Near &amp; Middle Eastern Civilizations

Faculty of Music

Graduate Students

School of Graduate Studies

What do short stories from medieval Persian literature teach us about today’s political discourse?

Faraz Alidina can tell you – in less than three minutes.

The third-year PhD student in the ��Ƶ’s department of Near and Middle Eastern civilizations in the Faculty of Arts & Science recently won the 2021 Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition for his research on the works of 13th-century Persian poet Farid al-Din Attar.

“I feel very grateful that I was able to win because historically, at least at U of T, this competition has been dominated by students in the sciences,” says Alidina, adding that it can be particularly difficult to for humanities students to summarize esoteric-sounding research in such a short time.

Alidina was one of a dozen competitors at the virtual 3MT final that saw graduate students from across U of T’s three campuses attempt to explain their research in under three minutes to a panel of non-specialist judges. The annual event, hosted by CBC Ideas producers Nicola Luksic and Tom Howell, had over 250 audience members cheering on the participants.

Alidina, who says he was encouraged to enter the event by his PhD supervisor, Associate Professor Shafique Virani, won $500 for his first-place finish. Heather MacDonald of the Faculty of Music took second spot for her presentation on preventing oboe-related injuries, while Julie Sato of the department of psychology placed third for her work on postnatal nutrition and brain development in premature infants. Emily McGaugh of the department of physiology took home the People’s Choice Award for her presentation on how stem cells can help cure type 1 diabetes.

For his presentation, Alidina opted to take a creative approach. He began with the story of Shahrzad, the famed storyteller of One Thousand and One Nights who hoped that her intriguing tales would delay her execution and persuade the murderous king to change his ways. Like Shahrzad, many writers in the medieval period – writing in Persian, Latin, Arabic and Italian – realized that princes and people were best convinced not by means of abstract principle, but through story.

With his research, Alidina explained that he hopes to unpack the narrative techniques – or what the Arabic literary tradition calls the “science of rhetoric” – behind the short stories of the 13th-century poet Farid al-Din Attar, a writer with a style so persuasive that critics sometimes referred to it as “the horsewhip.”

“These medieval authors used short stories not just to illustrate a point or an abstract ethical concept, but because stories actually provided a unique medium through which the consequences of ethical and political positions could be explored in their specificity,” Alidina said in a Zoom interview after the event. “Ironically, fiction is the best place where we can model the world as it is, in its uniqueness and its variance.”

Probing medieval theories of persuasion is hardly an esoteric pursuit for Alidina, who holds a master’s degree in religion from Harvard University and an undergraduate degree in political science and Middle Eastern studies from McGill University. He says that understanding what persuades people has taken on new urgency in the age of alternative facts and conspiratorial thinking. Citing recent examples like Brexit, he notes that attributing human action to self-interest doesn’t always explain political and electoral outcomes.

While he’s still in the early stages of developing his research, Alidina says that preparing for 3MT helped him articulate the major questions underlying his work.

“The format of the competition really forced me not to hide behind jargon, prolixity or complexity. And I thought that was a useful exercise, regardless of whether I came in first or didn’t make it past the first heat.”

Alidina hopes his victory will inspire more participation from students in the humanities.

“In the humanities, we’re perhaps more inclined to have this purist vision of our intellectual lives – knowledge for the sake of knowledge. There’s nothing wrong with having that internal compass of curiosity, but that doesn’t mean we should shy away from thinking about how our work can play a role in the world in which we live.

“The humanities has a very unique and specific voice, particularly in this time. We shouldn’t be afraid to speak a little louder.”

With support from The Weeknd, U of T's Ethiopic program soars past $500,000 endowment goal

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 02 Nov 2020 17:12:13 +0000

With support from The Weeknd, U of T's Ethiopic program soars past $500,000 endowment goal

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 11/02/2020 - 12:12

Cutline

Bikila Award president Tessema Mulugeta presents Arts & Science Dean Melanie Woodin with The Weeknd’s cheque for $30,000 – pushing the Ge’ez course’s endowment past the $500,000 goal (photo by Diana Tyszko)

Lucianna Ciccocioppo

Topic

Our Community

Centre for Medieval Studies

Ethiopic

New College

U of T Scarborough

The future of the ��Ƶ’s Ethiopic program – the only one of its kind in North America and among a handful in the world – just got brighter.

The endowment that makes the program possible has surpassed its goal of $500,000 thanks to another gift from Toronto native, Abel Tesfaye, the international, award-winning singer, songwriter and recording producer known as The Weeknd. This support enables U of T to offer at least one Ge'ez language course each year.

“Our heartfelt thanks to The Weeknd for his ongoing commitment to Ethiopic studies at U of T,” said Professor Melanie Woodin, dean of the Faculty of Arts & Science. “This gift means the endowment celebrates a significant fundraising milestone. For us, it signifies an important partnership with the Ethiopian-Canadian community, one we hope to continue to grow.

