jones | Dec 2015People have complex relationships with the environments they live in and resources such as water and food are critical variables in societal landscapes, with resource scarcity potentially leading to instability or collapse. In the Levant, with its long history of human occupation and evolution, human-climate-environment interactions have been important for millennia, such that issues of resource availability and sustainability are far from new. This lecture uses case studies from eastern Jordan, from the work of the Epipalaeoloithic Foragers of Azraq Project and Eastern Badia Archaeological Project, to investigate human-climate-environment relationships through the last 20,000 years. It will also draw on examples...2020-09-2157 min
CBRL SoundWas Jordan's Black Desert green during the late Neolithic?Slides to accompany this event can be found here:
https://cbrl.ac.uk/ckeditor/filemanager/userfiles/Events/Was_the_Black_desert_green_during_the_late_Neolithic/Collated_presentations.pdf
Today, Jordan’s Black Desert is an area of volcanic rocks that lie above the limestones of the Transjordan plateau stretching from Jebel Druze, south-east of Damascus, across eastern Jordan and into northern Saudi Arabia. Underexplored archaeologically, the Eastern Badia Archaeological Project (EBAP) aims to record and study the architecture, artefacts, and petroglyphs of this area, to integrate the findings with biological and palaeoclimatic data in order to understand the human oc...2020-09-101h 13
CBRL SoundPalestinian Theatre in the West BankSince the 1990s, Palestinian theatrical activities in the West Bank have expanded exponentially. In addition to local productions, Palestinian theatre-makers have presented their work to international audiences on a scale unprecedented in Palestinian history. Author Gabriel Varghese’s Palestinian Theatre in the West Bank explores the histories of the five major theatre companies currently working in the West Bank: Al-Kasaba Theatre, Ashtar Theatre, Al-Harah Theatre, The Freedom Theatre and Al-Rowwad. The book explores how theatre-makers contest Zionist discourse and Israeli state practices in this first major account of Palestinian theatre covering the last three decades. Varghese will discuss his book wi...2020-08-281h 11
CBRL SoundRoots of Lebanon's financial crisisLebanon is facing its worst financial crisis since independence. The government has defaulted on its ballooning public debt, high inflation is the new norm, much needed US dollars are in shortage, and thousands of bank account holders are denied their right to withdraw money. The central bank is accused of hiding real losses and appeasing rather than holding politicians and bankers accountable. New US sanctions are adding fuel to the fire of instability.
How did a country that prided itself for its financial stability and a highly performing banking sector find itself in such a quagmire? This webinar will look...2020-08-191h 04
CBRL SoundChina and the Middle East conflicts I Guy Burton I August 2020How do aspiring and established rising global powers respond to conflict?
Since the People’s Republic was established in 1949, China has long been involved in the Middle East and its conflicts, from exploiting or avoiding them, to their management, containment or resolution. This webinar will examine China’s engagement with the region’s conflicts including: Israel/Palestine; Iraq before and after 2003; Sudan and the Darfur crisis; the Iranian nuclear deal; the Gulf crisis; and the wars in Syria, Libya and Yemen.
This webinar will explore how a rising, global, non-Western power handles the challenges associated with both violent and non-violent confli...2020-08-061h 10
CBRL SoundThe spectre of annexation: a conversation with Professor Avi Shlaim I July 2020This webinar explores the roots and implications of Israel’s plans to annex up to a third of West Bank territory – a manoeuvre seen by many to represent a paradigmatic shift in the character of how the ‘Israel-Palestine’ conflict hereafter unfolds. Professor Shlaim - a leading scholar of Israel’s relations with the Arab world - will be interviewed by CBRL Kenyon Institute, Jerusalem Director Dr Toufic Haddad before opening up to questions from the audience.
