Podcasts about british research

Join this discussion on recent developments in the fight for Palestinian liberation and where they fit in the context of settler colonialism Israel is currently undergoing unprecedent intra-Jewish social and political convulsion in light of polices propagated by the ultra-religious-nationalist government coalition now in power. The latter also pushes forward intensified assaults against Palestinians by the Occupation army and settler movement, captured most starkly in the Huwara pogrom. Palestinian resistance also appears to be entering a new era as an-intifada-like movement against Israeli targets unfolds across the West Bank, led by new Palestinian political actors. These developments take place on the backdrop of shifting regional and global dynamics that include the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Arab-Israel normalization deals, and the rise of a multipolar global order . How should we make sense of the current situation, and what do these changes mean for the struggle for a free Palestine today? Speakers: Sai Englert is a lecturer at Leiden University, in the Netherlands. He works on settler colonialism, Zionism, labour movements, and antisemitism. He is a member of the editorial boards of Notes from Below and Historical Materialism. He is the author of Settler Colonialism: An Introduction Toufic Haddad is a Palestinian academic and the author of Palestine Ltd.: Neoliberalism and Nationalism in the Occupied Territories. He currently directs the Council for British Research in the Levant's Kenyon Institute in East Jerusalem and has worked in various capacities across the OPT as a journalist, researcher, consultant, editor, and publisher. Watch the live event recording: https://youtube.com/live/i9rKk7EqvIU Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks

Clive Holes talks about the relationship between standard and non-standard Arabic, cultural myths of the history of Arabic, and the vectors impacting the evolution of Arabic.Clive Holes received his education from High Arcal Grammar School, Trinity Hall (Cambridge University), Wolfson College (Cambridge University), and Birmingham University. He worked as an Overseas Career Officer of the British Council in various countries and was involved in the establishment of Sultan Qaboos University in Muscat, Oman. He served as a Lecturer and Reader in Arabic at Salford and Cambridge Universities, respectively, and held the Khalid bin Abdullah Al-Saud Chair for the Study of the Contemporary Arab World at Magdalen College and the Oriental Institute. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2002 and became Emeritus Professor in 2014. He was also elected as the President of the Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL) in 2017.Created & hosted by Mikey Muhanna, afikraEdited by: Ramzi RammanTheme music by: Tarek Yamani https://www.instagram.com/tarek_yamani/About the afikra Conversations:Our long-form interview series features academics, arts, ‎and media experts who are helping document and/or shape the history and culture of the Arab world through their ‎work. Our hope is that by having the guest share their expertise and story, the community still walks away with newfound curiosity - and maybe some good recommendations about new nerdy rabbit holes to dive into headfirst. ‎Following the interview, there is a moderated town-hall-style Q&A with questions coming from the live virtual audience ‎on Zoom.‎ Join the live audience: https://www.afikra.com/rsvp   FollowYoutube - Instagram (@afikra_) - Facebook - Twitter Support www.afikra.com/supportAbout afikra:‎afikra is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region- past, present, and future - through conversations driven by curiosity. Read more about us on  afikra.com 

The fourth episode in the Kashmir Palestine Conversation Series addresses “Poetry and literature” and feature short presentations from Dalia Taha (poet and playwright) and Ather Zia (poet and writer, University of Colorado). The chair is Nadine El-Enany (Birkbeck, University of London) About the speakers Dalia Taha is a Palestinian poet and playwright living in Ramallah. Her first play Keffiyeh/Made in China was produced by the Flemish Royal Theatre and A.M. Qattan Foundation and premiered in Brussels. Her play Al'ab Nariya/Fireworks was developed under the Royal Court's International Playwriting residency and was produced there (London) in 2015. Dalia graduated from Brown University with an MFA in Playwriting and has published two collections of poetry and one novel. She recently completed her third play There Is No One Between You and Me. Ather Zia is a political anthropologist, poet and short-fiction writer. She is an assistant professor of anthropology and gender studies at the University of Northern Colorado, Greeley. Ather is the author of Resisting Disappearances: Military Occupation and Women's Activism in Kashmir (June 2019) and co-editor of Resisting Occupation in Kashmir (UPenn 2018) and A Desolation called Peace (Harper Collins, May 2019). She has published a poetry collection The Frame (1999) and another collection is forthcoming. Ather's ethnographic poetry on Kashmir has won an award from the Society for Humanistic Anthropology. She is the founder-editor of Kashmir Lit and is the co-founder of Critical Kashmir Studies Collective, an interdisciplinary network of scholars working on the Kashmir region. Ather is also the founder/editor of e-zine based on Kashmir titled Kashmir Lit at www.kashmirlit.org. Nadine El-Enany is a Reader in Law at Birkbeck School of Law and Co-Director of the Centre for Research on Race and Law (@CentreRaceLaw). Nadine teaches and researches in the fields of migration and refugee law, European Union law, protest and criminal justice. Her current research projects, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, focus on questions of race and justice in death in custody cases, and the role of law in addressing health inequalities arising from environmental harm. Nadine has written for the Guardian, the LRB Blog, Pluto Blog, Verso Blog, Open Democracy, Media Diversified, Left Foot Forward and Critical Legal Thinking. Her book, (B)ordering Britain: law, race and empire (2020) is published by Manchester University Press. The Kashmir-Palestine Conversations Series aims to create space for dialogue, networking and knowledge exchange between scholars of both Kashmir and Palestine. The series is organised by the Kashmir-Palestine Scholars Solidarity Network – an initiative conceived out of a British Academy Knowledge Frontiers Seed Grant awarded to scholars at the Council for British Research in the Levant (Dr Toufic Haddad) and the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) (Dr Emma Brännlund) in early 2020.

