Here we share all of the projects we have funded in previous years, covering research, conferences, pilot projects, outreach activities and visiting scholarships.
Dlshad A. Mutalb Mustafa, Cultural Heritage Officer with the Directorate of Antiquities of Soran (Soran Province, Iraqi Kurdistan). To research museum displays and look into models for outreach activities which can be implemented at the Shanidar Cave site. Hosted by the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, at the University of Cambridge.
Dr Sadiq Khalil, Advisor in the Prime Minister’s Office, Iraq. To look into ways to build effective advocacy through case-studies of endangered Iraqi heritage. Hosted by the Material Culture Research Centre, Kingston University of Arts, Kingston University.
Mohammed Jasim Aalhajiahmed, former Director of Mosul University Libraries. To develop a management plan for the Mosul University Library, research digitisation and documention of surviving collection, acquisition strategies, and staff training. Hosted by the British Library.
Professor Nasser Jassim, Director of the Unit for the Study of Istisharaq (Orientalism) at the University of Mosul. To research British contributions to the study of Iraqi history and civilization and to compile a Dictionary of British Contributions to the Study of Iraqi History and Civilization. Hosted by the History Department at University College London.
Dr Dhiaa Kareem Ali Janaby, Lecturer at the University of Kufa, Iraq. To research Sabian-Mandaeans in Iraq, perceptions, heritage exclusion and community. Hosted by the University of Exeter.
Mabast A. Muhammad Amin, Lecturer at the History Department at the University of Garmian, Iraq. To research the preservation of early prehistoric sites in Iraqi Kurdistan, and to assess environmental and human threats to these sites to help develop mechanisms to aid their preservation. Hosted by the University of Liverpool.
Shazad Jaseem, Architect at the Slemani Antiquities and Heritage Directorate, Sulaymaniyah, Kurdistan, Iraq. To research contemporary approaches to museum design and interpretation. Hosted by the British Museum and the Ashmolean Museum.
2017 BISI-Dangoor Visiting Iraqi Scholarships
Dr. Nawrast Sabah, Lecturer at the Department of Geology, College of Science, University of Basrah, to assist with research into “Stratigraphy and Climate Change Records of Mesopotamia Marshlands and Archaeological Sites during Quaternary”
Omar Jassam, Assistant Lecturer at the College of Archaeology, University of Mosul, to help assist with current research on the “Destruction of Cultural Heritage in Regions of Armed Conflict: Iraq”
Dr Nabeel Nooruldeen Hussein, Chief of Excavations at Nineveh, to conduct a survey of the British Museum’s Assyrian reliefs
Abather Saadoon, Archaeologist and PhD Candidate at Baghdad University, to work on a collaborative project at SOAS to publish cuneiform tablets found at Tell Al-Wilayah and to provide an assessment of the ancient geographical nature of the site such as the pathways of watercourses
Father Behnam Sony, Lecturer and Priest at Saint Ephrem’s College, to receive training in the protection and digital archiving of manuscripts at the British Library, and to study the manuscripts of the Syriac Catholic Church in Iraq
Salwa Tawfeeq, PhD Candidate at Baghdad University, to research the history, archaeology and architecture of several ancient mausoleums and religious shrines in Iraq at Oxford University
Pilot Project Grants
2022
Taif Alkhudary – Gendered Networks of Power: The Parliamentary Quota and Women’s Substantive Political Representation in Iraq.
2021
Dr Caroline Sandes and Dr Jaafar Jotheri – Documenting the Tangible Heritage of Religious Minorities, Sabean-Mandaean, Jewish and Christian in Diyala, Iraq.