About the speaker:
Professor Avi Shlaim is an Emeritus Fellow of St Antony's College, a former Professor of International Relations at the University of Oxford, an...2020-07-231h 11
CBRL Webinar Series 2020The Spectre of annexation: A conversation with Professor Avi Shlaim22 July 2020This webinar explores the roots and implications of Israel’s plans to annex up to a third of West Bank territory – a manoeuvre seen by many to represent a paradigmatic shift in the character of how the ‘Israel-Palestine’ conflict hereafter unfolds. Professor Shlaim - a leading scholar of Israel’s relations with the Arab world - will be interviewed by CBRL Kenyon Institute, Jerusalem Director Dr Toufic Haddad before opening up to questions from the audience.2020-07-221h 12
CBRL SoundHow the West stole democracy from the Arabs I Elizabeth Thompson with Eugene Rogan I August 2020This talk will look at how Arabs established a democratic government at Damascus in 1919-20 by forging a compromise between secular liberals, conservative Muslims, and leaders of non-Muslim communities as described in How the West Stole Democracy from the Arabs. However, the Paris Peace Conference refused to recognize Arab democracy because it threatened British and French colonial rule in other Muslim countries. By authorizing the French army to occupy Damascus, the Conference destroyed not only the Syrian government, but also future prospects for Arab democracy. The book challenges previous understandings of the impact of World War I on the Middle...2020-07-171h 08
CBRL SoundModeration in contemporary Jordan I Geoffrey Hughes with Philip Proudfoot I July 2020As the discourse of “Countering Violent Extremism” has become more prominent both within the Middle East and in talk about the Middle East, so too has the concept of moderation emerged as an apparent interpretive key to understanding the region and its most pressing political and theological debates. Yet if the definition of ‘extremism’ remains controversial, the concept of moderation is all too often taken to be self-evident—even as those with disparate political and religious convictions seek to lay claim to it. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Jordan, I trace the history and contemporary social lives of Arabic-language notions of...2020-07-031h 03
CBRL SoundReinvigorating Museum Education in Jordan I A. Badran, S. Abu-Khafajah, R. Skeates I June 2020In this seminar we invite discussion on the nature of partnership building in and around the museum and heritage sector in Jordan. We reflect on our own experiences of trying to develop successful partnerships, gained during the first year of our AHRC Newton-Khalidi funded research-and-development project on ‘Learning from Multicultural Amman: Engaging Jordan’s Youth’. Here, as well as thinking critically about the challenges surrounding partnership working, we have sought to identify and experiment with new forms of partnership working: between museums; between museums and education providers; between government agencies and museums; and between Jordanian museum professionals and international experts.
The ac...2020-06-191h 07
CBRL SoundHow British spies ruled Mandatory Palestine I Steven Wagner with Andrew Patrick I June 2020This talk surveys the first two decades of British rule in Palestine through the eyes of its intelligence services. Who were Britain’s spymasters in Palestine? How did they try to reconcile Britain’s conflicting promises to Zionists and Palestinians? Did they understand the country and its people, or did they get it wrong? This talk shows the moments where intelligence officers influenced British policy in Palestine, but also, how the now-declassified records they left behind help us understand the early years of the conflict.2020-06-041h 15
CBRL SoundCovid, Neoliberalism and the 'Arab Spring' I Gilbert Achcar I May 2020This event will explore the implications of the global Covid-19 crisis on the future of neoliberalism, and the ongoing struggles across the Middle East and North Africa, informally referred to as the 'Arab Spring'. This event will take the format of a conversation with Prof. Achcar, led by Dr. Toufic Haddad, Director of CBRL-Jerusalem's Kenyon Institute, and will include the chance for webinar audience members to pose questions.
About the speaker: Professor Gilbert Achcar is a Professor of Development Studies and International Relations at SOAS, University of London. His many books, published in a total of 15 languages, include: The Clash...2020-05-281h 09
CBRL Webinar Series 2020Covid, Neoliberalism and the 'Arab Spring' Podcast28 May 2020This event will explore the implications of the global Covid-19 crisis on the future of neoliberalism, and the ongoing struggles across the Middle East and North Africa, informally referred to as the 'Arab Spring'. This event will take the format of a conversation with Prof. Achcar, led by Dr. Toufic Haddad, Director of CBRL-Jerusalem's Kenyon Institute, and will include the chance for webinar audience members to pose questions.2020-05-281h 09
CBRL SoundThe Hundred Year's War on Palestine I Rashid Khalidi I May 2020The twentieth century for Palestine and the Palestinians has been a century of denial: denial of statehood, denial of nationhood and denial of history. This book is Rashid Khalidi’s powerful response. Drawing on his family archives, he reclaims the fundamental right of any people: to narrate their history on their own terms.
