Conferences and Workshops
Upcoming Conferences
First Herders, First Farmers: Current Research into
the Early Neolithic of the Middle East
in collaboration with the British Institute at Ankara (BIAA), the British
Institute of Persian Studies (BIPS), and the Central Zagros Archaeological
Project.
Clore Centre (Sackler Rooms), British Museum, 3 December 2011.
This one-day conference will bring together leading scholars from the UK, Europe and the Middle East whose research focuses on the early transition from mobile hunter-forager lifestyles to sedentary farming and animal-herding, a process that took place over the period 10,000-7000 BC in several regions of the Middle East. This transition, often called the Neolithic Revolution, was one of the most important episodes in the human story and laid the foundations for the literate, urban states and empires that dominated the Middle East in subsequent millennia. The conference will highlight the exciting fieldwork related to early herding and farming currently being conducted at archaeological sites in Iran, Turkey, and Jordan.
More information and programme details can be found here.
CBRL has supported the following conferences and workshops:
Conferences
Jordan’s Prehistory: Past and Future Research in collaboration with The Department of Antiquities of Jordan, ACOR, GPIA and IFPO
25 - 28 May 2009
Programme details can be found here.
Traditions and Transformations: Tourism, Heritage and Cultural Change in the Middle East and North Africa Region
4 - 7 April 2009
More information can be found here.
Shifting Boundaries
February 2007
In co-operation with the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies (RIIFS), the British Institute organised the workshop Shifting Boundaries with participants from different backgrounds and disciplines to debate and challenge some of the popular perceptions of division between ‘East’ and ‘West’ that are often encouraged for example in modern journalism and even some academic debate.
More information can be found here.
Landscapes in Transition: Understanding hunter-gatherer and farming landscapes in the early Holocene of Europe and the Levant.
March 2007
The British Institute in Amman organised and hosted this conference. More information, participants and paper abstracts can be found here. The publication of this conference in preparation.
After the Apocalypse: The Nachleben of Apocalyptic Literature in the Armenian Tradition
June 2007
The Kenyon Institute, the Centre for Literary Studies (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) and the Armenian Orthodox Patriarchate presented a three-day international conference titled After the Apocalypse: The Nachleben of Apocalyptic Literature in the Armenian Tradition. The conference explored the Armenian apocalyptic tradition and its interrelations with other apocalyptic traditions in the Levant and the Byzantine Commonwealth. A conference programme can be found here.
British Groundbreakers in the Holy Land
September 2007
In September 2007, in cooperation with the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society, the Kenyon hosted the one-day conference British Groundbreakers in the Holy Land, addressing the history of British archaeological research in the Middle East. The conference was attended by senior British, Israeli and Palestinian scholars. For the final conference programme, please click here.
Workshops
Conflict in Cities and the Contested State Feedback Forum
January 2010
Conflict in Cities and the Contested State is a five year ESRC sponsored research project that focuses on divided cities as key sites in territorial conflicts over state and national identities, cultures and borders. The project seeks to understand the cities as arenas of intensified ethno-national conflicts, particularly with respect to the role that architecture and the urban fabric play as a setting and background for everyday activities and events. The study of phenomena related to creating, maintaining, crossing or ignoring ethnic and territorial borders, both physical and symbolic, are central to the projects aims.
The Feedback Forum aimed to provide further detail about the project and to hear the views of those who are concerned about the development of the city. In this way we wish to both to contribute to a wider discussion on the challenges and problems facing Jerusalem and to learn from the knowledge and experience of others. For more information on the project visit www.conflictincities.org.
The European Union's Internal Discourse on Democracy in the Middle East
November 2009
This workshop was supported by the ESRC as part of a first grant to Dr Michelle Pace (RES-061-25-0075) of the University of Birmingham and focused upon EU "democracy promotion" in the Middle East. The workshop itself involved representatives from civil society, the EU, NGOs and diplomatic representatives from EU states and explored the underlying assumptions, particularly that democratisation requires political institutions and processes including regular, free, fair and transparent elections and a thriving civil society, a growing middle class and a proper civic education. For more information, contact Dr Pace here.
Aerial Archaeology Workshop
April 2007
Organised by Dr Robert Bewley and Prof David Kennedy with the support of the Department of Antiquities, Jordan, this workshop was held to train archaeologists from the region to expand awareness of the importance of aerial reconnaissance and develop expertise.
Since 1997, the aerial reconnaissance programme in Jordan, under the direction of Prof David Kennedy and Dr Robert Bewley (see, for example, Ancient Jordan from the Air, CBRL, 2004), has been the only one of its kind in the Middle East.
Current Approaches to Graves and Cemeteries in the Holy Land: Patterns and Challenges
June 2007
In June 2007 the Kenyon Institute and the Columbus School of Law at the Catholic University of America (Washington, USA) jointly organised a one-day workshop on the subject of Current Approaches to Graves and Cemeteries in the Holy Land: Patterns and Challenges. Further information on the goals and contents of the workshop can be found here.