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 Discussions
on the politics of heritage and place become increasingly relevant
as globalization continues to spread, causing overdevelopment
and loss of territorial belonging and a cultural sense of place,
according to Rami Farouk Daher, assistant professor of architecture
at Jordan University of Science and Technology in Irbid, Jordan.
Daher explains, "Within my proposed critical definition
of heritage, the significance of the past and the relics are recalled
to play an active role in contemporary life where they are grounded
in the understanding of prevailing networks of relations and processes
of power, capital, legitimacy and identity construction, and governmentalization
of social life."
He joined the Center for Middle Eastern Studies (CMES) at UC
Berkeley because of the diversity and strength of its faculty
and scholars in areas related to heritage and globalization, colonial
and postcolonial theory, and Ottoman studies.
At Berkeley, he was able to attend graduate seminars, conferences,
and public lectures and engage in constructive debates with various
faculty and graduate students in architecture, anthropology, history
and other areas. These interactive debates and dialogues were
extremely productive for him and for his research, he notes.
While at UC Berkeley, Daher continued his research on the politics
of place and heritage definition, conservation, and management
within the geographic region of Bilad al Sham (Greater Syria)
during Ottoman and contemporary periods. He delivered a public
lecture at CMES about his research as part of the CMES Spring
Lecture Series. The lecture was entitled: "Domains of Heritage
in Official and Popular Discourses: Moments of Discontinuities
and Transformation in Greater Syria (Bilad al Sham)."
In addition to his research on the politics of heritage and place,
Daher was also involved in research related to the discourse of
tourism and presented several lectures to anthropology undergraduate
and graduate classes on this topic at UC Berkeley. His research
was entitled "The Chameleon Wars: Tourism Developments and
Faceless Government in the Context of the Third World."
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