In this book launch, Prof. Khalidi (Columbia University) discusses his book with Rana Barakat (Birzeit University). This was an online webinar held in partnership with the Educational Bookshop (Jerusalem) and the Khalidi Library (Jerusalem).
About the speaker: Prof. Rashid Khalidi is the Edward Said Chair of Arab St...2020-05-121h 24
CBRL Sound1871 Survey of Western Palestine Revisited: the visible & the hidden I Salman Abu Sitta I Feb 2020Slides to accompany this audio are available here: https://cbrl.ac.uk/ckeditor/filemanager/userfiles/Events/Salman_Abu_Sitta_SWP/Salman_Abu_Sitta_slides_SOAS_event_February_2020.pdf
The Survey of Western Palestine (SWP), conducted between 1871 and 1878 and first published in 1880, was considered the first scientifically based comprehensive survey of Palestine and it was unequalled for its time. It remained the most comprehensive survey until the end of the 19th century and even later for some purposes. However, its aims were not fully achieved. In survey terms there have been errors of accuracy, mis-spelt names and significant loss of data...2020-03-021h 20
CBRL SoundTrump's peace plan - A first reading I Toufic Haddad I February 2020President Donald Trump’s proposal for peace between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples under the spotlight at an event hosted by King’s Decolonising Working Group at King’s College London.
Trump’s Peace Plan: A First Reading, a seminar led by Dr Toufic Haddad.
Dr Haddad is the director for the Council for British Research in the Levant’s Kenyon Institute, based in East Jerusalem. He is the author of Palestine Ltd: Neoliberalism and Nationalism in the Occupied Territories, which explores extensively the role of international donors and the legacy of economic peace-making in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. He completed...2020-02-0650 min
CBRL SoundDiscovery, documentation & the destruction of cultural heritage in the MENA I Bob Bewley I Jan 2020Sharing Passions: discovery, documentation and the destruction of cultural heritage in the Middle East and North Africa.
A tribute to Dr Andrea Zerbini (1984-2019)
Slides of this lecture to accompany the audio recording can be found here: https://cbrl.ac.uk/event/discovery-documentation-and-the-destruction-of-cultural-heritage-in-the-mena-region
Archaeologists thrive on discovering places, objects or stories about the past, especially when they give us a sense of identity and meaning in our modern lives. Archaeologists also love to travel but also want to understand their roots and where they came from too. This talk will explore these aspects in terms of what it means to be an ar...2020-01-171h 14
CBRL SoundHamas Contained: the Rise & Pacification of Palestinian Resistance I Tareq Baconi I October 2019'Hamas Contained' offers the first thirty-year history of the group on its own terms drawing interviews with organisation leaders, as well as publications from the group. The book maps Hamas's transition from fringe military resistance towards governance and shows how, under Israel's approach of managing rather than resolving the conflict, Hamas's demand for Palestinian sovereignty has effectively been neutralised by its containment in Gaza.
About the speakers:
Tareq Baconi is the International Crisis Group's Analyst for Israel/Palestine and Economics of Conflict. His book, 'Hamas Contained: the Rise and Pacification of Palestinian Resistance,' was published by Stanford University Press...2019-12-1952 min
CBRL SoundFrom the River to the Sea I Mandy Turner & authors I November 2019Book launch for 'From the River to the Sea: Palestine and Israel in the Shadow of “Peace”' and discussion chaired by Dr Toufic Haddad.