“We share a vision and an understanding of the value in preserving the Ge’ez language. The impact of The Weeknd’s continued support is truly appreciated, for current and future faculty, students and alumni.”

Ethiopic studies at U of T launched three years ago with a course on Ge’ez, an ancient language used primarily for liturgical Christian services. Currently, U of T is the only university in North America, and one of the very few universities in the world, that regularly offers a course on Ge’ez. It’s part of the Semitic group of languages, including Hebrew, Arabic and Aramaic, and remains a fundamental language for classical studies such as Latin and Greek.

The program, jointly run by the Faculty of Arts & Science’s department of Near and Middle Eastern civilizations and the Centre for Medieval Studies, was just shy of reaching its fundraising goal when The Weeknd, recently named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2020, made a $30,000 gift.

This is The Weeknd’s second donation to U of T in support of the Ethiopic program. His first was a $50,000 gift in 2016, as part of the fundraising drive led by the Bikila Award – an Ethiopian-Canadian organization that fosters academic and business excellence and encourages volunteerism – to galvanize its community to support the new endowment.

From left: Bikila Award president Tessema Mulugeta, Bikila board member Behailu Atnafu, The Weeknd’s parents Walelegne Teshome and Samrawit Hailu, Faculty of Arts & Science Dean Melanie Woodin and Professor Michael Gervers (photo by Diana Tyszko)

Tessema Mulugeta, president of Bikila, called it “a pivotal moment in our history here in Toronto” while recently presenting The Weeknd’s cheque together with board member Behailu Atnafu and The Weeknd’s parents, Samrawit Hailu and Walelegne Teshome, to Woodin on a fall day at the Faculty Arts & Science.

“U of T’s Ethiopic studies will illuminate to the world the hidden, untouched millennial scripts in Ge’ez and uncover rich texts of philosophy, grammar, mathematics, astronomy, history, medicine and law,” said Mulugeta. “During this modern age, current and future generations of U of T students can continue to access Ethiopia’s past and unlock tantalizing deposits of wisdom from distant eras of human history.”

For Professor Michael Gervers, who teaches Ethiopian history at U of T Scarborough and the St. George campus, more than 40 years of scholarly research, including digitizing church manuscripts in Ethiopia, has emphasized “how significant and important this culture is.” He gave the first gift in 2015 to launch the endowment campaign.

“I spent decades in Ethiopia and saw that almost every single church I went to had manuscripts that nobody was reading except the monks and priests for their daily or weekly services. But there was all this other literature just sitting there.”

Gervers explained that not many people are aware that the king of Ethiopia converted to Christianity before the Roman emperor Constantine did in Byzantium. “It goes right back to somewhere around 333 to 340 CE. And you can’t have a religion without a book,” said Gervers.

With Ethiopia having a written historical tradition older than any other country in Africa, that’s a lot of books. In fact, it’s been recently discovered that the oldest complete Gospel manuscript in the world is from Ethiopia, opening up a plethora of new scholarship questions.

Undergraduate student Saba Ebrahimpour, a member of New College who's studying Ge'ez, said it’s very important for her to read the literature in its original language.

“When I was studying for this course, I was going through the Bible in the English translation and the professors were teaching us how to translate it,” she said. “I compared the two languages, and there were some differences between the two.”

Ebrahimpour searched for other sources but found there weren’t any. And she said there are few professors who can teach Ge’ez, “So U of T has a very big job to do.”

Ge'ez will be a significant component of graduate student Arshan Hasan’s research – and this first course is a vital start.

“Of the classical Semitic languages, Ge'ez is one of the most understudied despite it being one of the most unique,” said Hasan. “It has a unique script in its family that really needs to be taught alongside the language, rather than self-taught. Grammatically it is so remarkable and so different from its sister languages while also still being very familiar.

“It reopens many lost horizons.”

Ge’ez student Arshan Hasan (photo courtesy of Arshan Hasan)

Highlighting, remembering and teaching the history, languages and cultures in this cradle of civilization in the Horn of Africa are just some of the reasons Ethiopians in Canada have supported and continue to give to U of T’s program.

“We were and are people of many literatures,” said Mulugeta. “The study of Ge’ez will help us make sense of ourselves, our early civilizations, our beliefs and cultures and, most importantly, our interconnectedness in the world.”

The program, and particularly the Ge’ez course, has put U of T “on the map because we're doing it and nobody else is,” said Gervers. “The Ethiopic program at U of T has enormous potential.”