2019
Dr Daniel Calderbank: At the Margins of Power – Tepe Bor and the Political Landscape of the Upper Diyala during the 2nd Millennium BCE
2018
Dr. Rebecca Briant (Birkbeck, University of London): Bahr Al-Najaf: Assessing Palaeolithic Potential in Southern Iraq
2017
Professor Andrew Petersen (University of Wales): Basrah Pilot
2016
Dr Janroj Keles (Middlesex University): Migration, Transnational Mobility and Digital Social Networking: the case of the Iraqi – Kurdish young people in the UK – an interdisciplinary and cross-national study into the influence of new media on UK Iraqi-Kurdish young people who are looking for employment opportunity in Iraq
Professor Andrew Petersen – Dokan Ottoman Fort: Architectural Survey and Excavation Project
Dr Michelle de Gruchy – Reconstructing Ancient Traffic Patterns in Iraq from Archaeological Evidence
Dr Sana Murrani – Ruptured Domesticity: A Visual Narrative of Domestic Responses to War in Iraq
Professor Nicholas Postgate – Continuation of Fieldwork at Abu Salabikh
2021
No Research Grants were awarded in 2021
2020
Dr Mark Altaweel: Understanding Nippur’s Paleobotanical Remains
Yousif Al-Daffaie: The (re)inscription of Memory: Valuing the Informal Practives, Spatial Memory and Local Narratives within the Physical Recovery of Mosul’s Old Town
Dr Claudia Glatz: Food and the first cities: Social organisation and colonial encounter in the Sirwan/Upper Diyala River Valley, Kurdistan Region of Iraq
Dr Cailah Jackson: The Jalayirid arts of the book, c. 1350-c. 1410
Professor Nicholas Postgate: Resumption of fieldwork at Abu Salabikh
2019
Dr Clemence Scalbert Yucel: At the Borders of the Literary Field and Feminist Activism? Kurdish Women Poets in Iraqi Kurdistan
Laith Shakir: Thomas Cook and the Rise of Iraq Tourism
Professor Nicholas Postgate: Analysis and Publication of Zoo-Archaeological Evidence from Abu Salabikh
Professor Roget Matthews: Digitising Jemdet Nasr 1988-1989
Dr Augusta McMahon: Lagash Archaeological Project 2019
Dr Louise Rayne: Landscape Archaeology of the Eridu Region: Discovering the Ancient Farms
Dr Zahra Ali: Protest and Repress: Issue politics, “Militia-zation” and Toxicity of Everyday Life in Iraq
2018
Professor Douglas Baird: Eastern Fertile Crescent Prehistory Project
Dr Jade Al-Saraf: A Recording, Research and Documentation Project on the Ma’adan Legend of Hufaidh
Dr Michael Brown: The Parthian Mountain Fortress of Rabana
Dr Michelle De Gruchy: Digging the Khandaq Shapur
2017
Rolf Killius (British Library, World & Traditional Music): Songs of Longing and Love – Recording, Research and Documentation Project on Traditional Rural Music in Iraqi-Kurdistan
Dr Claudia Glatz (University of Glasgow): The Ritual Production of Local and Imperial Identities in the Zagros-Mesopotamian Interface
Dr Jane Moon (University of Manchester): Ur Region Archaeology project: Tell Khaiber Excavations 2017
Professor Nicholas Postgate (University of Cambridge): Salvaging Contents of Abu Salabikh Dig House
Dr Robert Killick (University of Manchester): Ground Survey, Investigations and Documentation of Charax Spasinou (Alexandria-on-the-Tigris) 2017
Professor Roger Matthews (University of Reading): Excavations at Neolithic Bestansur
2016
Dr Zahra Ali (Chester University): Civil Society Activism in Iraq: Between a Fragmented Nationhood, the Collapse of the State and Global Interference –1 year fieldwork project in Baghdad, Najaf, Karbala, Basra and Nasiriya to study civil society groups in Iraq
Dr Robert Killick (Manchester University): Preliminary Investigations at Charax Spasinou – first season of survey at the port city Alexandria-on-the-Tigris, founded by Alexander the Great in 324 BC (later known as Antiochia/Charax Spasinou)
Professor Roger Matthews (Reading University): Excavations at Neolithic Bestansur, Iraqi Kurdistan – final stages of excavations and field analysis of an Early Neolithic building, radiocarbon dated to 7650 cal BC, in one of the earliest village settlements of Iraqi Kurdistan
Dr Jane Moon (Manchester University): Ur Region Archaeology Project 2016 – excavations at a Babylonian settlement on the two mounds of Tell Khaiber, 20 km from the ancient city of Ur
George Richards (Independent Scholar): Hymns to the Peacock King: liturgical chant of the Yezidi People of Iraq – recording expedition to northern Iraq to capture the oral traditions of the Yezidi religion
Conference Grants
2022
Dr Diana Stein – MITTANI: An Enigmatic Empire
Joseph Barber – The Ninth Annual Postgraduate Conference in Assyriology
2021
Dr Troels Pank Arboll – Infecting the Ancient Mesopotamian Cosmos
2019
Dr John MacGinnis: East meets West: The Rise of Parthin
2018
Dr Augusta McMahon and Dr Laerke Recht: Fierce Lions, Angry Mice and Fat-Tailed Sheep: Animal Encounters in the Ancient Near East
Dr Charountaki Marianna: A Century of State Making in Iraq: The Middle East in Transition
Mathilde Touillon-Ricci: The London Postgraduate Conference for the Ancient Near East
Richard Dumbrill: Babylon International Festival for the Arts and Culture 2018
2017
Dr Aula Hariri (LSE): Approaching Iraqi History: Challenges and Prospects
Monica Palmero Fernandez (PhD Researcher, Univesity of Reading): Sixth Oxford Postgraduate Conference in Assyriology
Dr Yağmur Heffron (Cambridge University): Textual Archaeology in the Ancient Near East: Are we doing it wrong?
Dr Cameron Andrew Petrie (Cambridge University): Innovation, Interaction and Interconnection in the Taurus-Zagros Arc and Beyond, 10,000-5000 BC, Conference