Category Archives: Events

Balloons Over Babylon screens to a packed house

Room 3-133 was packed on Saturday evening for the first US screening and discussion of Balloons Over Babylon, a documentary film produced and directed by Folke Rydén, who responded to audience questions after the screening via Webex. He was joined online by Dr. Muhamed Almaliky of Harvard’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, and Dr. Kanan Makiya, writer, Senior Fellow of the Crown Center for Middle Eastern Studies, and Professor Emeritus at Brandeis University, who attended the screening at MIT. The event was part of a joint series organized by AKDC@MIT and the Center for Arabic Culture (CAC), Boston. Murtada al-Hachami, whose project is […]

Center for Arabic Culture and AKDC to present Balloons Over Babylon

The Center for Arabic Culture and the Aga Khan Documentation Center, MIT Libraries, will screen Balloons Over Babylon on Saturday, January 11, 2020, 6 PM – 9 PM in Room 3-133 of the MIT campus. The film is part of the “One Voice, Endless Change” film series for Spring 2020. Balloons Over Babylon tells the story of Murtada al-Hachami, one man’s quest to fight terrorism and promote peace and love by flying hot air balloons over his war-torn country.” The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with Folke Rydén, the Director; Murtada al-Hachami, the subject of the film; Dr. […]

Michael Toler Chairs Conference Committee for the American Institute for Maghrib Studies

AKDC Interim Program Head and Archnet Content Manager Michael Toler has volunteered to chair the conference committee for the American Institute for Maghrib Studies (AIMS). The main purpose of the committee is to evaluate proposals to organize the annual AIMS Conference, which rotates each year between one of the AIMS centers in Oran, Algeria, Tunis, Tunisia, and Tangier Morocco, where this year’s conference will be held. The AIMS conference is a signature event that brings together delegations of scholars from the US, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and occasionally individual scholars from other countries. The 2020 AIMS Conference will be held in […]

AKDC Program Head Participates in Regional Conference on Cultural Heritage Protection for Religious Communities

The Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, with the support of the U.S. Department of State and the partnership of the Rabita Mohammadia des Oulémas (Mohammadia Association of Ulema)recently organized the “First Regional Conference on Cultural Heritage Protection for Religious Communities” October 3-4 in Rabat, Morocco. AKDC Program Head Michael Toler was one of approximately 100 experts and government officials from Morocco, the US, Europe, and multiple countries in North Africa and the Sahel regions; as well as representatives of other International Organizations, NGOs and other organizations involved in the preservation of cultural heritage, who were invited to […]

AKDC Program Head to Speak at the Gulf Architecture Project Conference in the Qatar National Library

AKDC Program Head and Archnet Content Manager Michael Toler will present the on the collections and activities of the Aga Khan Documentation Center, MIT Libraries (AKDC@MIT), Saturday, October 12, at 9 am, in Auditorium of the Qatar National Library (QNL), Doha, Qatar. Toler’s presentation, “Gulf Architecture in the Archives of the Aga Khan DocumentationCenter, MIT Libraries: Stories and Lessons,” in a Keynote of the Gulf Architecture Conference and Exhibition, organized by the QNL in collaboration with Liverpool University’s School of Architecture, Qatar University’s Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, and Ibrahim Jaidah, CEO and Chief Architect, Arab Engineering Bureau. The […]

AKDC at the 1st Annual Conference & Exhibition of Electronic Resources & Libraries – Middle East Chapter

The 1st Annual Conference & Exhibition of Electronic Resources & Libraries – Middle East Chapter (ER&L-Middle East) takes place October 9-10 at the InterContinental Hotel in Festival City, Dubai, UAE. AKDC@MIT will be represented in the vendor fair by Interim Program Head and Archnet Co-Director, Dr. Michael A. Toler. He will be demonstrating Archnet and other AKDC online presences in the ER&L – Middle East Exhibition. Stop by with your questions, comments, and suggestions about Archnet or any other AKDC services. I would be particularly interested in ideas for collaboration that might help us provide Archnet users with more comprehensive […]

AKDC Program Head to present in a symposium on The Architecture of Migration

Michael Toler will present on “International Tangier: Stagnation and Growth in the 20th Century” in a Symposium on “The Architecture of Migration, Clues of Transcultural Exchanges in the Mediterranean Built Environment,” July 16th-17th at the Leicester School of Architecture, De Montfort University in the UK. The symposium is organized by Beniamino Polimeni, a researcher, designer and an architectural conservator who was a 2013 postdoctoral fellow in the Aga Khan Program for Islamic architecture at MIT, and Yasser Megahed is a Lecturer at Leicester School of Architecture, UK. Full organizer biographies are available on the conference website. The symposium comes at […]

AKDC Program Head to participate in kickoff of apprenticeship program of the Revolving Art Incubator in Lagos, Nigeria

LAGOS, Nigeria – From 12 – 13 July 2019, Revolving Art Incubator will host Michael Toler, Head of the Aga Khan Documentation Centre, MIT Libraries (AKDC@MIT) and Jelili Atiku, multimedia artist and Visiting Professor at Brown University, Kola Tubosun, writer, linguist and Founder of Yorubaname.com, Judith Okonkwo, Creative Director of Imisi 3D Lab and Oliver Enwonwu, Director of Omenka Gallery and Trustee of Ben Enwonwu Foundation to facilitate the commencement of our apprenticeships programme with archiving and documenting as its central theme. The apprenticeship programme at RAI represent one-leg of our 3-pronged extroversion agenda; the other two being the outposts […]

AKDC’s Visual Resources Librarian to present on marble decorations of Samarra

On May 9, AKDC’s Visual Resources Librarian Matt Saba delivers the weekly research seminar at the Khalili Research Centre For the Art and Material Culture of the Middle East, University of Oxford. Matt will speak about the architectural decorations made from marble excavated at the early Islamic palace-city of Samarra, located in Iraq. While Samarra is famous for its carved stucco revetments, its architectural marble is rarely discussed. One reason for its neglect is that much was lost, first in antiquity and also after the site’s initial excavation in 1911-14. An overdue survey of the way this and other semi-precious […]

AKDC collaborating with CAC and Somerville Public Library to screen a feature film

The Center for Arabic Culture (CAC) Film Screening Program, in collaboration with the Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT (AKDC@MIT) & Somerville Public Library present Detroit Unleaded Free and open to the public Saturday Dec. 1, 2018 Somerville Public Library @ 3 pm 79 Highland Ave, Somerville, MA 02143 Screening will be followed by a light reception and discussion. Speakers will be announced soon! More information Watch the Trailer