History in 3D: U of T researchers piece together the past with new scanning technologies

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 15:03:25 +0000

History in 3D: U of T researchers piece together the past with new scanning technologies

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 10/05/2020 - 11:03

Cutline

Giles Spence Morrow, who completed his PhD at U of T, uses a scanner at a site in Cambodia (photo courtesy of Giles Spence Morrow)

Topic

Global

Institute of Islamic Studies

Research & Innovation

As director of the Tayinat archaeological project in Turkey, Tim Harrison saw the need and potential for 3D scanning and modelling technology.

Harrison, chair of the ��Ƶ’s department of Near and Middle Eastern civilizations in the Faculty of Arts & Science, has for years conducted research in the region of the Orontes River, which flows from Lebanon through Syria and Turkey. Populated continuously for thousands of years, the region’s rich history is reflected in a wealth of archaeological finds.

However, archaeological finds are rarely uncovered whole or in pristine condition.

“We’ve found thousands of fragments of broken sculptures,” says Harrison. “It’s like a jigsaw puzzle, but it’s a three-dimensional puzzle and you only have maybe five per cent of the pieces.

“So, we became very interested in the development of fast, high-resolution scanning technology that would help generate 3D images that we hope to eventually import into shape-matching software that will help solve these puzzles.”

The 3D scanning and modelling that Harrison and his colleagues are doing is accomplished using portable, hand-held scanners that can be used in the field. They are also developing shape-matching software with a team led by Eugene Fiume, a professor emeritus in the faculty’s department of computer science.

One goal is to create 3D models of pieces of pottery or statues and rebuild them digitally the way you might rebuild a broken coffee cup by fitting its pieces together. Another is to identify artifacts such as pieces of pottery by comparing their shape to a database of similar pieces.

“Eventually, we also want to compare texture, colour, chemistry and mineralogy,” says Harrison. “The more layers of information you add, the more patterns and matches you can make. We're not quite there yet, but that’s the direction we’re headed.”

A 3D model of the Lady of Tayinat, a statue from the Tayinat archaeological project (Image courtesy of the Tayinat Archeological Project; Tim Harrison; Steve Batiuk)

Stephen Batiuk, a senior research associate in the department of Near and Middle Eastern civilizations and a member of the Tayinat team, says “3D modelling quite literally introduces a new dimension to our research, providing us with new ways to measure objects, visualize them and help in reconstruction.

“Plus, since many of these artifacts can’t leave the countries from which they were excavated, it extends our ability to do research on them beyond the field season and allows others who were not there to work on them as well.”

As powerful as it is, 3D scanning is just one tool in the toolkit.

In 2011, with funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), Harrison and his colleagues launched an organization called Computational Research on the Ancient Near East, or CRANE. CRANE was originally conceived as an effort to build a large collaborative environment for different archaeological projects and researchers working mostly in the eastern Mediterranean. At its core are powerful computational tools for modelling ancient social groups, analyzing complex and diverse data sets from those researchers – and it will even be used to validate climate change models with archaeological data.

The 3D capability is part of what Harrison refers to as “CRANE 2.0.” It’s made possible through a partnership grant – including funding from SSHRC and the Faculty of Arts & Science – that provides support to the Archaeology Centre’s Digital Innovation Lab. With this support, researchers in other departments can apply the technology to their own realm of the ancient world.

“The technology was purchased by CRANE for CRANE work,” says Batiuk. “But all archaeologists at U of T can benefit from us having bolstered the Digital Innovation Lab. This is a spirit of co-operation that CRANE is trying to promote, especially when using university funds.”

Ed Swenson is an associate professor in the department of anthropology and director of the university’s Archaeology Centre. Last winter, Swenson, his former doctoral student Giles Spence Morrow – who is now with the anthropology department at Vanderbilt University – and other colleagues conducted research at ancient sites from the Angkor Empire, which was based in present-day Cambodia and dominated much of Southeast Asia. The work was supported by a grant from the Hal Jackman Foundation.

The team surveyed and conducted excavations of religious temples and complexes built near the end of the first millennium CE. They employed traditional archaeological methods and tools in their work, as well as drone cameras. They also used CRANE’s portable scanners to create 3D models of statues, stone monuments and architecture, and to record inscriptions to facilitate translation and share with other researchers.

One of their most remarkable discoveries: pieces of a statue that likely formed a three-metre-tall likeness of a divine figure. The team discovered two feet attached to a base. Nearby they found a shoulder, an arm, part of a leg and the torso. The head is still missing.

The team scanned the pieces and re-assembled both the actual statue and its digital facsimile.

“The application of 3D scanning to create models of architectural complexes and artifacts has revolutionized our research,” says Swenson. “It permits continued, detailed analysis long after the close of excavations and on-site laboratory analysis.

“In other words, one can literally revisit and restudy sites that are accurately recreated in three-dimensional simulations. The models also offer an invaluable teaching resource as it allows students to fully experience and analyze virtual archaeological datasets.”