Can anything new really be written about the century-old conflict over Palestine and the Oslo ‘peace process’ since 1993? This book proves that it can. By focusing in on specific communities, each of the contributors provide original analyses of how the past 25 years extended and solidified the power imbalance between Israelis and Palestinians under the auspices of ‘peace.’ But these chapters also chart the new forms of political expression, interaction, and mobilisation, as well as different coping strat...2019-12-1356 min
CBRL SoundPeople like us? The Neolithic in Southwest Asia I Bill Finlayson I December 2019'People like us? The Neolithic in Southwest Asia' given by Professor Bill Finlayson (University of Reading) at CBRL’s AGM and Crystal M-Bennett Memorial lecture with an introduction by Dr Andrew Garrard (UCL).
The CBRL and its predecessors have played an important role in developing our understanding of the Southwest Asian Neolithic, one of the key transitions in human history, with the emergence of new forms of society that changed our relationship with the world, allowing the introduction of farming and enabling people to live in large sedentary groups. From Kenyon’s pioneering work at Jericho, to Kirkbrides excavations at Beid...2019-12-131h 00
CBRL SoundStone Men: the story of Palestine's stonemasons & the building of Israel I Andrew Ross I Nov 2019Stone Men: the story of Palestine's stonemasons and the building of Israel
with author Andrew Ross in discussion with Fida Touma
Using some of the best-quality limestone deposits in the world and drawing on generations of artisanal knowledge, Palestinian stonemasons have built almost every state in the Middle East except one of their own. Today the business of quarrying, cutting, fabricating and dressing stone is the Occupied Territories' largest private employer, and supplies the construction industry in Israel, along with other countries in the region and overseas.
Ross's engrossing and gracefully written story of this fascinating ancient trade shows how...2019-12-0543 min
CBRL SoundNomads, soldiers, musicians and hairdressers I Michael C. A. Macdonald I November 2019Nomads, soldiers, musicians and hairdressers: Some thoughts on language and identity in the Roman Provinces of Syria and Arabia
While Latin was the official language of the army, Greek was the language of government in Roman Syria and Arabia and was used among some of the population, particularly in towns and cities. However, several other languages were spoken and written in different areas and among various communities, and it seems that language could be an important expression of identity under Roman rule, but was not always so. As might be expected, many inhabitants of the former Nabataean kingdom continued to...2019-11-2843 min
CBRL SoundPalestine & Israel: scholarship & public debate in confrontational times I October 2019Of all subjects of scholarly inquiry, few could be more contentious than the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. How might we research and teach our way through it in an age of narrowing conversations? Two authors who have written extensively on the topic discuss their thoughts on engaging the history and contemporary politics of Palestine and Israel today. When seeking to reach a wider audience, what are the unwritten conventions (and expectations) that authors transgress at their peril? Exploring questions of identity, morality, authenticity, objectivity and the responsibility of those undertaking research to elucidate and inform, the panellists will draw on the challenges...2019-10-311h 47
CBRL SoundThe Past & Future of Climate, People & Drought in the Eastern Mediterranean I Ben Cook I May 2019Drought is a major natural hazard in the Eastern Mediterranean, including the Levant and Middle East, with documented impacts on historical and contemporary societies. Further, this region is likely to experience increased drought risk and severity with climate change in the coming century. In this talk, Dr Benjamin Cook will review the main drivers of natural drought variability in the region over the last several thousand years, explain how climate change is already exacerbating drought risk in the region, and detail drought impacts on societies past, present, and future. While drought will likely remain a major challenge for people and...2019-05-2352 min
CBRL SoundImperial Interventions in the Levant in 1919: The Wilsonian Imaginary & the Ottoman Lands I May 2019American interventions in the Middle East over the past fifty years have been a popular subject for scholars, yet the first major American diplomatic foray into the region occurred a century ago. The King-Crane Commission of 1919, sent to the Middle East by Woodrow Wilson in order to ascertain the political desires of the (no longer) Ottoman people, generated a moment of intense political debate and deliberation in the region. After returning from the Ottoman lands, the Commission made recommendations that did not align with the desires of the British, French, or the people of the region, yet these discounted proposals...2019-05-231h 09
CBRL SoundWorkshop: The King Crane Commission of 1919 I May 20191919 was the year in which Woodrow Wilson commissioned an Inter-Allied investigation from the Paris Peace Conference into the desires of the populations in the former Ottoman Empire. Great Britain and France pulled out of that commission leaving two Americans, Henry King and Charles Crane to lead a quixotic mission to get the borders of Greater Syria right. Their investigation into the desires of the populations in the former Ottoman Empire and the response to that report by the 1st Pan-Syrian Congress in Damascus is the focus of this workshop. The report and its recommendations were embargoed until the 1930s.