Palestine 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 to act as regional hegemons, and; influence from global institutions.  Despite the many commonalities between Kashmir and Palestine and the prolonged durations of their conditions, opportunities for dialogue, networking and knowledge exchange between scholars have been limited. This initiative aims to fill this gap by exploring possibilities for networking and cross-fertilisation between scholars working on Palestine and Kashmir respectively.  This network was initially conceived out of a British Academy Knowledge Frontiers Seed Grant awarded to scholars at the Council for British Research in the Levant (Dr Toufic Haddad) and the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) (Dr Emma Brännlund) in early 2020. After encountering significant delays due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the initiative finally seeks to publicly launch, creating a space where scholarly conversations on Kashmir and Palestine can take place. The keynote lecture on “Scholar-activist Solidarity: Building Alliances” was given by Dr Goldie Osuri, author and editor of multiple articles and special journal editions that have addressed Kashmir and Palestine in tandem. She spoke in-house at CBRL's Jerusalem Kenyon Institute.

The 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 peer review are stressful enough! Learn from insiders on avoiding mistakes and how to increase your chances of article acceptance. This event brings together editors from the British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies [BJMES]; Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East [CSSAAME]; Journal of Middle East Women's Studies [JMEWS]; and Contemporary Levant [CL]. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions specific to these journals and their respective processes.

When the UK officially left the European Union in January 2020, much speculation was made regarding the economic and social impact this would have on the country. One area has however been overshadowed: that of education and research. What impact has Brexit had on this field, and what could be the future of British Research? In this Episode, Niamh Axe answers all your question with the help of Giovanni Travaglino, Professor of Social Psychology and Criminology at Royal Holloway University in London and Director for the Institute of the Study of Power, Crime, and Society. This episode was hosted by Niahm Axe. Edited and sound engineered by Pauline Oléon. Research and content by Niahm Axe and Victoria Bergström. Music by John Sib and Winking Fox Music.

The 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 the expense of an equally manufactured minority. […] “Neither Settler nor Native” offers a vision for arresting this historical process. It rejects “the ‘criminal’ solution attempted at Nuremberg, which held individual perpetrators responsible without questioning Nazism as a political project and thus the violence of the nation-state itself. Instead, political violence demands political solutions: not criminal justice for perpetrators but a rethinking of the political community for all survivors – victims, perpetrators, bystanders, beneficiaries – based on common residence and the commitment to build a common future without the permanent political identities of settler and native.” The interview was conducted by CBRL’s Kenyon Institute Director Dr Toufic Haddad.

