(حماية التراث: من الآثار إلى البيئة (الموسم الثقافي العربي

Hala Barakat

Hala N. Barakat is an archaeobotanist. With a Ph.D. in Paleoecology from the University of Aix-Marseille III, France. She worked as a lecturer at Cairo University from 1995-2000 and as deputy director at the Center for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage (CULTNAT) affiliated with the Library of Alexandria (2000-2012). In January 2013, she joined the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) as a part-time researcher on the issues of the “Right to Food” and “Food Sovereignty” in Egypt. She is also a founding member and former president of Nature Conservation Egypt (NCE), a nonprofit organization active in conserving endangered species and habitats.

Hala recently finished a book entitled “Food in ancient Egypt” to be published in 2022 by AUC press.

She is a free lance consultant on the environment, heritage and history of plants in Egypt.

In 2022, she undertook her first consultancy on Egyptian food heritage for a restaurant and designed an ancient Egyptian garden for a resort in Marsa Alam.

May Al-Ibrashy

May al-Ibrashy is the founder and chair of Megawra-Built Environment Collective and coordinator of the Athar Lina Initiative. This participatory initiative conserves the heritage of al-Khalifa in Historic Cairo and conceives it as a driver for community development. An architectural engineer with 30 years of field experience in conservation and heritage management and a Ph.D. in archaeology from the University of London, she is an honorary Professor of Practice at the School of Oriental and African Studies, the University of London and the recipient of the Prince Claus Impact Award.

Monica Hanna

Dr. Monica Hanna is an international figure in the world of Archaeology. She did her undergraduate studies in Egyptology and Archaeological Chemistry at the American University of Cairo (AUC) in 2004. Hanna then pursued her MA at AUC as well. She later joined the University of Pisa, Italy, to complete her doctorate in archaeology entitled ‘Problems of Preservation of Mural Paintings in the Theban Necropolis: A Pilot Study on the Theban Tomb 14 using 3D Scanning Techniques.

From July 2011 until November 2012, Monica was a post-doctoral fellow in the Topoi Cluster of Excellence in the Department of Egyptology and North African Studies at Humboldt University.

Currently, Hanna is an associate professor and the acting dean of the College of Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, Arab Academy for Science and Technology and Maritime Transport (AASTMT) in Aswan, Egypt, where she has founded a program specialized in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage with eight departments for the BA level.

Her research focuses on space, knowledge and identity of archaeological sites, with a particular interest in different meanings and reflections of heritage on the identity of areas and communities. She has worked on a project in al-Qurna, Luxor, on the other narratives of the multiple worlds of the Theban Necropolis and its meanings to the various stakeholders.

Post the year 2011, Hanna has been working with the media and a group of volunteers to bring awareness to the plight of various archaeological sites in Egypt, including Dahshur, Abu Sir el-Maleq and Ancient Heliopolis. She courageously spoke and defended the heritage of Egypt and its protection.

Hanna has been granted numerous awards, including the SAFE beacon award for 2014, for her efforts in salvaging antiquities under conflict and was named by UNESCO the Monuments Woman of 2014. She has also received ‘Distinguished AUC Alumna’ two times, once in Cairo in 2014 and the other in New York in 2015. Her current research focuses on decolonizing archaeology, repatriation, and restitution, amongst methods for accessibility for the broader public to archaeology and heritage, with a particular interest in digital humanities.

In 2020, she was chosen from the 50 most influential women in Egypt under the auspices of the Egyptian Prime Minister.

In 2020, she was awarded a research grant as part of Action for Restitution in Africa in collaboration with the University of Oxford.