Officials of Qatar’s Orientalist Museum and Pembroke College at the Cambridge University.
DOHA: Qatar’s Orientalist Museum and Pembroke College-Cambridge recently concluded a two-day international conference at Cambridge University.
The conference brought together distinguished scholars, art historians, and museum professionals to discuss ‘Orientality: Cultural Orientalism and Mentality’.
Organised by Professor Jean Michel Massing from the King’s College, Dr Firuza Melville from the Pembroke College, and Dr Olga Nefedova from Qatar’s Orientalist Museum, the conference incorporated a series of lectures, roundtable discussions and formal dinners.
Dr Melville described the conference as, “a great success, especially as a starting point, which we hope will lead to further Cambridge-Doha cooperation, mutually beneficial in the future.”
Professor Massing said the conference was “a great collaborative effort between Cambridge and the Orientalist Museum in Doha.” He praised the broad scope of work covered, including “the interrelations between East and West in history, art, ballet, music and film within a very wide geographical scope, including an important and quite novel focus on Central Asia.”
Guest speakers included Marinika Babanazarova (Savitsky Karakalpakstan Art Museum, Nukus); Dr Razia Sultanova (University of Cambridge); Dr Edhem Eldem (Boğaziçi University); Dr Harold Lacom (Independent scholar, Vienna); Robert Irwin (SOAS, University of London); Dr Elena Andreeva (Virginia Military Institute, Lexington); Tim Stanley (Victoria and Albert Museum, London).
A joint initiative between the Orientalist Museum in Doha and Pembroke College Cambridge — supported by the Qatar Museums Authority, HRH Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Centre of Islamic Studies, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and the Faculty of Architecture and History of Art, University of Cambridge - the conference provided a springboard for increased international cooperation.
As Dr Melville explained, “It was an excellent occasion, which helped us identify and consolidate our own Cambridge Orientalist team, based in the Pembroke College Shahnameh Centre and the Department of History of Art.”
Dr Nefedova said she was looking forward to further collaborations, and that conferences such as this “provide a forum for the continued investigation, facilitation, and promotion of the study of Cultural Orientalism, including visual art, literature, music and dance”.
The Peninsula