Held...2019-05-232h 28
CBRL SoundLawrence of Arabia: Romantic, Orientalist & Western Cultural Artefact I Dr Neil Faulkner I Dec 2018T E Lawrence played a central role in the outcome of the First World War in the Middle East. His own testimony in his famous war memoir Seven Pillars of Wisdom has now been ground-truthed by a ten-year archaeological field project. This provides a firmer base for examining his character, achievements, celebrity status, and endless cultural reconfiguration over the last century. These matters remain highly problematic, since Lawrence himself was both a Romantic and an Orientalist, and the many biographers, dramatists, and commentators who have contributed to his enduring fame have used his story to ‘imagine’ the Middle East in spec...2019-01-151h 25
CBRL SoundGendering 'Everyday Islam' I Pnina Werbner, Claudia Liebelt, Deniz Kandiyoti, Michelle Obeid I 2018Gendering 'Everyday Islam' was the theme of a recent special issue of the journal Contemporary Levant - an issue that set out to address the aspect of gender in the recent debate on 'everyday Islam' in scholarship, particularly anthropology, of Muslim societies. This special issue offers a valuable contribution to rethinking the gendered meanings of ‘everyday Islam,’ Islamic piety and normativity in contemporary Muslim-majority societies and their diasporas.2018-12-111h 27
CBRL SoundSyria’s People: Lessons for the Future? I Dawn Chatty & Diana Darke I October 2018Dawn Chatty, author of ‘Syria: The Making and Unmaking of a Refuge State’ and Diana Darke, author of ‘The Merchant of Syria: A History of Survival’ will each give a presentation on their recent books. Together, these talks will explore Syria’s historical embrace of refugees of all hues - Christian, Muslim and Jewish and its impact on its people. Using individual case studies, they will illustrate the complex web of social interactions that Syria’s people have developed over time to counter the fallout from colonial and regional wars and from political turbulence in their region. Both books begin with the lat...2018-12-111h 12
CBRL SoundTracing the alternative music scene in post-Oslo Palestine I Polly WithersPolly Withers is a CBRL Post-Doctoral Visiting Fellow(2017 - 2018)at CBRL's Kenyon Institute in East Jerusalem. In this Podcast she describes her ethnographic research which uses a gender lens to explore the politics of popular youth music in post-Oslo Palestine.2018-08-0926 min
CBRL SoundWas the 2011 Syrian uprising an agrarian revolt?Dr Jennie Bradbury and Dr Philip Proudfoot bring together two branches of CBRL’s traditional disciplines – archaeology and anthropology – into conversation to examine the origins of the 2011 uprising that started in the Syrian countryside and spread to urban centres. They discuss how those same transformations in the rural economy were fundamental in damaging Syria’s natural and cultural heritage as well as impacting stability and security.2018-07-0507 minTalks at the Kenyon InstituteLiving Emergency: Israel's Permit Regime in the Occupied West Bank (2018)03 May 2018The Kenyon Institute & the Educational BookshopLiving Emergency: Israel’s Permit Regime in the Occupied West BankDr Yael Berda (Harvard) in conversation with Professor Rema Hammami (Birzeit University)2018-05-0357 min
CBRL SoundTroublemaker, Liberator, Scapegoat; Spears In Lebanon 1941 - 44 I Tom Young I March 2018Major-General Sir Edward Spears was British Minister to the Levant from 1941-44, and played a vital role in Lebanese Independence in 1943. Inspired by six months painting, researching and exhibiting in Spears’s former residence in Beirut, artist, archivist and Beirut resident Tom Young pieces together a complex story full of risk, vanity, courage and contentious issues surrounding the imperial rivalry between Britain and France.
