Symposium: The Ancient Middle East and the 21st Century Museum

Thursday, March 31, 2022 from 4–8 p.m.

The Ancient Middle East and the 21st Century Museum 

March 31: 4–8 p.m.
April 1: 9:30 a.m.–5 p.m.

This two-day symposium celebrates the museum’s newly reinstalled galleries of the ancient Middle East. With a roster of national and internationally based invited speakers, the scholarship presented will explore new ways of thinking and presenting ancient cultures today. Topics include archaeology and cultural heritage, the interdisciplinary nature of museum work, and the role of civic engagement to amplify the arts in Cincinnati.

Speakers include:
-Dr. Morag Kersel, Associate Professor and Director of the Museum Studies Minor Program at DePaul University
-Dr. Lamia el-Khouri, Associate Professor of Classical and Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology at Yarmouk University
-Dr. Björn Anderson, Associate Professor Art History at the University of Iowa
-Dr. Lindsay Allen, Lecturer in Greek & Near Eastern History at King’s College London
-Dr. Joseph Greene, Deputy Director Emeritus of the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East
-Dr. Elizabeth Macaulay, Associate Professor at The Graduate Center, The City University of New York
-Dr. Jack Green, Jeffrey Horrell ‘75 and Rodney Rose Director and Chief Curator of the Miami University Art Museum.  

Join us from 4pm on Thursday, March 31st for the Keynote Lecture, Community Roundtable with leaders from CAM, the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati, University of Cincinnati, and Hebrew Union College, followed by a reception with gallery viewing. The symposium begins again at 9:30am on Friday, April 1st. 

Visitors should meet in the Fath Auditorium.

Free. Registration required. Registration includes a box lunch on April 1. 

This event is offered FREE through the generous funding of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. 

image credit line: Gallery view with Zodiac Roundel with Bust of the Goddess Tyche (detail), 101–200, Khirbet et-Tannur (Jordan), limestone, Museum Purchase, 1939.233 in the foreground; and Shahzia Sikander (Pakistani and American, b.1969), Caesura (detail), 2021, painted and laminated glass, Alice Bimel Endowment for Asian Art, 2021.97a–k in the background.  

If you need accessibility accommodations for this program or event, please email [email protected]. Please contact us at least two weeks in advance to ensure accommodations can be made.