This is the first of the 'Facing the Future' series of guest lectures hosted by AUR's MA in Cultural Heritage. The 'Facing the Future' series aims to bring together some of the world's leading experts to discuss the challenges facing cultural heritage management and action as we move into the second quarter of the 21st-century.
| US East Coast | Rome | Saudi Arabia | Iran | UAE | Ahmedabad, India |
| 7:00-9:00 am | 13:00-15:00 hr | 15:00-17:00 hr | 15:30-17:30 hr | 16:00-18:00 hr | 17:30-19:30 hr |
How traditional cultures respond to crisis
When disasters occur the international community swings into action to offer aid and support but these efforts can easily swamp local communities, disempowering them and ignoring their local knowledge, built up over generations. This webinar will explore how crisis response does not have to mean that local customs and traditional and indigenous knowledge are sacrificed. Instead, it will be argued, incorporating this knowledge and seeing local communities as partners is the route to a more successful disaster response and offers better long term rebuilding propects.
The experts taking part in this panel will share their broad range of experience in dealing with natural disasters and conflict situations throughout the world. Their presentations will be followed by a discussion.
Humanitarian Aid specialist working for NATO joint command in Naples
American University of Beirut, Lebanon. Expert on Islamic earth and vernacular architecture. Architectural advisor to UAE govt.
Project manager for ICCROM. Director of the Rebuilding Mosul project
Associate Professor and Director, Centre for Heritage Management, Ahmedabad University
Salma Samar Damluji is Professor of Architecture at The American University of Beirut, and a renowned expert on Islamic earthen architecture. She has been heavily involved with emergency and post-war reconstruction through the Daw‘an Architecture Foundation (www.dawanarchitecturefoundation.org) which she co-founded with colleagues, and in partnership with the Prince Claus Fund’s Cultural Emergency Response (CER) & Network. Her most recent projects (2019-21) involved the reconstruction of several landmarks and cultural sites in Hadramut that were targeted and destroyed during the ongoing war on Yemen, including the Mukalla Museum. Her recent publications include The Architecture of Yemen and its Reconstruction published in 2021 and Hassan Fathy: Earth & Utopia published in 2018. The post war projects completed in Yemen were awarded the Middle East Africa Regional prize in 2020-2021 by the Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction.
Salma Samar Damluji will give a presentation entitled "Recent traditional architecture projects"
Vivianna de Annuntiis is currently Liaison and Knowledge Development Section Leader for NATO Joint Command in Naples. Prior to this she worked as a Humanitarian Affairs Officer for the UN in the Asia Pacific Region. For four years she was Crisis Management Officer for the UN covering the Caribbean and she has also worked for the World Food Program in Haiti and in Rome. She is currently Adjunct Professor at The American University of Rome where she teaches International Humanitarian Aid to graduate students.
Vivianna de Annuntiis will give a presentation entitled "Strengthening the Localization Agenda in Humanitarian Preparedness, Response and Coordination"
Rohit Jigyasu is a Project Manager on Urban Heritage, Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management at the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM). Throughout his career he has specialised in disaster risk management of cultural heritage and post disaster recovery focusing on the role of traditional knowledge in disaster mitigation. From 2010-2018 he was UNESCO Professor at the Institute for Disaster Mitigation of Urban Cultural Heritage at Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan.
Rohit Jigyasu will give a presentation entitled "Traditional knowledge for disaster risk reduction: International Initiatives"
Neel Chapagain (Discussant) is Associate Professor and Director, Centre for Heritage Management, Ahmedabad University. He has conducted a review of policies and initiatives in Post-2015 earthquake in Nepal producing a ‘Policy Framework for Emergency Response in Post-disaster situations’. His recent publications include ‘Applicability and Adaptability of Traditional Knowledge Systems in Heritage Management in Asia'.