Spears achieved what he claimed was his ‘mission’, but paid a high price in a geo-political struggle which was bigger than himself. As part of his presentation, Young will display images of his own painterly responses to the...2018-05-011h 15
CBRL SoundThe Naqab Bedouins - A Century of Politics and resistance I Mansour NasasraDr Mansour Nasasra presents the background to his new book - The Naqab Bedouin - A Century of Politics and Resistance. Here he presents the case for rewriting the narrative of the Arab Bedouin as passive communities and instead, by chronicling their history and politics over the last century, Dr Nasasra brings this question within the context of Palestinian scholarship.
Mansour Nasasra is lecturer in Middle East politics and international relations at the Department of Politics and Government, Ben Gurion University of the Negev. Dr Nasasra was a research fellow at the Council for British Research in the Levant. The...2018-04-0215 min
CBRL SoundEconomy and Islam: Syrian refugees in Jordan I Sarah Tobin I February 2018Sarah Tobin is a social anthropologist who focuses on Islam, economic anthropology and displacement/migration in the Middle East and East Africa.
In this Podcast, Dr. Tobin discusses her latest project which looks at everyday life and everyday Islam in the Syrian refugee camps of Za`atari and Azraq. Drawing on this research, she examines questions of sectarianism and identity among Syrian refugees in Jordan.2018-04-0213 min
CBRL SoundDevastated Lands: Lebanon at the end of the Great War, 1918 I Prof Eugene Rogan I 16 Jan 2018Devastated Lands: Lebanon at the End of the Great War, 1918
The First World War had brought an unprecedented degree of loss and suffering to the people of Lebanon. This lecture examines through works of literature and eyewitness accounts how the people of Lebanon looked back on the Ottoman experience and their different expectations of the post-Ottoman world.
Professor Eugene Rogan is Director of the Middle East Centre at St Antony’s College, University of Oxford. He took his B.A. in economics from Columbia, and his M.A. and PhD in Middle Eastern history from Harvard. He taught at Boston Co...2018-01-1849 min
CBRL SoundHow The West Undermined Women's Rights In The Arab World I Nicola Pratt I 13 December 2017Based on personal narratives of women activists of different generations in Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan, this lecture explores the history of women’s activism in the Arab world from the 1950s onwards. It demonstrates the ways in which this activism has changed over time and what this tells us about the gendered dimensions of geopolitics in the region. The lecture highlights the significance of women’s activism and women’s rights within radical political projects that resisted Western influence from the 1950s until the 1970s and the gendered consequences of the defeat of radical popular movements by the West and its lo...2017-12-201h 16Talks at the Kenyon InstituteNazareth: The City that Survived the Nakba (2017)11 December 2017By Dr Leena DallashehIn the wake of the Nakba, and the destruction of much of Palestinian society and its major cities, Nazareth remained almost intact. As the dust of the war settled, this heretofore small town turned into the only Palestinian city to survive the events of 1948, and became the cultural and political centre for the Palestinians that remained as a minority in the new self-identified Jewish state. In this lecture, Dr Leena Dallasheh (Humboldt State University, California), traces how the city survived and persevered, despite immense challenges.2017-12-1150 min
CBRL SoundThe Legacy Of The Balfour Declaration I Prof. Rosemary Hollis I 2 November 2017On the centenary of the Balfour Declaration, Professor Rosemary Hollis - a leading academic expert on the subject - gave a lecture at the British Academy in London, co-hosted by the Council for British Research in the Levant.
Professor Rosemary Hollis is Professor of Middle East Policy Studies at the City University, and Member of the Council for British Research in the Levant.2017-11-101h 21
CBRL SoundThe Rise And Fall Of The Balfour Declaration I Dr. Victor Kattan I 2 November 2017On the centenary of the Balfour Declaration, Dr. Victor Kattan - a leading academic expert on the subject - gave this lecture entitled, "The Rise and Fall of the Balfour Declaration" at the British Academy in London, co-hosted by the Council for British Research in the Levant.