Current 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 panellists Prof. Nizar Abu-Jaber and Dr Carol Palmer. The webinar will be chaired by Prof. Matthew Jones. About the speakers: Professor Iain Stewart is the newly appointed El Hassan Research Chair in Sustainability at the Royal Scientific Society. The former director of its Sustainable Earth Institute at the University of Plymouth, Iain’s long-standing research interests are in geological hazards, geology for sustainable development, and geoscience communication. His geo-communication work has built on a 15-year partnership with BBC television presenting Earth science programmes, including Earth: The Power of the Planet; How Earth Made Us; How to Grow a Planet; The Rise of the Continents; and Planet Oil. Awarded an MBE for his services to geography and geology education, he currently holds a UNESCO Chair in Geoscience and Society and leads the UNESCO’s International Geoscience and Geoparks Programme project 685 on Geology and Sustainable Development. Professor Nizar Abu-Jaber is the Director of the Center for Natural and Cultural Heritage (CSNACH) at the German Jordanian University (GJU). Previously, he worked at Yarmouk University where he directed the UNESCO Chair for Desert Studies and Desertification Control. At GJU, he was the Dean of Research and Graduate Studies before moving on to establish CSNACH in 2011. A geologist by training, his diverse interests revolve around the use of Earth science in resolving pressing issues related to water resources and management, climate change, sustainable planning and cultural heritage. Most recently, he has led a number of CSNACH projects aimed at reviving the ancient Nabatean flood control system in Petra, a project which won the ICCROM-Athar award for Good Practices in Cultural Heritage Conservation and Management in the Arab Region (2020). Dr Carol Palmer is Director of the Council for British Research in the Levant based in Amman. She is an anthropologist, environmental archaeologist, and botanist. She wrote her PhD on traditional farming in northern Jordan and subsequently studied Bedouin from southern Jordan as part of the Wadi Faynan Project. Her research interests concentrate on recording rural life in its many forms, the contemporary and recent use of plants on the broadest level, cultivated, gathered, and grazed, and the effects of changes in food production practices on the landscape and in society. She is an Honorary Fellow at Bournemouth University.

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 told and why that should be challenged; and Dr Tina Sherwell will highlight the work of Palestinian women artists. The webinar will be chaired by Dr Toufic Haddad, Director of CBRL’s Kenyon Institute in Jerusalem. About the speakers: Dr Charlotte Bank is an art historian and curator with a PhD in Arabic from the University of Geneva. She has held academic positions and fellowships at the Universities of Bamberg and Geneva, the Orient Institute Beirut and the Museum of Islamic Art Berlin. As a curator, she has worked with art institutions in Europe and the Middle East. Dr Ceren Özpınar is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Brighton, History of Art and Design Programme. Previously. she was a British Academy Newton International Fellow at the University of Sussex (2015-17) and a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Leeds (2013-14). Dr Özpınar holds a PhD in History of Art from Istanbul Technical University (2015). Her research focuses on contemporary art, art historiography, and feminist art and art histories since 1960 with a special interest in Turkey and the Middle East. She co-edited Under the Skin: Feminist Art and Art Histories from the Middle East and North Africa Today (OUP, 2020), and published her first monograph The Art Historiography in Turkey (1970-2010) (Tarih Vakfi, 2016). She is currently working on her next monograph Politics of Writing Art Histories: Narratives of Contemporary Art, Feminism and Women Artists from Turkey (forthcoming, OUP). Dr Tina Sherwell is the Head of the Contemporary Visual Art Programme at the Faculty of Art, Music and Design, Birzeit University. Dr Sherwell was Director of the International Academy of Art, Palestine (2007-2012 and 2013-2017). Previously, she was Programme Leader of Fine Art at Winchester School of Art (2005-2007). She was also Executive Director of the Virtual Gallery at Birzeit University and has worked with the Tate Online on their digital archives (2004-2006). Dr Sherwell’s recent curated exhibitions include Intimate Terrains; Representations of a Disappearing Landscape, the Palestinian Museum (2019).

