CBRL Webinar Series 2020

2 December 2020

A 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 present day.

The discussions will cover some of the main archaeological findings from the past few years of survey and highlight the ways in which these stories and narratives can be integrated with ongoing conservation, heritage protection and promotion efforts in Lebanon.

11 November 2020

A 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 the focus to Aleppo, A Commerce of Knowledge brings to light the connections between two seemingly separate worlds, tracing the emergence of new kinds of philological and archaeological enquiry in England back to a series of real-world encounters between the chaplains and the scribes, booksellers, priests, rabbis, and sheikhs they encountered in the Ottoman Empire.

This webinar is chaired by Marina Rustow, Khedouri A. Zilkha Professor of Near Eastern Studies and Professor of History at Princeton University.

7 October 2020

A 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 passed from vibrant Middle Eastern centres like Damascus, Baghdad and Cairo, entering Europe via gateways like Muslim Spain, Sicily and Venice through the movement of pilgrims, bishops, merchants and medieval Crusaders. It is a rich tale of cultural exchange, shedding new light on the backstory of some of Europe’s iconic landmarks.

23 September 2020

Book Launch with Dr Daniel Marwecki.

According 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 backing of Israel in the 1950s and ’60s. German economic and military support greatly contributed to Israel’s early consolidation and eventual regional hegemony. This initial alliance has affected Germany’s role in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict to the present day.

9 September 2020

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 occupation and use of the region.

After c. 6,500 BCE, the population in the Project study area appears to have mushroomed to unprecedented population density, with several sites that include Wisad Pools and Wadi al-Qattafi reaching enormous size, including hundreds of quasi-contemporaneously inhabited buildings.

In this talk, the EBAP team will discuss their research that suggests that the climate and vegetation of Jordan’s Black Desert was once very different to what is found there today.

This event is held in partnership with the Palestine Exploration Fund.

26 August 2020

Since 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 with theatre scholar Kristin Flade.

18 August 2020

Lebanon 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 at the roots of the crisis that run deep in the country’s history, including the role of its banking lobby in the formation of its central bank and management of the currency crisis.

5 August 2020

How 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 conflict as well as the differences between limiting and reducing violence alongside other ways to eliminate the causes of conflict and grievance.

22 July 2020

This 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.

16 July 2020

This 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 East that focus on nationalism as the primary outcome. Not only did Arabs seek to revive liberal constitutionalism, but they also demonstrated a political sophistication that has been erased by colonizers. The events of 1920 tainted the new regime of international law under the League of Nations with racism and sparked the rise of anti-liberal Islamism.

2 July 2020

As 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 moderation like ‘itidal and wasitiyya. I seek to map out how these terms have helped foster new forms of dispute and social control even as they have been taken up by secular and religious commentators drawing on a vibrant pre-existing textual tradition.

18 June 2020

In 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.

3 June 2020

This 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.

28 May 2020

This 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.

20 May 2020

The 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).

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 that was collected but not used. Its aim of describing the population of the country were particularly lacking. Military objectives became apparent towards the end of the survey and served the British army well until the First World War. Dr Salman Abu Sitta’s new revised atlas is compiled over 500 pages and corrects location errors, the spelling of names, it documents missing names and lists place names in both Arabic and English. In this lecture Dr Salman Abu Sitta will explore the significance of the SWP through the documentation of Palestine in the following 150 years.

President 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.

A tribute to Dr Andrea Zerbini (1984-2019)   

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 archaeologist working in the twenty-first century as well the challenges of working in the Middle East and North Africa. These include harnessing the latest technology, to help preserve the ever-threatened cultural heritage.

The talk will be a tribute to the life and work of Dr Andrea Zerbini.