CBRL news December 2019
Welcome to CBRL’s December newsletter.

Earlier this month we held our AGM in London where we said goodbye to two esteemed staff members and six trustees, whilst the membership voted six new trustees on to our Committee of Management. We were delighted to welcome back CBRL's former Director, Professor Bill Finlayson to give our AGM and C rystal-M. Bennett Memorial lecture on the subject of the Neolithic in the Southern Levant.

January looks set to be a busy month for CBRL at all our centres. Along with our sister BIRI institutes, the British Institute at Ankara, t he British Institute for the Study of Iraq and the British Institute of Persian Studies as well as the Egypt Exploration Society, we will be jointly offering student poster prizes at the British Association of Near Eastern Archaeology conference taking place in Oxford. Do come and say hello if you are attending.

In Amman, in partnership with the British Academy, we will be hosting an interdisciplinary knowledge symposium, bringing together Levantine and British scholars to workshop on the subject of Belonging.

After partnering on the project Cultural Corridors of Peace that set out to safeguard Arab Bedouin cultural heritage in the 21st century, CBRL will be part of an exhibition that addresses the challenges facing the Bedouin that will take place in London from 15th - 25th January.

Finally, our 2020 Travel Grant appeal is still open so if you are thinking of giving to a charity this Christmas, please do consider donating to CBRL. We are wholly dependent on the generosity of you, our members and friends, to fund our annual postgraduate travel grants, a vital part of our activity that develops the next generation of researchers in the Levant.

That leaves us just to wish you all the very best for a wonderful festive season and a happy and healthy new year.

From all at CBRL
W e’re thrilled to announce the winners of the 2019 CBRL Undergraduate Dissertation prizes. The C ontemporary prize went to Nastia van de Meer (University of Warwick) and the prize for Levantine Archaeology or History was jointly awarded to Marie Middleton ( UCL) and Gabriela Szymanska (University of East Anglia). Congratulations to our winners and thank you to Professor Rosemary Hollis for donating this year's prize money. Read more about the winning dissertations here.
In 2019 CBRL was proud to partner on the British Council funded project, Cultural Corridors of Peace, that brought together Bedouin from across the Levant to celebrate their shared heritage and to discuss how to safeguard their intangible heritage in the future. An exhibition on the gathering will take place in London in January - more details below. Read more about the project here.
News from the field
Visual artist and filmmaker Cat Auburn descr ibes her project The Horses Stayed Behind that used sculpture, inspired by the Victorian mourning wreath, to explore the narrative of New Zealand's largely forgotten Middle East Campaign in WWI and the 10,000 horses that made it possible. Read more.
Micaela Sinibaldi outline s here the work of her CBRL affiliated Islamic Baydha Project. The Islamic village at Baydha consists of the most substantial, accessible evidence of the Islamic period in the Petra region. Read more here.
People at CBRL
As 2019 comes to a close, we say goodbye to two esteemed colleagues who leave our staff to move onto exciting new roles. We wish Mandy Turner, CBRL Kenyon Institute's outgoing director and Rachel Telfer, Executive Officer at our London office our thanks for their fantastic work and warmest good wishes for every success in their new roles. Read more here.
At our AGM on 11th December, CBRL’s membership voted in six new trustees to replace those retiring. We would like to say a heartfelt thanks to those who leave our board in 2019: Dr Alex Bellem, Dr George Findlater, Dr Louise Martin, Vivien Morgan, Professor Graham Philip and Dr Nicola Pratt. We welcome those who join us now. Read more about our new trustees here .
Upcoming events
Exhibition
15 - 25 January - Bargehouse,
Oxo Tower Wharf, South Bank, London


An exhibition celebrating the cultural heritage of the Bedouin people of Lebanon, Jordan and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
16 January - King's College London


with Robert Bewley  (EAMENA, University of Oxford)
This lecture is given in memory of
Dr Andrea Da Silva Zerbini (1984-2019)   
28 February - SOAS, University of London


with Salman Abu Sitta (Palestine Land Society)
This lecture is in partnership with SOAS Centre for Palestine Studies and the Palestine Exploration Fund.
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