Ömür Harmanşah on “Spectacles of Cultural Heritage Destruction in Global Media.”

 Monday, May 4, 6:00pm on Zoom: 

As always, this event is free and open to the public, and hosted by our partner, the University of St Thomas Department of Art History & Visual Culture: https://cas.stthomas.edu/departments/areas-of-study/art-history/ 

(Scroll down to Events for Zoom info)

 

An image grab from a video reportedly released by Media Office of the Nineveh branch of the Islamic State (IS) Group on February 25, 2015, allegedly shows an IS militant destroying the statue of Lamassu, an Assyrian diety, with a jackhammer in the northern Iraqi Governorate of Nineveh. (AFP PHOTO/HO/Isis Niniveh

The Minnesota Chapter of the Archaeological Institute of America and the Department of Art History & Visual Culture are pleased to present a talk by Ömür Harmanşah, Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Illinois Chicago, entitled “Spectacles of Cultural Heritage Destruction in Global Media.”  The destruction of the Bamiyan Buddha statues in Afghanistan by the Taliban and the widespread destruction of ancient art at Nineveh and Palmyra by the Islamic State have been dramatically staged and presented in the media.  Prof. Harmanşah explores these acts and challenges to preserving cultural heritage today.

 

Prof. Harmanşah is Director of the School of Art & Art History at UIC and is Vice-President for Cultural Heritage on the Governing Board of the AIA.  A widely published archaeologist, his books include Cities and the Shaping of Memory in the Ancient Near East (Cambridge) and Place, Memory, and Healing: An Archaeology of Anatolian Rock Monuments (Routledge). 

Ömür Harmanşah, University of Illinois Chicago