Tag Archives: cultural heritage

May 7 AFIKRA Salon at MIT to feature Aga Khan Collections Curator

Aga Khan Collections Curator Rami Alafandi will be presenting on the work of the Aga Khan Documentation Center and the Aga Khan Development Network in Vol. 6 of the afikra Boston salon on Sunday, May 7, at 6 pm in Room 3-133 on the MIT Campus. AFIKRA salons are in-person events held in cities worldwide that bring people together to learn about the histories and cultures of the Arab world. The salon is free and open to the public; registration is required.

AKDC Program Head to edit volume on the topic of restitution of cultural artifacts

AKDC Program Head Dr. Nur Sobers-Khan is one of the curators of §RETURN, HEAL, REDISTRIBUTE, an upcoming issue of ROOTS§ROUTES a multilingual, independent quarterly magazine of visual culture published in Italy. The focus of the issue curated by Dr. Sobers-Khan, Domenico Sergi, Anna Chiara Cimoli and Giulia Grechi is Restitution, an important and timely issue in contemporary museum practice, the debate of which often serves to expose “deeply rooted colonial epistemologies.” In Europe and the US, “one of the most frequent objections to restitution is the weak scientific infrastructure of the communities where objects would be returned,” a premise that […]

Online Panel: Architecture: The Search for Identity, Justice & Continuity

The Opening Public Panel of the West<>Africa Architecture Biennale Inspired by the 1998 lecture of the Nigerian architect and educator, David Aradeon, this public panel seeks to understand the concepts of Iidentity, justice and continuity through the lenses of three architects: David Aradeon (Nigeria), Aziza Chaouni (Morocco) and Mokena Makeka (South Africa). Registration is Required (Deadline 20 February 2022): bit.ly/OpeningWABiennale Format: Panel, Virtual Platform: Zoom (You will receive a link before the event on February 20 Duration: 120 mins Free and Open to the public. Thank you to our supporters: Studio 4, Aziza Chaouni Projects, Makeka Design Lab.

Endangered Heritage: An Online Panel of the A3-Archnet Collaborative

IMPORTANT UPDATE: REGISTRATION FOR THIS SESSION IS NOW CLOSED. The event is at capacity. If your registration was successfully processed, you will soon receive instructions on how to join. July 27, 2020 The A3-Archnet Collaborative for the Documentation of Africa’s built heritage will hold an online public panel on “Endangered Heritage,” July 31 at 16:30-18:30 WAT/11:30-13:30 EDT. The panel will include three presenters known for their work in cultural heritage preservation: Ṣọlá Akíntúndé, Founder Trustee, WASCHTrust (West Africa Shared Cultural Heritage Trust); Kuukuwa Manful, Principal Investigator for the Accra Archive: and Raj Yudhishthir Isar, Director of the Aga Khan Trust […]

6 Days to the Application Deadline for Nigerian Students Seeking to Join the A3/Archnet Team

February 28th is the deadline for students in Nigerian to submit applications to join A3/Archives of African Architecture and the Aga Khan Documentation Center of the MIT Libraries in a project to document the architecture of Nigeria, particularly endangered architectural heritage, and contemporary projects. Both undergraduate and graduate students are invited to compete for the prize. Recipients will join the A3 – Archnet team on a fully-funded weeklong trip to Boston, Massachusetts where they will receive training in the documentation of architectural heritage, and participate with the A3-Archnet team as they plan and begin development of the database. To apply for the […]

Archnet marks International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, August 9

To mark International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples on August 9, Archnet is highlighting the architecture of indigenous people. The background images on the site are photographs of the Amin Mosque, a Uyghur mosque built in the 18th century in northwest China; and a street in the Old Town of Ghadames, an oasis town on the edge of the Sahara Desert in Libya. Click the images and text on the homepage tiles to learn about more resources devoted to the theme. There is also an Archnet collection that gathers select resources focusing on manifestations of indigenous culture and vernacular […]

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 […]

Now online: Sharon C. Smith: “Documenting the Built Environment: Why and How?” & Michael A. Toler: “The Documentation of Cultural Heritage a Society in Transition”

The presentations “Documenting the Built Environment: Why and How?” by Sharon C. Smith, “Documenting the Cultural Heritage of a Society in Transition” by Michael A. Toler are now available online at the web site of the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies (TALIM). The presentations were recorded on April 12, 2018 at the Legation in Tangier, Morocco, as part of TALIM’s annual April Seminar, organized annually in partnership with the Office Chérifien des Phosphates. This year’s seminar program was organized in collaboration with the Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT (AKDC@MIT). The audio and slides from the session will also […]

Aga Khan Documentation Center at BRISMES 2017

For the second year in a row, AKDC@MIT was well represented at the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRIMSES) annual meeting. This year’s conference, Movement and Migration in the Middle East: People and Ideas in Flux, was held at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, July 5-7, 2017. Under the larger conference theme, AKDC Program Head Sharon C. Smith and Archnet Content Manager Michael Toler co-organized “Chronicles and Curation: Documenting Cultural Transitions in the Wider Middle East (in 2 parts)” spanning two sessions; both panels chaired by Smith. Panel 1A contained papers examining challenges in archiving personal collections in Yemen, an oral history project […]

Heritage of the Mughal World now open access on Archnet

Heritage of the Mughal World (Jodidio, Philip, editor. Munich: Prestel, 2015) is available for free download on Archnet, courtesy of Prestel Publishing and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture. This beautifully illustrated book explores the historic cities, buildings, and gardens that flourished during the Mughals’ three-century rule, highlighting valuable conservation and restoration projects in Afghanistan, India, and Pakistan. The book also contains contribution from Sharon C. Smith Ph.D., AKDC@MIT Program Head and Christian A. Hedrick, Ph.D. (MIT AKPIA 2014 and former AKDC researcher). You can read their works in the section entitled “Sites of Mughal Heritage.”