Introduction to Islamic Landscape Archaeology (Webinar Initiative in Islamic Material Culture)

Natalie Kontny-Wendt Announcement
Subject Fields
Arabic History / Studies, Archaeology, Islamic History / Studies, Middle East History / Studies, Rural History / Studies

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATION - February 24, 2019

START OF THE WEBINAR - March 01, 2019

This 7-week webinar serves as an introduction to the methodologies of and project designs for Islamic landscape archaeology, using an ongoing field project in the Jerusalem region. In an innovative form of instruction, the course will be taught “from the field”, making use of taped broadcasts caught by bodycam during excavation and survey. The Medieval Jerusalem Hinterland Project is a multidisciplinary study of a Mamluk- and Ottoman-period farmstead in its terraced agricultural landscape.

The seven, two-hour meetings will be held once a week on various Fridays and Tuesdays, 3.00 to 5.00 Central European Time, and will take the form of viewing together broadcasts from the field on methodological issues related to landscape study, group discussion of those broadcasts, and group discussion of weekly readings. The broadcasts will be done primarily by Prof. Walker from the excavation site, with some guest tapings from archaeological survey of the agricultural terraces. Readings will be provided through a Dropbox link.

As the course is taught in English, all participants need to have a university-level command of spoken and written English. You need access to a reliable internet connection, a computer with webcam and microphone, and a Skype account.
Students from outside the University of Bonn have to apply with a short CV and a motivation letter in English. These will be emailed to Prof Bethany Walker at bwalker@uni-bonn.de by February 24, 2019. All applicants will have a brief Skype interview with the instructor to assess language proficiency, to test internet connections, and to review the use of software for logging into the course. These interviews will take place from the time of application until February 28, 2019.
Maximum enrollment: 15

This webinar is part of the "Webinar Initiative in Islamic Material Culture" jointly organized by the Universität Bonn (Bethany Walker), the Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität in Munich (Andreas Kaplony), NYU in New York (Abigail Krasner Balbale), and Universität Hamburg (Stefan Heidemann).