TORCH Book at Lunchtime webinar on Ravenna: Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe written by Professor Judith Herrin. Date: 4 November 2020. Book at Lunchtime https://www.torch.ox.ac.uk/book-at-lunchtime is a series of bite-sized book discussions held weekly during term-time, with commentators from a range of disciplines. The events are free to attend and open to all. About the book: From 402 AD until 751 AD, Ravenna was first the capital of the Western Roman Empire, then that of the immense kingdom of Theoderic the Goth and finally the centre of Byzantine power in Italy. In Ravenna: Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe, Judith Herrin explains how scholars, lawyers, doctors, craftsmen, cosmologists and religious luminaries were drawn to Ravenna where they created a cultural and political capital that dominated northern Italy and the Adriatic. As she traces the lives of Ravenna's rulers, chroniclers and inhabitants, Herrin shows how the city became the meeting place of Greek, Latin, Christian and barbarian cultures and the pivot between East and West. The book offers a fresh account of the waning of Rome, the Gothic and Lombard invasions, the rise of Islam and the devastating divisions within Christianity. It argues that the fifth to eighth centuries should not be perceived as a time of decline from antiquity but rather, thanks to Byzantium, as one of great creativity - the period of 'Early Christendom'. These were the formative centuries of Europe. Author Judith Herrin won the Heineken Prize for History (the 'Dutch Nobel Prize') in 2016 for her pioneering work on the early Medieval Mediterranean world, especially the role of Byzantium, the influence of Islam and the significance of women. She is the author of Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire, The Formation of Christendom, A Medieval Miscellany and Women in Purple. Herrin worked in Birmingham, Paris, Munich, Istanbul and Princeton before becoming Professor of Late Antique and Byzantine Studies at King's College London until 2008, where she is now the Constantine Leventis Visiting Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Classics. Panel: Peter Frankopan is Professor of Global History at Oxford University, where he is also Senior Research Fellow at Worcester College and Stavros Niarchos Foundation Director of the Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research. He works on the history of the Mediterranean, Russia, the Middle East, Persia/Iran, Central Asia and beyond, and on relations between Christianity and Islam. His books The Silk Roads (2015) and The New Silk Roads (2018) received huge acclaim. He writes regularly for the international press, advises governments on geopolitics, and is chair of this year's Cundill History Prize. Professor Dame Averil Cameron was Warden of Keble College, Oxford from 1994-2010, and before that Professor of Late Antique and Byzantine History at King's College London where she was also the first Director of the Centre for Hellenic Studies. She has been President of CBRL (Council for British Research in the Levant) and FIEC (Fédération internationale des associations d'études classiques) and is currently President of the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies. Dr Conrad Leyser is Associate Professor of History at Oxford and a Fellow and Tutor of History at Worcester College. He specialises in the religious and social history of the Latin West in late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages (300-1100). His current research project centres on celibacy and the professionalisation of the priesthood in the so-called 'unreformed' Church of the tenth century. He is the author of Authority and Asceticism from Augustine to Gregory the Great and the co-editor of England and the Continent in the Tenth Century.

TORCH Book at Lunchtime webinar on Ravenna: Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe written by Professor Judith Herrin. Date: 4 November 2020. Book at Lunchtime https://www.torch.ox.ac.uk/book-at-lunchtime is a series of bite-sized book discussions held weekly during term-time, with commentators from a range of disciplines. The events are free to attend and open to all. About the book: From 402 AD until 751 AD, Ravenna was first the capital of the Western Roman Empire, then that of the immense kingdom of Theoderic the Goth and finally the centre of Byzantine power in Italy. In Ravenna: Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe, Judith Herrin explains how scholars, lawyers, doctors, craftsmen, cosmologists and religious luminaries were drawn to Ravenna where they created a cultural and political capital that dominated northern Italy and the Adriatic. As she traces the lives of Ravenna's rulers, chroniclers and inhabitants, Herrin shows how the city became the meeting place of Greek, Latin, Christian and barbarian cultures and the pivot between East and West. The book offers a fresh account of the waning of Rome, the Gothic and Lombard invasions, the rise of Islam and the devastating divisions within Christianity. It argues that the fifth to eighth centuries should not be perceived as a time of decline from antiquity but rather, thanks to Byzantium, as one of great creativity - the period of 'Early Christendom'. These were the formative centuries of Europe. Author Judith Herrin won the Heineken Prize for History (the 'Dutch Nobel Prize') in 2016 for her pioneering work on the early Medieval Mediterranean world, especially the role of Byzantium, the influence of Islam and the significance of women. She is the author of Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire, The Formation of Christendom, A Medieval Miscellany and Women in Purple. Herrin worked in Birmingham, Paris, Munich, Istanbul and Princeton before becoming Professor of Late Antique and Byzantine Studies at King's College London until 2008, where she is now the Constantine Leventis Visiting Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Classics. Panel: Peter Frankopan is Professor of Global History at Oxford University, where he is also Senior Research Fellow at Worcester College and Stavros Niarchos Foundation Director of the Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research. He works on the history of the Mediterranean, Russia, the Middle East, Persia/Iran, Central Asia and beyond, and on relations between Christianity and Islam. His books The Silk Roads (2015) and The New Silk Roads (2018) received huge acclaim. He writes regularly for the international press, advises governments on geopolitics, and is chair of this year's Cundill History Prize. Professor Dame Averil Cameron was Warden of Keble College, Oxford from 1994-2010, and before that Professor of Late Antique and Byzantine History at King's College London where she was also the first Director of the Centre for Hellenic Studies. She has been President of CBRL (Council for British Research in the Levant) and FIEC (Fédération internationale des associations d'études classiques) and is currently President of the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies. Dr Conrad Leyser is Associate Professor of History at Oxford and a Fellow and Tutor of History at Worcester College. He specialises in the religious and social history of the Latin West in late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages (300-1100). His current research project centres on celibacy and the professionalisation of the priesthood in the so-called 'unreformed' Church of the tenth century. He is the author of Authority and Asceticism from Augustine to Gregory the Great and the co-editor of England and the Continent in the Tenth Century.

