Landscape Transformations & Heritage Discourses in the Sirwan (Iraq) and Halwan Valleys (Iran)

Although archaeologists increasingly emphasise public engagement, communities' perceptions of the archaeological landscapes often poorly studied in the Middle East.

My project aims to develop a bottom-up understanding of how communities in the Kurdish regions of Iran and Iraq perceive changes of the landscape features and, will explore how evidence of past human-environment interactions can be harnessed to discuss and address pressing local environmental issues.

In parallel, it will analysenarratives oflandscape change created through archaeological remote sensing projects, which shape the regions' authorised heritage discourses.

My research will co-develop mechanisms with local communities to make archaeological knowledge accessible and ultimately beneficial to them.