The end of an era: farewell to the Nahrein Network

Dear members and supporters of the Nahrein Network,

After eight wonderful years, it is finally time to say farewell to the Nahrein Network, which shuts down on 31 August. Since I announced our closure in February, and paid tribute to everyone who has worked with us, we have been overwhelmed with messages of appreciation, as well as sadness. Our Padlet tribute wall is still open, if you wish to contribute your thoughts.

Meanwhile, we have been hard at work to wrap up the Network’s legacy.

• Most of our funded research projects have completed their work — see the list below — and last few will follow over the next few months.
  • The Organisation for the Victims of Camp Speicher, The Memorialisation of Troubled Pasts
  • Dr Sura Al-Maiyah and Prof. Hamed Samir, Climate Change, Old Basra Traditional Architecture
  • Prof. Dilshad Omar, The Impacts of the Displacement of Kirkuk Citadel’s Residents
  • Dr Mustafa Mehsen Aljubory, Minorities in Kirkuk
  • Dr Amal Fadhil Khangar and Sonia Ibrahim, Socio-Cultural Layers of Baghdad
  • Dr Hawraman Karim, How to Deal with Halabja Memorial Sites
• The Forgotten City of Kish project, which I lead with Nadia, launched a preliminary version of its English-Arabic website in July, with the final version coming by the end of September, and related academic publications due out in 2026 with Cambridge University Press.
• Mehiyar’s book on the politics of social heritage in Iraq is under contract with Bloomsbury Academic, and should also be out next year.
• The final cohort of six Visiting Scholars will be arriving in the UK this autumn, supported, as ever, by our wonderful partners at The British Institute for the Study of Iraq. (I’ll say more about BISI below.)
• Our third and final sponsored graduate student at UCL also arrives in London in September to start his MSc in Sustainable Cultural Heritage. We wish all three of our UCL graduate students every success this coming academic year..
• We held a very moving Farewell Conference in Baghdad, back in April, and celebrated the completion of the AcademIQ research capacity building programme, led by Mehiyar, with a capstone webinar, Reflections and Perspectives: Strengthening Iraqi Higher Education Research  
• We conducted a thorough impact evaluation of the Network, including a Knowledge Sharing Webinar, which resulted in the release of our final Impact Evaluation Report. This report outlines our key accomplishments over the past eight years, evaluates the reasons for our relative successes and failures, showcases impactful case studies, and provides recommendations for funders, government agencies, and other partners interested in delivering similar initiatives.
• This report is hosted on our legacy website https://www.nahreinnetwork.org, together with many other resources, including a list of alternative funding sources. Our blog and social media accounts will remain open, but inactive. Our UCL email address will no longer be monitored. 
• Finally, I’m delighted to say that BISI has recently relaunched the Visiting Scholarships scheme — which they created in 2004 — with an annual application deadline of 1 December. Please encourage good folks to apply!

Over the coming months and years, I look forward to learning about the successes and achievements of the many Network members I have grown to admire and love over the past eight years, through our shared commitment to Iraq’s heritage and its future. I have learned so much from you all, in so many ways, and the spirit of the Nahrein Network will remain with me forever — as I hope it will for you too.

With my very warmest wishes, as always, 

Eleanor

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Professor Eleanor Robson, FBA, Director of the Nahrein Network, 2017-25