90 Queen’s Park: ‘An incredible new gateway to the campus’

rahul.kalvapalle — Wed, 15 Jul 2020 00:08:13 +0000

90 Queen’s Park: ‘An incredible new gateway to the campus’

rahul.kalvapalle Tue, 07/14/2020 - 20:08

Cutline

(all renderings by Diller Scofidio + Renfro)

Rahul Kalvapalle

Topic

Our Community

Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies

School of Cities

Faculty of Art & Science

Faculty of Law

Faculty of Music

History

ROM

The ��Ƶ and members of the public are taking part in a virtual community consultation organized by the City of Toronto for the new building planned for 90 Queen’s Park.

The site was acquired by U of T in 2009 and is envisioned as a major centre of scholarship in urban issues, as well as a city landmark and key gateway to the St. George campus. Located on the site of Falconer Hall and the former McLaughlin Planetarium, it is adjacent to the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM).

The university hopes to obtain approval for the building in September and begin construction in the spring of 2021 on what would be a three-year project.

The building will be home to U of T’s new School of Cities as well as the departments of History, Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, the Institute of Islamic Studies and an arm of the Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies. It will include spaces for the Faculty of Music, Faculty of Law and the ROM. A public plaza, outdoor café and 250-seat recital hall are also among the designs for the building.

Since 2010, there have been many community meetings and workshops over U of T’s plans for the site, with resulting refinements and improvements. Ahead of the latest consultations, U of T News spoke to Assistant Vice-President, University Planning, Operations and Real Estate Partnerships Christine Burke, about the building, its envisioned impact on Toronto and the importance of the community engagement.

Tuesday’s virtual consultation follows over a decade of community meetings and consultations. Why has U of T placed so much importance on consulting with the city and community members on this particular project?

We always consult broadly on our projects, but this one in particular has far exceeded what is typical for consultation on a project in the City of Toronto. At the university level, because this site has been in conception all the way since 1997 and then in our 2011 Campus Master Plan, there has been significant consultation both by the city as well as ourselves even before hiring architects.

There have been several U of T-hosted consultation meetings held in advance of making the secondary plan application for the St. George campus in 2016, over five city-hosted consultation meetings as well as five additional city-led meetings, including Community Council and Council in 2017-18 on the secondary plan for the St. George campus, and this is one of the development sites covered in the secondary plan. But more specifically on this project, we’ve had two Community Liaison Committee meetings in advance of submitting a development application in February 2019, a public, joint city and U of T design review panel meeting and the city has hosted a community consultation.

We’ve also had four additional working group meetings led by the local city councillor, and those included resident associations and other members of the public that are outside the typical radius reached during consultations.

So this project in particular has had a significant amount of consultation, and we think that’s important at this gateway location. We have modified our plans significantly through this engagement, and we are pleased with how the design of the building and its significant public realm component has evolved. Tuesday’s further consultation is an opportunity for us to present all the changes and once again participate in public dialogue and clear up any misinformation.

Does this project involve a heritage district and are there plans for demolition of any heritage buildings?

There has been some community discussion about an existing Queen’s Park heritage district, but there is no such district. This site is not located within a heritage conservation district.

However, we acknowledge that the site is critical given its proximity to key open spaces like Philosopher’s Walk as well as many heritage buildings like Falconer Hall, the ROM and being across the street from the buildings at Victoria University.

We have heritage consultants who are working closely with us to ensure that the approach to the site is appropriate. One of the ways we’ve done that is, for example, the proposed building exposes the southern façade of the east wing of the ROM and allows the ROM heritage façade to remain clearly visible.

We’re also cantilevering a very small portion over the rear part of Falconer Hall, which is one of our heritage buildings, so that it really maintains the prominence of Falconer Hall on Queen’s Park. The former Planetarium, which is not listed on the heritage register or designated, and determined to not be suitable for reuse, is being removed to make way for the large public plaza and new entrance/café.

It’s true that the site is a complex one and has a significant number of heritage structures in its vicinity. There has been a lot of discussion with city heritage staff along the way and there has been special care taken to make sure that this is done right and we are working hard to blend the old and new in a thoughtful design.

What measures are being taken to ensure that the building is in step with the surrounding neighbourhood from an aesthetic standpoint?

Design excellence is important to the University in all of its capital projects. We play a key role in Toronto in terms of being a city builder so we take design excellence to heart.

This is a prominent site in the city in the Bloor Street Cultural Corridor, so we felt that meant we needed to find the right architects for the project because it will be a landmark building. We engaged Diller Scofidio + Renfro, with Architects Alliance as the local firm, a firm of international renown, whose projects have included reimagining the High Line in New York City and several buildings at Columbia University.

For this project, because of its integration with heritage and contemporary architecture, we were really looking for a firm that would be able to provide a calibre of design that would be unexpected but beautiful, have a presence and perform, at this key gateway to the campus.