Piotr Bienkowski's disciplinary background is as an archaeologist and museum curator. He has been Professor of Archaeology and Museology at the University of Manchester, Director of Manchester Museum, Chair of the North West Federation of Museums and Galleries, and before that Head of Antiquities at National Museums Liverpool. For many years, he was editor of Levant, the journal of the Council for British Research in the Levant, and editor of the British Academy Monographs in Archaeology series. While professor at Manchester, he developed and taught a Masters course on Immortality: from Gilgamesh to the Post-modern, that was a component of the interdisciplinary MA in Constructions of the Holy, the Sacred and the Supernatural in the School of Arts, Histories and Cultures. It was while creating and teaching that course that he developed the ideas that are in this proposal, and the structure of the proposed book. Much of his interest in this topic developed in extensive work he did with indigenous groups from Australia, New Zealand and North America around the repatriation of the human remains of their ancestors from British museums. This resulted in numerous discussions, seminars and workshops on different cultural and philosophical perspectives on death and the afterlife. He published several academic papers and book chapters on these aspects, in the context of the treatment of ancient human remains, which incorporated cultural and philosophical perspectives on death and immortality. He has published 15 books and around 50 peer-reviewed papers in academic journals and books, as well as around 80 other publications. He now runs a cultural consultancy working in the UK and Europe. He is a leading authority on the archaeology of Jordan, and directs an excavation in Petra. http://piotrbienkowski.co.uk -------------------------------------- Save the date! 11/11/2020  To kick off the start of Path 11 TV, we have invited Suzane Northrop to give a live gallery reading for free, to members who take advantage of our discounted annual membership. To take part in this event, head on over to Path11TV.com and sign up for the annual membership for $59. That's 40% off the regular price and this launch discount ends 11/12/2020. Once signed up, you will be emailed a Zoom virtual room link, where Suzane will be holding the live gallery reading. On 11/112020 at 11am Est, Suzane will first give a 30-45 minute talk live over our Facebook and YouTube channels, then around 12pm Est, we will meet up in the Zoom Room for the gallery reading. -------------------------------------- Check out our new podcast Mind Benders!   mindbenderspodcast.com Also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts Submit your mind bending story by emailing mindbenders@path11productions.com or by calling 1-323-713-1113 -------------------- Dr. Eric Pearl and Jillian Fleer https://www.thereconnection.com Be sure to use coupon code PATH2PORTAL on checkout, to take 25% of your purchase of the portal.

Piotr Bienkowski's disciplinary background is as an archaeologist and museum curator. He has been Professor of Archaeology and Museology at the University of Manchester, Director of Manchester Museum, Chair of the North West Federation of Museums and Galleries, and before that Head of Antiquities at National Museums Liverpool. For many years, he was editor of Levant, the journal of the Council for British Research in the Levant, and editor of the British Academy Monographs in Archaeology series. Where Airy Voices Lead by Piotr Bienkowski is the only book to comprehensively describe the varying historical and contemporary cultural beliefs in immortality globally, including western, eastern and animist traditions. This book was a remarkable history of human’s seeming obsession with immortality.   In today's episode we discuss: When human’s first started with this obsession with immortality? The history many religious figures discuss their ability to connect with some higher power and so many people believe this but yet when people share today they have these experiences it is often dismissed, can you speak to that a bit.   You talk about the ongoing debate about the existence of the soul,  what are some of the points on both sides of the argument as to whether or not a soul exists? Will we ever come to any type of agreement on the soul?  How have we tried to achieve immortality?  Why do you think there is such a desire to achieve immortality and if we did, how do you think it would shift how we live?   Pitor's belief about what happens when die.   Follow Pitor Bienkowski http://piotrbienkowski.co.uk Follow Dr. Amy Robbins https://dramyrobbins.com http://www.instagram.com/dramyrobbins dramyrobbins@gmail.com ldsbquestions@gmail.com

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. 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 his PhD in development studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in 2015.

