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THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF IRAQ
- S U L A I M A N I -
Institute of
Regional and
InternationalStudies
Institute of Regional and International Studies
Annual Cultural Heritage Conference 2015
Session 1:
• Gyorgy Busztin is the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary - General (Political) for the
United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI). He previously served in the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs in Budapest and as Hungary’s Ambassador to Iran, and was previously Ambassador to
Indonesia. He has served in diplomatic posts in Afghanistan, Libya, and Egypt. He holds a PhD in
Arabic History from Damascus University and a second PhD in Arabic Language from Lorand Eotvos
University in Budapest.
• Mala Awat is the Director of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Directorate of Antiquities. He
organizes regular international conferences on archaeology and history in Erbil and has helped
introduce innovative methodological approaches to archaeology in the region. His department is
also in charge of the revitalization of the Erbil citadel, a world heritage site of immense cultural
significance.
• Hashem Hama Abdullah is the Director of the Sulaimani Museum. He has had extensive participation
in excavations projects at Shiela Castle, Koya, Tell Graizah, Alqichlah along with many others. He is
a member of the editorial staff of the archeology journal Hazar Merd.
• Iqbal Kadhim Aajeel is the Director of the Nasiriyah Museum, which is the second largest museum in
the country, and has been reopened recently. Her talk will discuss the role of provincial museums in
promoting cultural heritage, with particular focus on the Nasiriyah Museum.
• Marie Labrosse is a poet, translator, and member of the Department of English and Journalism at the
American University of Iraq, Sulaimani. She is the host of the university’s annual poetry reading and
works towards preserving Iraq’s poetic heritage through archival digitization projects.
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF IRAQ
SULAIMANI
Session 2:
• Axel Plathe is the Director of the UNESCO Office for Iraq and the UNESCO Representative in
Iraq since February 2014. He has previously served as the Director of the UNESCO Office in
Kathmandu and in various positions at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris including Chief of the
Executive Office of UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Communication Information and Chief
of the Section for Universal Access and Preservation in UNESCO’s Information Society Division. Dr.
Plathe holds an MA and PhD in German and Roman Studies, both from Albert Ludwigs Universität,
Freiburg, Germany, and a post-doctoral diploma in Library Management and Library Sciences from
Bibliotheksschule Frankfurt/Main, Germany.
• Ahmed Kamal Mohammed is the director of the newly reopened Iraqi Museum. The museum opened
the day after ISIS destroyed the Mosul Museum and represents one of the most important counterstrategies to ISIS’ strategy of cultural destruction. His talk will discuss the role of this museum in
promoting cultural heritage in Iraq.
• Hussein Dhaher is the Director of the Department of Archaeology at Mosul University. He has been
recently displaced with the ISIS takeover of Mosul and is living in Duhok.
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF IRAQ
SULAIMANI
• Bilal Wahab is an Assistant Professor at the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani and the Founding
Director of the Center for Development and Natural Resources (CDNR). He teaches courses on the
petroleum industry, public policy, and international politics. He completed his PhD at George Mason
University with a dissertation about the smuggling of Oil and Antiquities from Iraq.
• Muayyad Said Damerji is the former Director of the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and advisor to
the Iraqi Minister of Culture. He has previously led major excavation projects at world heritage sites
including Nimrud, Hatra, and Samarra. During his career he made many significant discoveries in
ancient Iraqi culture, such as the famed Treasures of the Nimrud Queens which are now securely
stored in Baghdad.
Session 3:
• Simone Mühl studied Near Eastern Archaeology and Assyriology at the University of Heidelberg
(Germany). In 2011, she completed her dissertation entitled, “The History of Settlement in the central
Trans-Tigris area - from the Neolithic to the Late Assyrian period”. She now works as an Assistant
Lecturer at the Institute of Near Eastern Archaeology at the University of Munich. In collaboration
with the Sulaimani Directorate of Antiquities and several leading European universities, she is also
the archaeological director of the Shahrizor Survey Project, which combines a study of the ancient
environment and cultural history in the Shahrizor Plain (Sulaimani and Halabja Provinces).
• Jessica Giraud is a research fellow at the Ifpo-Iraq (Institut français du Proche-Orient). She studies
the evolving patterns of human settlements using aerial and satellite photography and landscape
archaeology. Her specialization includes the Bronze Age in Oman and Upper Mesopotamia. She
also serves as the Associate Director of the Erbil Plain Archaeological Survey directed by Jason Ur
(Harvard University) and she is the Project Director of the Sulaimani Governorate Archaeological
Survey (SGAS).
• Tobin Hartnell was awarded a doctorate degree from the University of Chicago before becoming a
professor at the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani. His research specialty includes the ancient
empires of Mesopotamia and the ancient Near East. Hartnell is the faculty coordinator of the first
Annual Iraqi Cultural Heritage Symposium.
• Kozad Ahmed is the Head of Archaeology at the University of Sulaimani. He is an expert in the
history of ancient Kurdistan.
• Mustafa Ahmad is a PhD Candidate at the Universite Lumiere 2 Lyon in France. He is a contributing
member of the MEDMAK Syrian Archaeology Study Center and studies the material culture of early
Islam in northern Iraq and Syria. His talk will focus on the destruction of cultural heritage in Syria
since the start of the civil war.
• Christine van den Toorn is the Director of the Institute for Regional and International Studies (IRIS)
at AUIS, where she has taught Middle East history for four years. She has conducted fieldwork all
over the Kurdistan Region of Iraq with a particular focus on disputed territories in Nainawa and
has delivered talks, moderated panels and been interviewed about her research. She is a reporter
for Iraq Oil Report and has contributed to publications like Inside Iraqi Politics, Daily Beast and
Niqash. Van den Toorn has also conducted baseline reports and social impact assessments for major
international oil companies operating in the KRG, working with teams of student researchers from
AUIS.
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