That doesn’t mean it would detract from its heritage context but rather try to find a design solution that would both engage the city as well as contextually fit in its very unique landscape. With this project we have integration of a historic building with a brand new building and a critical role to play along the street, to engage and welcome in the city.

How has the design of the building changed since the first proposal?

We have altered the design of the building significantly to both incorporate city and community feedback as well as ensure that aesthetic elements better respond to its surroundings.

The height of the building has been reduced significantly over the years in response to community and city feedback and meets the test in terms of protection of the Ontario Legislative Assembly, so that is definitely something we’ve been mindful of in terms of determining the height. The height and overall massing and siting also follow a number of important planning and urban design principles. More recently, in response to feedback, we have further reduced the height of the building to 38.7 metres (plus mechanical penthouse), increased the amount of Falconer Hall to be retained, reduced the overhang of our recital hall over our heritage building, and further reduced program size including classrooms to bring the overall size of the building down by approximately 20 per cent of the original building application.

As well, we have increased the amount of landscaped area. The building now has a very large courtyard and fully exposes the southern façade of the east wing of the ROM. This courtyard becomes the primary entrance to the building. The public realm will be enhanced – there’s going to be a lot of soft as well as hard landscaping, a café to draw people in and for the public and university community to co-mingle. In previous iterations, that realm was smaller.

What’s going to happen to the trees currently in the area?

There has been some concern raised that all the trees on the site are being removed, but that’s not accurate. There are four mature trees in front of Flavelle House and these are being protected in the plans. These include two of the largest mature oak trees near the site boundary that is being protected.

While some trees will need to be removed to facilitate construction, only two of these are mature and in good health. All others are either not mature and/or are diseased and infested, or stunted in their growth right next to the foundation wall of the historic house.

We are abiding by the city’s requirements for replacement trees that will be planted at a rate of 3:1, in fact we are exceeding this requirement with the addition of 31 new trees in total. As well, we have worked with a city arborist, and the tree proposal that we have in place has been approved by Toronto Urban Forestry, so we have their full support on the proposal.

Taking a step back, why did the university decide to demolish the McLaughlin Planetarium?

The planetarium hasn’t been operated as a planetarium since 1995 and it closed due to declining attendance and interest years before it was purchased by the university. While there has previously been private sector interest in redeveloping the site, the sale to the university was heralded at the time in anticipation of institutional use, and the opportunity to remain connected to the ROM. The university’s astrophysics group is now leading the effort to plan for a planetarium experience in the heart of the St. George campus.

In terms of the building’s removal, the university made a lot of effort to look at adaptively reusing the building. We reached out to external consultants for their opinions as well and concluded that there were technical difficulties in altering the structure for other purposes.

When you consider demolishing a building, there is interest from the city to consider whether it is a heritage building. Our heritage consultants – ERA Architects – conducted a heritage impact assessment as part of the application and concluded that the planetarium is not a significant cultural heritage resource and it is not appropriate for designation. Conserving Falconer Hall, and the heritage fabric around Flavelle House and the ROM has been at the forefront of the design thinking.

There are some interesting ideas happening around potentially having some kind of commemoration in the area where the planetarium sits today. But the benefits to the public realm that are happening with the building’s removal and opening up the plaza to the ROM and displaying the heritage of Falconer Hall and the ROM have also been key considerations.

What do you see as the future for the new building?

It’s a really fascinating juxtaposition of programs that are being planned for the building – as well as cultural elements such as the music recital hall to engage the city.

What’s so interesting is it will be a place that draws together researchers, students, journalists, city planners and civic leaders from the university and around the world and be a place to explore – with the School of Cities in particular – and think about cities. For example, we can look at how Toronto has drawn people from around the world and from different backgrounds, how we’ve worked together to address challenges and inspire the cities of tomorrow when it comes to city planning and cultural diversity.

So it’s not just about what’s happening inside the building. Its location right at the edge of where the campus meets the city and in the cultural corridor, adjacent to the ROM and near the provincial legislature, makes it an incredible new gateway to the campus.

As with other gateway projects at the edges of our campus, such as the Daniels School of Architecture and the Schwartz Reisman Innovation Centre, this is an opportunity to interact and connect with the city, and the design reflects that. We want this to be a building where the University and city connect with each other, and we will continue to work hard to ensure that we achieve that.

Note: Further changes have been made to the building’s envelope as part of formal mediation process

U of T working to establish a research centre and archeological park in Turkey’s Amuq Valley

noreen.rasbach — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 13:20:23 +0000

U of T working to establish a research centre and archeological park in Turkey’s Amuq Valley

noreen.rasbach Fri, 10/26/2018 - 09:20

Cutline

At Tell Tayinat in Turkey, from left: Ambassador Chris Cooter, his wife Karen Blumenschein, David Cameron, Timothy Harrison and Mark Engstrom (photo by Majed Dagher)

Topic

Global

Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work

Research & Innovation

Archeologists at the ��Ƶ are in advanced negotiations with Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism to establish an archeological park at Tell Tayinat, a site in southeastern Turkey, to deepen awareness and understanding of the Iron Age kingdom that ruled the region several millennia ago.

