Wednesday, December 16, 2015 @ 6:00 pm-8:00 pm

Lecture

Dr Géraldine Chatelard on The management plans for the Marshlands and the sites of Eridu, Ur and Uruk in the context of their submission for World Heritage inscription

In January 2014, the government of Iraq submitted the Marshlands and the archaeological sites of Eridu, Ur and Uruk for inscription on the World Heritage list as part of a single property comprising seven separate components. Following the submission, the ministries of environment, and tourism and antiquities prepared a management plan for this complex property. This talk will present the approach taken by Iraqi and international partners to prepare the nomination dossier and the management plan, both conceived primarily as tools to raise awareness among Iraqi decision-makers and heritage professionals of the considerable efforts required to protect and conserve the historical, cultural, biological and hydrological values of the property. The rationale for associating natural and archaeological sites together, and the conditions necessary for the implementation of the management plan will be key issues dealt with in the presentation.

Biography: Dr Géraldine Chatelard is a research associate in contemporary studies at the Institut français du Proche-Orient (IFPO) in Amman. From 2011 to 2014 she was the Culture Programme Specialist at UNESCO Office for Iraq where she oversaw a number of heritage-related projects, one of them being to upgrade the knowledge and skills of a national team of cultural heritage and environment professionals to allow them to prepare the World Heritage nomination dossier of the Iraqi Marshlands and the sites of Eridu, Uruk and Ur. Subsequently, Dr Chatelard was part of the team coordinating the preparation of the management plan for the proposed property. Dr Chatelard has published extensively on Iraqi refugees and displacement, and is the co-editor of the forthcoming volume Najaf: History and Contemporary Developments of a Sacred City (UNESCO & Ithaca Press). Her current research projects deal with return migration and heritage policies in Iraq where she travels regularly for field work.