'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 Beidha, Crystal-Bennett’s excavation of the first Pre-Pottery Neolithic A settlement found in Jordan, and exploration of the eastern deserts and oases by Betts and Garrard, British research has been central to the Neolithic. However, our research is undermined by a comprehension of the Neolithic as a vital all-encompassing stage in the path to modernity, creating people like us. Current debates include the timing of the Neolithic as a process, recently seen as a long, slow Neolithic transformation over many thousands of years. Critically, we appear to have lost sight of what the Neolithic was. In this talk, I will critically discuss the key changes that occurred early in the Neolithic, distinguishing these from more widely shared aspects of human development, while recognising the otherness of these 10,000 year old societies. About the speaker: Bill Finlayson is Professor of Prehistoric Environment and Society in the Human Origins and Palaeoenvironments Research Group at Oxford Brookes University and a Visiting Professor in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Reading. He served as the Director and CEO of the Council for British Research in the Levant between 1999 and 2018, having previously managed the University of Edinburgh’s applied archaeology research section. His research currently focuses on the development of early farming societies. Major projects include post-excavation analysis of Neolithic Dhraʿ (previously excavated by Crystal Bennett) with Ian Kuijt, and WF16 with co-directors Steven Mithen and Mohammad Najjar. He directs a PPNA excavation at Sharara in the Wadi Hassa with Cheryl Makarewicz. His work in heritage management includes an experimental, conservation and public archaeology programme at the Neolithic site of Beidha within the Petra World Heritage site and developing with colleagues a Neolithic Heritage Trail from Beidha to Wadi Faynan. (Lecture begins at 3:50 minutes)

This New Writing North podcast was recorded at Durham Book Festival 2018. In this episode Jordanian screenplay writer Mofleh Al Adwan and poet Linda France discuss their experiences taking part in the Alta'ir creative exchange. This cross-cultural exchange between Durham and Amman was established to help raise the profile of British writing in Jordan and of Arab writing and culture in the UK. Alta’ir is a partnership project between Durham Book Festival/New Writing North, the Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL), St Mary’s College, Durham University, Dr Fadia Faqir and the British Council. Durham Book Festival is commissioned by Durham County Council and produced by New Writing North. Find out more about the festival at durhambookfestival.com.

Dr 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 Naqab Bedouins represents the first attempt to chronicle Bedouin history and politics across the last century, including the Ottoman era, the British Mandate, Israeli military rule, and the contemporary schema, and document its broader relevance to understanding state-minority relations in the region and beyond – it is out now – published by Columbia University Press.

To 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.

On 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.

On 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.

The 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 -------------------------------------- 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 within the territory of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem. This paper summarizes the main conclusions reached on the subject of settlement of the Crusader period in the Petra. As a result of the synergic work on both documentary and archaeological sources, conclusions show the necessity of significantly revising the interpretation of settlement patterns and dynamics proposed by some scholars until now. What is revealed in the Petra region is a situation of continuous settlement through the whole Islamic period without significant gaps, where the Crusader period was not mainly characterised, as traditionally assumed, by patterns of disruption and change, but rather of continuity and adaptation to the local environment and population. About the speaker: Dr Micaela Sinibaldi is a Medieval Archaeologist specialising in the material culture of the Middle East. For her current CBRL fellowship, she is researching on the subject of Islamic-period pottery in Petra, its role in understanding settlement in the region and its chronologically significant aspects. This phase of research follows her work on comparative studies on several Islamic-period assemblages and on the development of a local chronology based on both typological and scientific analysis and stratigraphy. The project aims at contributing to bridge an important gap, both chronological (the one concerning the later historical periods in Petra), and territorial (the one concerning the significance of the connection of the Petra Valley with its hinterland and neighboring regions). Micaela holds a PhD from Cardiff University, where she submitted a thesis entitled Settlement in Crusader Transjordan, 1100-1189 (2014); she has been a post-doctoral fellow at Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany (2014/2015). She currently directs the CBRL-affiliated Islamic Bayda Project in Petra and has recently co-edited the volume Crusader Landscapes in the Medieval Levant: the Archaeology and History of the Latin East (2016). About the Book: Crusader Landscapes in the Medieval Levant. The Archaeology and History of the Latin East. Edited by Micaela Sinibaldi, Kevin J. Lewis, Balázs Major and Jennifer A. Thompson, University of Wales Press, 2016. "This superb collection reflects the great variety and originality of contemporary crusades studies. The subjects range from military and ecclesiastic architecture to narrative sources and legal discussion, in geographical scope from Petra in south Jordan to Torpichen in Scotland. A great volume to honour a great scholar." - Professor Hugh Kennedy, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London