A primary component would be an interpretation centre to showcase the site’s unique cultural heritage, said U of T archeologist Professor Timothy Harrison at a special reception this week hosted by Canada’s Ambassador to Turkey, attended by high-level Turkish officials, a U of T delegation, and members of the media.

The park will also feature a state-of-the-art research and training facility that aims to preserve, protect and celebrate the area’s cultural heritage. Artifacts unearthed by U of T's Tayinat Archaeological Project date from more than 3,000 years ago. They include a magnificently carved stone lion, a sculpture of 9^th-century BCE king Suppiluliuma, and the remains of a temple thought to be constructed during the time of King Solomon in the 10^th/9^thcenturies BCE.

“Our goal is to establish a research centre and open air park to highlight Tayinat’s role as a strategic crossroads between the cultures and peoples of the Middle East,” said Harrison, director of the Tayinat Archaeological Project launched in 1999.

The site is located at the northern bend of the Orontes River at the intersection between the Anatolian highlands to the north, the Levantine coast to the south, and the lowland steppes of Syria to the east, two kilometres away. Refugee camps are located nearby and security walls along the Turkish-Syrian border are a reminder of the devastation of Syria’s 7½-years-long civil war.

Harrison said such a facility offers the prospect of building cultural understanding while creating opportunities for economic development in a region devastated by conflict. Beyond cultivating local awareness and interest in this important heritage, the site will encourage tourism, and create employment opportunities for local craftspersons and cultural heritage and tourism professionals.

“The threat of damage and destruction to the cultural heritage of the North Orontes Valley region is high, and has gained increased urgency with the encroachment and intensification of the ongoing Syrian civil war in the neighbouring Idlib and Afrin districts,” said Harrison, who is also chair of the department of Near & Middle Eastern civilizations in the Faculty of Arts & Science at U of T.

“The aim is to implement a training program that will create an enhanced ability within local communities to conserve and better-protect this cultural legacy – one that belongs to them and gives shape to their identities as communities today.”

The development will also secure a permanent international research and training facility for current and future faculty and students at U of T and other institutions worldwide.

Since 1999, Harrison and his colleagues on the Tayinat Archaeological Project (TAP) have been helping to advance understanding of early social complexity and the rise of state-ordered societies in the ancient world.

The transition from the Bronze to the Iron Ages saw the collapse of the great imperial powers of Egypt and Mesopotamia, and in Anatolia, the Hittite Empire and its capital situated at Hattusha. It has been said that the Hittite Empire, at its height, rivalled and challenged the regional influence of pharaonic Egypt.

“The cause of this disruption, and what happened during the Dark Age from 1200-900 BC – before Tayinat emerged as Kunulua, royal city of the Kingdom of Palastin or Patina, in the 9^th century BC – has been a mystery that has captured the imagination of scholars for decades,” said Harrison. “By establishing an archaeological park on this site, we hope to be able to further tell the story about the Hittites that has slowly been revealed to us with each discovery we have made there.

“We are excited for the opportunity to enable the public to visit and learn more about the civilization it represents.”

The announcement comes amidst the 75^th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Canada and Turkey.

“As Ambassador of Canada to Turkey, I welcome the ongoing collaboration between Canadian scholars and Turkey’s Ministry of Culture to protect and promote the cultural heritage of a region just a few kilometres from the conflict in Syria – a country both Turkey and Canada are committed to assist,” said Chris Cooter, a U of T alumnus who has led Canada’s diplomatic operations in Ankara since 2016.

Discussions are also underway between the two parties to expand their co-operation in another aspect of the cultural field, including through co-operation between museums in the respective countries. To that end, the delegation included Mark Engstrom, deputy director, collections and research at the Royal Ontario Museum, with the intention to stage a major exhibition in Toronto showcasing Anatolian civilization.

A possible outcome is a major exhibition of heritage artifacts uncovered at Tayinat and elsewhere in Turkey, to be staged first in Turkey before travelling to Canada and elsewhere.

“We’re so pleased to support this opportunity to bring these ancient societies to life so that people can make sense of how great civilizations of the ancient world contributed to life today,” said Professor David Cameron, dean of the Faculty of Arts & Science at U of T.

“I hope that both endeavours will document multiculturalism in a way that will resonate with people and reflect parallel experiences of today.”

