History And Heritage: Gaza’s Destruction And Narrative Disruption

After pausing Turath Bel Arabi webinar series in the aftermath of 7th October and the ensuing destruction of Gaza, its people, their lives, their livelihoods, and their heritage, both Megawra & Barakat Trust have decided to relaunch the final part of the Heritage in Arabic webinar series tackling the realities of the violence head-on.

The webinar will take place on Wednesday 29th June from 5 pm to 7 pm, Cairo time.

In this webinar, we unpack the deep relationship between human lives, identity, shared heritage and histories in the context of the ongoing nine-month onslaught of Gaza which has seen unprecedented levels of destruction. To explore such an important topic, we welcome Nasser Rabat, architect and historian, and Kegham Djeghalian, artist and fashion designer, to make their contributions to the conversation.

About The Speakers:

Nasser Rabbat
An academic, historian, and architect who is the current Aga Khan Professor for Islamic architecture at MIT. Through his teaching, writings, & public talks Nasser conveys his diverse interests that lie at the junction of Islamic art & architecture, urban history & design, & post-colonial criticism. Nasser’s education began in Damascus before he headed to the USA to complete an M.Arch at the University of California in Los Angeles & a PhD at MIT. Since then, he has taught at MIT with short academic stints in Germany, France, UAE, & beyond. Nasser has a myriad of academic citations to his name having published in Arabic, French, & English on diverse topics with a particular focus on Mamluk architecture & historiography. He has previously co-edited an online book with Pamela Karimi, The Destruction of Cultural Heritage: From Napoléon to ISIS. Later this year, his co-edited book Construction as Violence: The Case of Syria will be published providing an insight into the consequences of war & devastation in built environments.

Kegham Djeghalian
A visual artist & fashion practitioner based between Cairo, where he is a Professor of Fashion Studies, Image & Design, & the Artistic Director of the Fashion Design Department at the German International University, & Paris, where he is a faculty member at the Photography Department of the Paris College of Art. Kegham’s academic interests include themes of decoloniality in education & design, & practices of speculative design. Educated at the French Institute of Fashion in Paris, the AUC, and Goldsmiths College & UAL in London, Kegham’s exhibitions & talks have also had international exposure. In a talk hosted by the Armenian Institute in London and the Barakat Trust at the Photographers’ Gallery earlier this year, Kegham discussed Photo Kegham, the photography studio founded by his grandfather, Kegham Djeghalian Sr, in Gaza, & the archived photos he has recently unboxed. He delved into the challenges he encountered turning them into a coherent body of work & evoking ideas of ‘unmade archives’, disrupted histories, diaspora, & the question of homeland in the context of his family’s Armenian & Gazan identities. ‘Photo Kegham of Gaza: Unboxing’ exhibition created & curated by Kegham was staged in May 2024 at the Institut Français in Cairo.

The webinar will be moderated by Seif El Rashidi from The Barakat Trust, and has been made possible through the support of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture’s Education Programme.

This session will be in Arabic.

To register