Dr Victor Kattan is a Senior Research Fellow at the Middle East Institute and Associate Fellow at the Faculty of Law at the National University of Singapore.2017-11-1049 min
CBRL SoundThe History of The Balfour Declaration I Prof. Jonathan Schneer I 2 November 2017To mark the centenary of the Balfour Declaration, Professor Jonathan Schneer - a leading academic expert on the subject- gave a lecture at the British Academy in London hosted by the Council for British Research in the Levant and the British Academy.
Jonathan Schneer is a Modern British Historian at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the School of History, Technology and Society and author of The Balfour Declaration: the origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict. In this lecture Jonathan looks at the history of the Balfour Declaration.2017-11-101h 12
CBRL SoundBook Launch: Crusader Landscapes in the Medieval Levant | Micaela Sinibaldi | 17 April 2017The Council for British Research in the Levant
In partnership with the Jordan Museum
Presents:
Settlement in the Petra Region during the Crusader Period
Dr Micaela Sinibaldi
To launch the book:
Crusader Landscapes in the Medieval Levant: The Archaeology and History of the Latin East
First Recored on: Monday, April 17th at 6 p.m.
at The Jordan Museum
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About the lecture
It is well documented by historical sources that during the 12th century the Franks established several settlements in the Jabal al-Shara and the Petra region, in present-day southern Jordan, as part of the former lordship of Montréal w...2017-07-1653 min
CBRL SoundThabit A.J. Abdullah: Ottoman-British Rivalry and its Effects on the Mandaean Community in IraqAbstract:
Throughout Ottoman times, the Mandaeans, a small gnostic community with roots going back to ancient Babylon, had strived to live without attracting much attention, amongst the Shi’i tribes of southern Iraq. Yet, in 1895, their head priest was accused of playing an important role in a major tribal rebellion against Ottoman authority. Using archival sources along with Mandaean oral tradition, this study analyzes this case within the context of state centralization, Ottoman-British rivalry in the region, and the resultant internal struggles within the small Mandaean community. The case is significant in that it sheds light on the impact that la...2017-06-2240 min
CBRL SoundInterview: Dr Ali Abdul Kadir AliThe very first British Institute interview podcast with Dr Philip Proudfoot (CBRL) and Dr Ali Abdul Kadir Ali (Oxford).
Philip discusses with Ali his most recent project examining the different regional policy responses to the Syrian refugee crisis (Lebanon and Jordan). They compare and contrast the various economic, historical, political factors that act to determine policy responses and how these policies manifest themselves in the opportunities and restrictions that Syrian's encounter in neighbouring host countries.2017-03-2553 min
CBRL SoundPhilippe Bourmaud: Assessing Infectious Risks in Late Ottoman Jerusalem | 6 March 2017Jerusalem was a focus of medical attention from the 19th century onwards. This was for reasons owing more to religious and touristic imagination - and later growing flows of immigration - than to epidemiological reasons. One feature of the knowledge of health and healthcare was that it largely followed communal patterns of social organization. Infectious diseases were viewed as hazards that straddled the city, known through communal data (for instance through the reports of denominational hospitals and dispensaries) that often created a hierarchization of communities according to criteria of hygiene. However, the second constitutional period, starting in 1908, marked a shift...2017-03-141h 00
CBRL SoundLebanon Can't Give Him A Future | Philip Proudfoot | 14 November 2016Lebanon has long maintained a significant population of Syrian migrant workers. Men undertook largely seasonal work with extended periods of wage labour abroad. However, there was little evidence of permanent settlement and few signs that a second-generation of Syrians were making homes across the border. In 2011, when the first rumbling of uprising began to break, a number of migrant workers returned home, hoping to participate through peaceful protest or, later, armed resistance. But now, against the realities of the present, most are just trying to survive.
About the speaker:
Dr Philip Proudfoot is an anthropologist of the Levant region. In...2016-11-1658 min