Ambitious U of T-led project on ancient Middle East gets $2.5-million boost from federal government

noreen.rasbach — Thu, 02 Aug 2018 04:00:00 +0000

Ambitious U of T-led project on ancient Middle East gets $2.5-million boost from federal government

noreen.rasbach Thu, 08/02/2018 - 00:00

Cutline

The Orontes Watershed represents a “microcosm of the larger Middle East in terms of its geography, its social complexity and its political history,” says Timothy Harrison, who is leading the CRANE project (photo by Diana Tyszko)

Jennifer Robinson

Topic

Global Lens

Gender

Global

Physics

Subheadline

CRANE is one of two projects led by ��Ƶ scholars to receive lucrative global partnership grants

An ambitious project that pools together knowledge from top archeologists working in the Orontes Watershed, a geographical region rich in ancient history, is expanding thanks to a $2.5-million grant from the Canadian government.

The Computational Research on the Ancient Near East, or CRANE, led by archaeology Professor Timothy Harrison, is one of two projects at the ��Ƶ sharing almost $5 million in new partnership grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

Shelley Craig, an associate professor at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, is also receiving $2.5 million in funding for her collaborative study on how information and communication technologies can be used to negotiate gender and sexual minority youth identity and well-being.

Trump's Jerusalem move: Two U of T experts share their views

ullahnor — Mon, 11 Dec 2017 05:00:00 +0000

Trump's Jerusalem move: Two U of T experts share their views

ullahnor Mon, 12/11/2017 - 00:00

Cutline

Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump prompted protests around the world by declaring Jerusalem the capital of Israel (photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Topic

Global Lens

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

U of T Mississauga

Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump unleashed new upheaval in the Middle East by declaring that the hotly contested city of Jerusalem is Israel's capital and committing to move the U.S. embassy to the Holy City.

The decision, which upended seven decades of U.S. foreign policy, has triggered protests across the world. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raised the issue again on Monday during a visit to Brussels, saying he believes eventually European countries will follow Trump's lead. The announcement has been condemned by Palestinian leaders, who see East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

U of T News spoke with two university experts on Jerusalem's significance as a Holy City for three of the world's major faiths, and its disputed status.

Jens Hanssen is an associate professor of Arab civilization and Middle Eastern history at U of T Mississauga and the department of Near and Middle Eastern civilizations and department of history at the Faculty of Arts & Science. Janice Stein is the Belzberg Professor of Conflict Management in the department of political science at the Faculty of Arts & Science. She was the founding director of the Munk School of Global Affairs.

Can you explain why Jerusalem’s status is so contentious?

Jens Hanssen: Jerusalem’s status is contentious because Israel is flaunting international law, and while no relevant state has recognized its contraventions, the international community has shied away from imposing sanctions on the Israeli state. Trump and his ambassador David Friedman’s coup to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel represents a major break with international consensus and with modern history.

In the 19^th century, Ottoman Jerusalem was a well-run city, a magnet for Christian powers to invest in missions and churches, with a municipal council that had regular and fiercely contested elections. This changed when the British created two municipalities and divided the city into a western and eastern administrative unit sometime around 1943. When the 1947 UN resolution recommended the partition of Palestine, it stipulated that the Holy City be “established as a corpus separatum under a special international regime.”

In 1948, Zionist forces conquered western Jerusalem. The UN recognized neither this fait accompli, nor the Jordanian claim to East Jerusalem two years later. Then, in the 1967 war, Israel invaded and occupied East Jerusalem too. A PhD student of mine has recently written a dissertation on how the Arab municipality was dissolved and the Israeli mayor created a regime of de-Arabization and economic underdevelopment for East Jerusalem during his almost 30-year reign. In 1967, the UN Security Council demanded that all Palestinian, Syrian and Egyptian territories that Israel conquered during this war should be returned – including Jerusalem. Instead, the Knesset passed a law in 1980 claiming “Jerusalem, complete and united, [a]s the capital of Israel.” Again, the UN refused to sanction this and insisted that East Jerusalem was an integral part of the Palestinian territories under Israeli occupation.

Since then, Israel and its West Bank settlers have laid siege to Arab Jerusalem, encircling it with ever growing settlements, Israeli-only highways, checkpoints, etc. East Jerusalemites are stateless people who risk their residency by living outside the city. They can hardly buy property and are hamstrung by Israel’s bureaucratic red tape. Over 14,000 Jerusalemites have had their residency revoked this way and been expelled since 1967. Last summer, I visited East Jerusalem for the first time since 1993. I was shocked at the choking atmosphere everywhere, not least the spatial encroachment of the Hebrew University on Issawiyya, a Palestinian village which is a suburb of East Jerusalem. Even inside the old city, radical American Jewish settlers have started forcibly occupying buildings, unfurling enormous Israeli flags on the façades and throwing garbage on their neighbours, like in Hebron.

Janice Stein: Jerusalem is the site of historical memory for Jews for some 3,000 years and for Arabs who have lived there for thousands of years. Both Jews and Muslims attach religious meaning to Jerusalem: For Jews, it is their holiest site, and for Muslims, it is their third holiest site after Mecca and Medina.

