Welcome to the Autumn 2021 issue of Contemporary Levant. In this very brief editorial note, I’d first like to extend my thanks to the many peer reviewers and production staff who have made it possible to publish the articles in this journal, and to the scholars who have submitted their work and reviewed their colleagues’ books. No-one has gone untouched by the ongoing pandemic and more than ever academic writing and publishing is dependent upon incredible levels of commitment and generosity from a wide range of people.
This issue spans a wide range of topics. First up we have this year’s winner of the Contemporary Levant prize, ‘Developing Petra: UNESCO, the World Bank, and America in the desert,’ by Lynn Meskell and Christina Luke. In a similar tradition to our 2019 winner, ‘Prejudice, military intelligence, and neoliberalism: examining the local within archaeology and heritage practices in Jordan’ by Shatha Abu-Khafajah and Riham Miqdadi, it offers a trenchant critique of practices and priorities within the preservation of Levantine cultural heritage. It also shows the value of taking a long historical view of such phenomena in order to understand how they are entangled in broader political, economic and security concerns. The Contemporary Levant prize is awarded annually and submissions for 2022 will open around April next year.
Alongside this are the remaining two articles from the extended special edition which began with the spring 2021 issue of Contemporary Levant, ‘Eastern Christianity in Syria and Palestine and European cultural diplomacy (1860-1948),’ edited by Karène Sanchez Summerer and Konstantinos Papastathis of Leiden University’s Crossroads project. The eminent historian of the Armenian genocide Raymond Kevorkian brings us new insights and images from the experiences of Armenian refugees in Jerusalem after World War One, whilst Maria Litina delves into the controversial events surrounding the election of Patriarch Cyril II in the mid-nineteenth century and what they tell us about the local and international dynamics surrounding Orthodox Christianity at the time.
Meanwhile in ‘Thirst revolution: practices of contestation and mobilisation in rural Egypt,’ Saker El Nour, Heather Elaydi and Hussam Hussein consider what studying mobilisations around the right to water – whether for irrigation or to drink – add to our understanding of grassroots politics in contemporary Egypt. It is also a valuable contribution to the literature on water protests and resources in the region, which with the growing global environmental crisis will only become more significant.
Finally, we're grateful to Yasmine Shamma, Karim Pourhamzavi, Claudia Liebelt and Claire Launchbury, whose reviews introduce us to a fascinating range of books addressing historical and cultural issues from across the wider Levant region. We'll be seeking to expand Contemporary Levant's network of book reviewers in the coming months, so do get in touch if you are interested.