Insights

Welcome to Insights! Formerly our long-running quarterly e-update, since 2020, Insights has been our blog, hosting essays by fellows, interns, staff, and others.

استعادة أواصر الصلة مع تراثنا: كيف لنا أن نربط ماضينا بحاضرنا؟

Dec 22, 2020 Posted in Insights

بقلم عبَاد ديرانيّة To read this article in English, click here. لم تكُن بحوزتي إلا قبعة شتوية لتحجب عن عينيَّ شيئاً من أشعة شمس الخريف، التي سطعت أمامي على كومة من الأطلال والأعمدة المتهاوية في مركز مدينة روما: وهو مشهدٌ أقلّ ما يُقَال عنه -بالنسبة لي- أنه “مخيّب للآمال”. كنتُ قد انتظرت هذه اللحظة بصبر…

My Petra

Dec 17, 2020 Posted in Insights Tagged with Archives, Petra

by Jane Taylor In this photo essay, writer and photographer Jane Taylor reflects on her many visits to Petra from the 1970s onward, which in turn contributed to books including Petra (1993, 2005) and Petra and the Lost Kingdom of the Nabataeans (2001). Something of her personal journey of discovery is told through encounters with…

Ask a Scholar: Micaela Sinibaldi, Islamic Baydha Project Director

Dec 2, 2020 Posted in AskAScholar, Fellows, Fellowships, Insights, Library, Named Fellowships, Petra Tagged with Ask A Scholar, Baydha, COVID, Crusader, Crusades, Interview, Islamic, Pottery

This written interview is part of a new series we are launching on Insights: “Ask A Scholar,” through which we hope to highlight the personal experiences of fellows and other affiliated researchers. The below conversation, with former Bikai and de Vries fellow and Islamic Baydha director Micaela Sinibaldi, Ph.D., took place by email in November, 2020….

Ask A Scholar: Morgen Chalmiers, Pre-Doctoral Fellow, Fall 2020

Nov 22, 2020 Posted in AskAScholar, CAORC, Fellows, Fellowships, Hostel, Insights, Life@ACOR, Research Tagged with anthropology, ethnography, feministethnography, healthcare, intersectional, medicalanthropology, refugee studies

This written interview is part of a new series we are launching on Insights, called “Ask A Scholar,” through which we hope to highlight the personal experiences of fellows and other affiliated researchers. The below conversation, with ACOR-CAORC Pre-Doctoral Fellow Morgen Chalmiers, who is in residence at ACOR during fall 2020, took place by email…

MELA Presentation: Lockdown and locked out of access to knowledge?

Nov 14, 2020 Posted in ACOR, Lecture, Library, VideoLectures Tagged with Archives, History, lecture, lecture recording, Library, photo archive, Photo archives, public lecture, research, visual heritage

by Jessica Holland On 21 October 2020, ACOR participated in the Middle East Librarians Association Annual Conference (MELA) for the first time, presenting on how our library and archives adapted to the changing conditions of the pandemic, alongside panelists from institutions across thirteen different time zones spanning from California to Qatar. Below is a text…

Reflections on Race at the Lowest Place on Earth

Nov 4, 2020 Posted in ACOR, CAORC, Insights, Research, SCHEP Tagged with Agritourism, CAORC, economics, Faculty Development Seminar, FDS, Ghawr, Ghawr as-Safi, Migration, Race, safi, SCHEP, Sugar

by Blaine Pope, Ph.D. Since I traveled to Jordan for the first time, for the January 2020 ACOR-CAORC Faculty Development Seminar “Sustainability at the Margins,” life in the United States, in Jordan, and around the world has changed noticeably. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and massive worldwide protests against racism stemming from the Black…

Heritage vs. Development: The Bayt Ras Tomb Project 2017–2019

Sep 30, 2020 Posted in Insights, Research, SCHEP, VideoLectures Tagged with arthistory, baytras, Community, Heritage, jehadharon, lecture, methodology, northernjordan, northjordan, recorded lecture, roman, romantomb, SCHEP, tomb

ACOR Proudly Presents:“Heritage vs. Development: The Bayt Ras Tomb Project 2017–2019”An Online Lecture by Jehad Haron on September 29, 2020 About the Lecture: In November 2016, a Roman-era tomb was discovered in the town of Bayt Ras, Irbid, by a team working to dig a sewage line in the area. In 2017, USAID SCHEP worked…

