On Friday, July 18th at 7pm, a panel of three reputable speakers will be holding a session titled “The Implications of Current Fighting for Iraq’s Cultural Heritage” at the Iraqi Cultural Center. The session will be highlighting on the current fighting in Iraq which broke out since the beginning of 2014, and the scope of devastation that impacted the archaeological sites in Northern and Central Iraq. And what are its implications for Iraq’s cultural heritage. Our guest speakers will be:

Brian Michael Lione who is a Cultural Heritage Manager and currently working as an Executive Director of University of Delaware Programs at the Iraqi Institute for the Conservation of Antiquities and Heritage (IICAH) in Erbil, Iraq.

Dr. Katharyn Hanson who works as an archaeologist specializing in the protection of cultural heritage. Her research combines archaeology, remote sensing, and cultural heritage policy. She has published and curated museum exhibits on damage to ancient sites in Iraq. She is the Program Director for the Archaeological Site Preservation Program at the Iraqi Institute for the Conservation of Antiquities and Heritage in Erbil, Iraq.

Abdulameer Al-Dafar al-Hamdani is an archaeologist and a Member of the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage. Currently he is a PhD candidate at the Department of Anthropology of Stony Brook Sate University of New York.
Since 2003, he conducted several field work and excavation projects in southern Iraq, as a member and as a team leader. These included surveying most southern Iraq, adding new 1200 archaeological sites to the Iraq’s Inventory. He participated in protecting the Iraq’s cultural heritage in the south, particularly in Dhi Qar province, during and after the war of 2003, returning almost over 30,000 stolen artifacts to the Iraqi National Museum.

Iraqi Cultural Center
1630 Connecticut Ave. NW #200
Washington DC, 20009

See their website for more information: http://www.iccdc.us/events/the-implications-of-current-fighting-for-iraqs-cultural-heritage/