Participants at the ‘Orientality: Cultural Orientalism and Mentality’ at Cambridge University.
Qatar’s Orientalist Museum and Pembroke College, Cambridge University, recently concluded a two-day international conference.
Held at Cambridge University, the conference brought together distinguished scholars, art historians and museum professionals to discuss “Orientality: Cultural Orientalism and Mentality”.
Organised by Prof Jean Michel Massing from King’s College, Dr Firuza Melville from Pembroke College and Dr Olga Nefedova from 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 co-operation, mutually beneficial, in the future”
Prof Massing shared the sentiment, saying the conference was “a great collaborative effort between Cambridge and 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 novel focus on Central Asia”.
The conference, which gave the world’s foremost experts on Orientalism the opportunity to come together and discuss both their research and the future of Orientalist study, was a truly international gathering.
The 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), and Tim Stanley (Victoria and Albert Museum, London).
A joint initiative of Orientalist Museum Doha and Pembroke College Cambridge, and supported by the Qatar Museums Authority, the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Centre of Islamic Studies, the 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 co-operation.
“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 Melville explained.
Dr Nefedova said she was looking forward to further collaboration and that such conferences “provide a forum for the continued investigation, facilitation and promotion of the study of Cultural Orientalism, including visual art, literature, music and dance.”
