Collaborative Research: BCC: Developing a Research Community and Capacity for the Study of Cultural Heritage in Conflict

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Cultural heritage represents the physical manifestation of the culture and history of a social group or region and forms a major component of a people's sense of identity. Intentional destruction of cultural heritage during intrastate and ethnonationalist conflict is a well-known but rarely studied phenomenon often designed to erase the presence and history of a rival social or ethnic group. Recent cases of such destruction include the 2001 demolition of the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan, the 2006 bombing of the al-Askari Mosque in Iraq, and the 2012 destruction of Sufi shrines in Timbuktu, Mali. Despite considerable scholarship about purposeful violations of civil and political rights during conflict, there is a general tendency to view damage to cultural heritage as an unfortunate collateral outcome, rather than as a deliberate tactic. Consequently, few studies have examined how damage to cultural heritage sites is linked to ethnic or sectarian violence. Understanding how heritage destruction is implicated in the trajectory of these conflicts will enable U.S. policymakers and other humanitarian agencies working in conflict zones to design more effective interventions. This interdisciplinary project will convene a working group consisting of subject matter experts in archaeology, anthropology, and other allied fields; specialists in conflict studies from political science, geography, and sociology; and methodological experts from the data sciences. Over the course of a two-year period, this research community will develop common definitions and coding standards that will enable the future development of large-scale datasets documenting and quantifying the destruction of cultural heritage. In order to facilitate such a comparative study, there is a need to develop methods for integrating data about events, specific localities, historical trajectories, and social conditions that precipitate acute outbreaks of destructive violence, which includes damage to cultural heritage. The proposed coding standards will be evaluated with a proof-of-concept case study based upon the current conflict in Syria. The completion of this test dataset will establish best practices in coding cultural heritage destruction information as well as a case study on the relationship between sectarian violence and cultural heritage destruction. Findings of the study, as well as an assessment of the validity and reliability of the coding strategy will be made available through a web portal.