Making a Connection with the Past: My ACOR Internship on the Temple of the Winged Lions

Sep 15, 2020 Posted in Insights

By Nora Al Omari I joined ACOR as an intern to participate in the Temple of the Winged Lions (TWL) Publication Project, through which I have handled, documented, and rehoused objects from the temple and also managed the digitization and cataloguing of archival materials from this important Nabataean- and Roman-era site. The Temple of the…

The Making of Amman: Stories, Tours, and Traffic Jams

Sep 3, 2020 Posted in Insights, MESA, Research, VideoLectures Tagged with Amman, cities, geography, interviews, lecture, maps, methodology, Modern History, recorded lecture, Urban Studies

ACOR Proudly Presents:“The Making of Amman: Stories, Tours, and Traffic Jams”An Online Lecture by Prof. Betty Anderson on August 26, 2020 About the Lecture: Dr. Betty Anderson will present the research that she, Dr. Fida Adely, and several local researchers have been conducting in Amman over the last few years. Their research seeks to collect…

أرشيف أكور: مصدر مرئي جديد للتدريس في المدارس عن تاريخ الأردن والمنطقة

Aug 9, 2020 Posted in ACOR, Lecture, Library, VideoLectures Tagged with Arabic, Archaeology, Archives, History, lecture, lecture recording, Library, photo archive, Photo archives, public lecture, research, visual heritage

“ACOR Photo Archive: A New Visual Resource for Middle and High School Teaching about Jordan and the Region. ” This Arabic presentation was delivered as part of the Jordan School Librarians Conference in November 2019 to introduce the ACOR Photo Archive project and its work to preserve endangered photographic heritage from Jordan and the region….

“Open Jordanian Heritage”: Wikimedians Share Stories of Editing Online

Aug 9, 2020 Posted in Insights, Library Tagged with Archives, Cultural Heritage, Event, Library, Public Programs, students, Volunteers, Wikipedia

A key part of ACOR’s mission is to “promote archaeological research, cultural heritage preservation, and knowledge-sharing through lectures, digital resources, publications, workshops, and training programs.” Over the past year, we have expanded our knowledge-sharing activities online through engagement with the world’s largest open-access knowledge repository: Wikipedia. Articles on wikipedia.org—about any number of subjects, and in…

Jordan’s Tourism Sector in the Wake of COVID-19: Where Do We Go From Here?

Jul 15, 2020 Posted in Insights

by Nizar Al Adarbeh, Starling Carter, Hussein Khirfan, and Shatha Abu Aballi, USAID SCHEP* Steady Growth and Increasing Opportunities: The Tourism Sector in Jordan In recent years, Jordan’s tourism industry has grown steadily to become one of the most important sectors for the country’s employment and GDP. Jordan’s World Heritage Sites, including Petra and Wadi…

“Sustainability at the Margins” in Jordan – Notes from an Ecologist

Jul 14, 2020 Posted in Insights Tagged with FDS

by Marjolein Schat, Ph.D. As an ecologist who teaches a wide array of biology and environmental science courses, I was intrigued by the announcement for “Jordan: Sustainability at the Margins,” an ACOR-CAORC faculty development seminar. CAORC’s summary about the importance of bringing a global perspective to the classroom resonated with me, the topic sounded like…

Nabataeans on the Shores of the Dead Sea

Jun 22, 2020 Posted in Insights, Lecture, VideoLectures Tagged with dead sea, excavation, History, lecture, lecture recording, nabataean, nabatean culture, preservation, public lecture, south, southern jordan

ACOR Proudly Presents:“Nabataeans on the Shores of the Dead Sea”An ACOR Public Lecture by Dr. Konstantinos D. Politis on March 10, 2020 About the Lecture: Ancient sites that have recently come to light on the Dead Sea littoral reveal what life was like for the average Nabataean some two thousand years ago. Ancient texts also…

The Movement to Abolish Article 308: A Brief Reflection on Women’s Activism in Amman, Jordan

Jun 15, 2020 Posted in Insights

by Josephine Chaet, ACOR-CAORC Pre-Doctoral Fellow 2019 Since returning to my home institution in 2019, following almost two years of intermittent fieldwork in Jordan, I have slowly begun the process of analyzing the ethnographic data collected over sixteen months of research with three non-governmental women’s organizations located in the urban core of Amman. This endeavor…

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