Both religious, historical and national narratives are intertwined in a tiny geographical space that competing religions and nationalisms have never been able to share precisely because it is such a significant marker of identity and meaning.

Why did Trump declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel? Did Israel ask for this?

Janice Stein: Israel’s leaders have asked governments around the world to recognize Jerusalem as their capital for a long time. Trump’s decision is best explained by U.S. domestic politics and his desire to fulfill his promise to his base.

The following is an excerpt from Stein's recent op-ed in the Globe and Mail: Dig a little deeper and the hand of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia is not hard to see. Saudi Arabia's conflict with Iran is intensifying. The assassination of the former president of Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh, by the Houthis, whom Saudi Arabia sees as the allies of Iran, pushes the prospect of any resolution of this conflict far off into the distance. Saudi Arabia faces a deepening of a quagmire directly on its southern border. The crown prince has been quietly encouraging Israel to act more vigorously against militias in Syria that are supported by Iran. Not that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needed much encouragement: Syria is on its northern border and Israel's government, like the Saudi government, sees Iran as an overwhelming threat.

Prince Mohammed, or MBS as the Americans call him, apparently had a testy meeting with Mr. Abbas [the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas] last week. Not for the first nor for the last time in Palestinian history, Mr. Abbas was metaphorically told to take what was on offer now because the offer would get no better and, anyway, the Saudis and the Arab world had bigger issues to worry about than the borders of a Palestinian state. Make a deal, he was told, and get out of the way so that we can build the coalition that we need to confront Iran.

Not surprisingly, Mr. Abbas was not receptive, and so the conflict goes on, as it has for the past 100 years. Leaders flirt with history, manipulate symbols, tell stories, respond to domestic political interests, but the conflict goes on. That has not changed.

Celebrating a U of T initiative: Volunteers taught English to young Syrian newcomers and gained lasting friendships in return

ullahnor — Fri, 13 Oct 2017 04:00:00 +0000

Celebrating a U of T initiative: Volunteers taught English to young Syrian newcomers and gained lasting friendships in return

ullahnor Fri, 10/13/2017 - 00:00

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Syrian newcomer Hanen Nanaa (left) and U of T student Muriam Fancy (right) are both members of the university's Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations-Cultural Exchange and Support Initiative (photos by Noreen Ahmed-Ullah)

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Topic

City & Culture

Hart House

Syrian refugees

It began with the germ of an idea: ��Ƶ students wanted to do something to help young Syrians newly arriving in Canada as refugees.

Almost two years later, the small initiative started by students in U of T's Near and Middle Eastern civilizations department with volunteers reaching out to refugees at their hotels has blossomed into a full-blown program of Saturday workshops and field trips that has helped more than 150 Syrian newcomers. The language and cultural exchange taps into a volunteer corps of 200 people – students from across the three campuses, community members, faculty and a roster of 160 Arabic translators.

Last week, the Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations-Cultural Exchange and Support Initiative (NMC-CESI) celebrated how far it's come with an evening of music, food, speeches and art at Hart House.

“When the government started talking about accepting Syrian refugees, my friend Rob asked how could we help. We’re not able to help people inside [Syria]. We should at least help the people coming here. We decided to do something,” recalled Rasha Elendari, co-founder and president of NMC-CESI, as she spoke to a crowd of supporters, U of T student volunteers and Syrian newcomers.

“We had no idea how long the initiative would last – half a year, one year. It kept growing and growing. And now, look at how far we have come.”

Some of the Syrian newcomers in the NMC-CESI program display their artwork at the Oct. 6 reception. The group is hoping to organize an exhibit of their works at a later date

At the weekly workshops, Syrian youths learn English and U of T students brush up on their Arabic. Some of the young Syrians are enrolled in full-time, English-language programs. At least one started classes this year at U of T Scarborough, and some have found jobs.

NMC-CESI focuses on young people aged 18 to 25, a critical age for refugees because they are trying to learn a new language, finish high school and pursue universities and colleges.

“We wanted to make sure that they have a community where they could feel belonging and interact with Canadian students their age to get assistance about applications, other important tests, and in return, they would exchange language and culture with the students who are learning Arabic and specializing in various Middle Eastern studies,” Elendari said.

Majestic 3,000-year-old female statue uncovered in Turkey: excavation led by U of T archaeologists

ullahnor — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 17:23:32 +0000

Majestic 3,000-year-old female statue uncovered in Turkey: excavation led by U of T archaeologists

ullahnor Fri, 08/11/2017 - 13:23

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This statue was uncovered at a citadel gate complex in Turkey by U of T archaeologists leading the Tayinat Archaeological Project (photo courtesy of the Tayinat Archaeological Project)

Sean Bettam

Author legacy

Sean Bettam

Topic

Global Lens