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“Opening the Doors” One Year Later: Reflections on the Iraq War and the Middle East Studies Community1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2016

Keith Watenpaugh
Keith Watenpaugh*
Affiliation:
LeMoyne College
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Extract

Word began to trickle out of Baghdad in mid-April 2003 that the Iraqi National Library and Archives and the library of the Ministry of Holy Endowments and Religious Affairs (al-Awqaf) had been burned and looted during the paroxysm of aggravated mayhem that followed the collapse of the Baathist regime. Soon, it became clear that in addition to the damage to those libraries, universities, research centers and private institutions had also been harmed or destroyed, and that additional elements of Iraq's rich cultural heritage in the form of historic buildings, musical archives and contemporary art were at risk. These were moments of deep and profound sadness that ultimately gave way to conversations about ways to work to assess, rebuild and restore what had been lost.

Type
Essays
Information
Review of Middle East Studies , Volume 38 , Issue 1 , June 2004 , pp. 16 - 23
Copyright
Copyright © Middle East Studies Association of North America 2004

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References

2 Watenpaugh, Keith, Méténier, Edouard, Hanssen, Jens and Fattah, Hala “Opening the Doors: Intellectual Life and Academic Conditions in Post-War Baghdad,” http://www.h-net.org/about/press/opening doors/.Google Scholar

3 “Secretary of State Colin L. Powell at Meeting of First Iraqi Fulbright Students,” http://www.cpa-iraq.org/transcripts/20040202_Powell_fulbright.html.

4 Edward, Said, “A Window on the World,” The Guardian (London), August 23, 2003. Adapted from the 2004 UK edition of Orientalism.Google Scholar

5 Statement made during the “Rebuild Iraq Conference,” December 4, 2003. “The Baghdad Museum Project,” http://www.baghdadmuseum.org/irr01.htm.

6 https://listhost.uchicago.edu/pipermail/iraqcrisis/2004-May/000677.html.