Zainab Bahrani

On Monday, January 27, and Monday, February 3, Zainab Bahrani, professor of art history and archaeology, will discuss the history and culture of Iraq in a lecture series entitled "From Babylon to Baghdad: The Cultural Heritage of Iraq."

Bahrani will take her audience back to the place where history began. In "The Art of Civilization: Mesopotamia and the Origins of World History," (January 27) she explores the contributions of the Sumerians, Babylonians and Assyrians. The February 3 lecture, "Gate of the Gods to the City of Peace: Babylonian Heritage and Islamic Iraq," details the major monuments of later antiquity and Islamic Iraq. Both talks question the issue of world cultural heritage, Mesopotamia's identity as the cradle of civilization and its relationship to the Iraq we know today.

Lectures begin at 7:00 p.m. in 501 Schermerhorn Hall. The events are sponsored by the Department of Art History and Archaeology, and are free and open to the public.