Dr Eva Miller

I am a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at UCL in the History Department. My project there originally focused on Western receptions and artistic ‘revivals’ of ancient Assyrian motifs in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, but ultimately became about understanding how antiquity and ‘origins’ have been employed as a means of constructing modern identities. I have been a member of the BISI Council for the last 3-year term, and was a co-opted member before that. I have been a member of the Universities and Museum Engagement Committee, and was previously on the Outreach Committee. As a council member, I have greatly enjoyed learning more about how BISI functions and would love to be involved in ensuring that others have the chance to benefit from BISI’s charitable work.

I am very interested in furthering BISI’s work of ensuring the Iraqi heritage is a part of British academic and public life and ensuring that collaboration between Iraqi scholars and UK-based scholars receives the support it deserves. In my own time studying and researching Iraq, it is through BISI events that I have most often encountered Iraqi scholars, academics with strong ties to the country, and members of the Iraqi-British community. In 2023, funding from BISI supported participation of an Iraqi scholar in a conference and roundtable that I organised on Middle Eastern heritage at the University of Warwick; without this support, the perspectives of professionals currently working in the Middle East would have been under-represented. Assessing applications for grants has made me aware of the many opportunities BISI has to support work which engages a wider public, through its support not only of academics and heritage professionals, but also artists, writers, and performers with interests in the culture of Iraq. In my term as a council member, we have increasingly funded artistic projects, and I am excited to see BISI supporting culture beyond the academy. I’d be very honoured to help further these aims as a council member.