IMC 2004: Sessions

Title, moderator and details of papers to be confirmed:
1 The preservation of a UNESCO World Heritage City: Fez and the new archaeology of Morocco.
Michel Terrasse (confirmed). Professor Terrasse (Director of Studies, Ecole des Hautes Etudes, Paris) will summarise work over the last thirty years on the conservation of the city, and set it in the context of current trends in Islamic archaeology of the Maghrib; illustrated with slides.

2 Restoring the heritage of Al-Andalus, speaker tba (Antonio Almagro, CSIC Granada, has been invited).

3 Conservation and restoration of the Islamic monuments of Syria: the Middle East perspective.
Abd al-Razzaq Moaz , Syrian Vice-Minister of Culture and former Director General of Antiquities, Dr Moaz gave a paper in Berlin in November 2002 on the theme “Major restoration projects of Islamic ensembles and archaeological sites in Syria”. He will speak on this general subject, adapted to our colloquium. (Confirmed by telephone).

II
4 Paper by Robert Hillenbrand (no response yet to my e-mail of 18 June, appears to be away from Edinburgh). No topic was proposed for this paper and Professor Hillenbrand is free to choose his own theme. (No contact made to date with this speaker).

5 Paper on a theme related to 4, speaker tba.

6 Paper by Godfrey Goodwin. Professor Goodwin has agreed to speak (no topic decided) but he is in frail health. His participation is something I would like to discuss with him further and decide later in the year, if possible.

III
7 Nomadic traditions in Islamic carpets from the 14th cent.
Walter Denny, Univ. Massachusetts (agreed subject to confirmation).

8 “Like the light of the sun”: colour, pattern and symbol in Islamic lustre tiles of the Middle East and North Africa. (Provisional title).
Venetia Porter, British Museum (confirmed).

9 The Ottoman impact on the dress and textiles of Tunisia and Morocco.
Jennifer Scarce, Dundee University (confirmed).

IV
Integrated session on Turkish art

3 speakers have been e-mailed (Profs. Gonul Oney, Rahmi Unal, Gonul Evyapan), but no response yet. This session is being organised in collaboration with Inci Turkoglu, who has participated in previous IMCs.

10 speaker tba
11 speaker tba
12 speaker tba

13 The Orient displayed: the presentation of Islam in British Museums.
Ian Heath, PhD student, University of Manchester. Ian’s paper will give a British perspective on this question, hopefully complemented by the American and Mediterranean perspectives of the accompanying papers. (Ian has expressed interest in participating, but has not confirmed).

14 Presenting Islamic art to a Western audience: the museum’s challenge.
Dan Walker, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The Met holds the biggest Islamic art collection in the West. In the current world situation, it seems particularly appropriate to ask an American to address the question of how to present Islamic art sympathetically in an antagonistic environment. (Agreed subject to confirmation).

15 Re-defining the museum: MWNF and the exhibition cycle “Islamic Art in the Mediterranean”.
Eva Schubert (confirmed). This dynamic personality is the moving force behind the project “Museum With No Frontiers”, whose major cycle on the very theme of our colloquium has won significant EU funding.