Heritage in West Asia

The projects featured here are situated within the geographical expanse broadly recognised as the Iranian Plateau, encompassing parts of West and Central Asia. 

To date, these initiatives are focused particularly in West Asia. The term "West Asia" is employed strategically to minimize the value-laden connotations often associated with labels like the Middle East or Persianate. This designation facilitates a nuanced acknowledgment of the historical and contemporary influences exerted by Turkic, Persian, Arabic, and Russian (European) civilizations on the region’s cultural dynamics. 

These projects examine historical imaginations in this region and investigate how these imaginations are used to reshape regional and sub-regional identities at various scales. These  identities frequently transcend nation-state boundaries and reflect a complex interplay of cultural and historical legacies.  

In this geographical context, there are a number of questions that are worth probing. They include:

• How is the past used in justifying the present national and regional relationships? 

• In what ways do these justifications manifest in political, territorial, or cultural terms?

• How does contemporary culture shape and get shaped by historical conceptions, and how are these conceptions realised through both official and unofficial heritage?

• What are the trans-border forms of imagining the past, and how does the existence of such phenomena influence identity formations?

• In what ways are borders conceptualised and re-conceptualised in light of historical narratives?

• What conceptual frameworks and methodologies are most effective for analysing these relationships with the past in contemporary contexts?