MENA-related Events Calendar

Bashir Abu-Manneh (Hunter College) comes to QMUL to speak about his new book Disposable Palestinians: Israel’s Wars and Genocide in Gaza.

This event, hosted by the QMUL Centre for the Study of Race, Class and Empire, is a conversation between Bashir Abu-Manneh (Hunter College, NYC) and Matan Kaminer (QMUL) about Abu-Manneh's new book Disposable Palestinians: Israel’s Wars and Genocide in Gaza, out with Polity this year. What explains the genocide in Gaza? How is it connected to Israel’s previous wars of politicide against the Palestinian people? And what can Palestinians do to end their condition of disposability under occupation? Join us for a dialogue about Palestine/Israel and the role of international law in a new Palestinian strategy of liberation.

Organiser: Centre for the Study of Islam, Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter

Speaker: John P Cooper (Visiting Professor, Centre for Maritime Archaeology of the University of Southampton)

The wooden watercraft of Yemen are unusually richly decorated— normally with paint and, on some vessels, with carving. Fieldwork conducted by the author (with colleagues Dionisius A Agius and Chiara Zazzaro) in 2008–2009 around the coast of Yemen and neighbouring countries documented through photography a wide range of painted and carved schemas on ‘traditional’ watercraft. Analysis by Cooper has, so far in a largely descriptive manner, characterised the principal features of these schemas: large painted triangles at bow and stern; stripes along the hull; intricate friezes carved and painted around the upper stern quarters incorporating figurative and abstract imagery; Qur’anic verses in the superstructure. Given the impossibility of returning to Yemen to consult the creative communities who produced these schemas, this presentation asks the extent to which we as outsiders can successfully infer meaning and define space from the photographic record of the fieldwork. As a work in progress, it solicits the views of its audience.

Are you a UK Higher Education Institution-affiliated researcher working within the humanities and social sciences and planning a project in Türkiye and/or the Black Sea region next year? If so, join us on Wednesday 21th October for a webinar on how the British Institute at Ankara (BIAA) can support your research. This webinar will present the range of grants and opportunities available via the BIAA, with a particular focus on the Study (up to £2,000), Research (up to £5,000) and Large Research (up to £10,000) grants, which are currently being advertised with a deadline of 1st November. We will also discuss the range of facilities available at the BIAA’s world-class research centre in Ankara, including the BIAA David H. French Library – one of Türkiye’s premier research libraries, the BIAA laboratory and reference collections, the BIAA’s digital repository and archive and our research support and facilitation services. The BIAA’s research agenda and current Strategic Research Initiatives will also be presented.