Professional Education for Afghan Cultural Heritage Faculty at the University of Arizona

By: Suzanne E. Bott, R. Brooks Jeffery, Atifa Rawan, and Nancy Odegaard

Archaeologists estimate there are more than 5000 archaeological sites in Afghanistan, but not all have been identified. And after three decades of war and neglect, Afghan sites and artifacts are in serious need of trained staff, proper site management, security, funding, national and international commitment, and development of advocacy and awareness programs.

The Afghan Cultural Heritage Conservation Higher Education project is a comprehensive long-term education project to build capacity of Afghan educators toward protecting and preserving the country’s cultural heritage. The goal is to develop a long-term professional education program at Kabul University that can be applied to other higher education institutions throughout the country and across the world.

The pilot phase was based at the University of Arizona during the fall of 2013. It laid the foundation for a multi-agency and international partnership, implemented the first phase of educational programs with a three-person faculty cohort from Kabul University, and provided feedback for future phases and funding opportunities with Kabul University and other institutions. Outcomes included a series of curricular outlines, bibliographic references, and web-based information created for educational use at Kabul University and other cultural heritage higher education programs.

Program Background

The U.S. Department of State Cultural Heritage Center, in collaboration with the National Park Service Archeology Program (NPS), initiated a program in 2007 to train Afghan cultural heritage site managers from the Afghan Ministry of Information and Culture, the country’s governmental agency overseeing heritage conservation. In 2007 and 2008, the NPS organized three-month long training sessions for three trainees each year and participants traveled to more than a dozen NPS units in Maryland, Virginia, New Mexico, California, and Arizona. While those programs were enriching experiences, the participants did not receive training in the skills needed to transfer that knowledge to colleagues on a sustainable basis.

Evaluations from those sessions led to a shift in focus from Afghan heritage site managers, whose true impact may be short-term, to Afghan university faculty. As the principal academic institution in the previous phases of the program, the University of Arizona (UA) was selected to develop a comprehensive, multi-year proposal for the next phase. The purpose of the proposal was to create an incremental, long-term program to build educational institutional capacity in Afghanistan to protect and preserve its cultural heritage for future generations.

The primary goal of the long-term project was to create a productive and sustained partnership between the UA and Kabul University (KU) Department of Anthropology & Archaeology for a professional education program in heritage conservation. Specifically, the project would provide selected Kabul University faculty with specialized education in heritage conservation theory, practice, and curriculum development, in order to establish a heritage conservation program at KU and educate the next generation of Afghan cultural resource site managers, conservators, and policy-makers.

A subsequent goal was to build institutional capacity by developing a broad consortium of Afghan cultural heritage institutions aimed toward creating an enduring program of resource protection and economic development, such as heritage tourism, as national priorities in 21st century Afghanistan. As an initial step, the program proposed a collaborative partnership between the Afghan Ministry of Higher Education, where Kabul University resides, and the Afghan Ministry of Information and Culture Departments of Historical Monuments and Archaeology, whose mandate includes protection of Afghanistan’s cultural heritage.

Funding allowed for creation of a comprehensive annotated bibliography of heritage conservation curriculum materials for use by Afghan faculty members and a one-year pilot training phase at the University of Arizona. Additional funding is currently being provided for subsequent phases to support continued program development for post-secondary education, specialized training materials, online training, internships, or other collaborative programming.

Project description

The pilot-phase project was designed to create a productive partnership between the UA Heritage Conservation Program and KU Department of Anthropology and Archaeology and provide three KU junior faculty with study at the UA for three months. Based on international heritage conservation standards and feedback from previous Afghan cultural resource site managers, eight training content areas were identified including:

• Overview of cultural heritage management strategies
• documentation and site assessment
• artifact care: from excavation to museum
• architectural documentation and preservation
• public education
• site management
• disaster preparedness, management, and recovery
• legal framework of heritage conservation theory and practice
• cultural resource management of movable tangible heritage: conservation methods objects handling, collections management, storage, and archiving
• anthropology and ethnography, especially of the Americas
• structures and architectural conservation
• cultural landscapes and land planning

Skill areas were identified and specifically addressed:

• English language training
• communication skills and presentation graphics
• computer aided drafting and design
• library research methods: government documents, report writing, digital media and database research

Activities and modes included classroom instruction, scenario-based discussion, lab-based testing, site visits, and hands-on workshops. An important component included information-sharing between hosts and visitors in as many ways as possible. Presentations were made to the Center for Middle Eastern Studies colloquium at UA, the United Nations Association of Southern Arizona, the Getty Conservation Institute, and during a special UA symposium to address the future of Cultural Heritage in Afghanistan. Newspaper and television interviews were part of a broad public outreach effort.

Outcomes

Long-term residential programs are extremely valuable in providing time for learning, building relationships, and developing skills proficiency. Field trips and hands-on opportunities to participate in preservation techniques such as adobe brick making and basket making are essential to learning. The skills and confidence levels of the KU faculty were significantly enhanced by the opportunity to study with peer faculty and conservation specialists in a hands-on academic and field-based setting.

Challenges include adaption to significant cultural differences, languages, values, teaching methods, and pedagogy. In particular, cultural adaptability and language skills are essential to success of participants. Extensive screening and pre-testing of applicants is essential, along with vetting of references. If participants are able to speak English at a reasonable level, translators are not necessary. In countries where security is a serious impediment to in-country education, short courses of two to three weeks in a more secure neighboring country, in this case, Turkey or the Gulf States, may be an important option. Program sustainability requires continued recruitment of Afghan students and systematic evaluation.

Partnerships with organizations working in-country also provide the opportunity to multiply the benefits of the educational program. In this case, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the University of Chicago Oriental Institute, and the Délégation Archaéologique Francaise in Afghanistan (DAFA) and other international programs can provide partnerships and follow-up activities for scholars. Information for institutional capacity building can be learned at the University of Arizona, but long-term goals for partnerships should ideally be taught at Kabul University and other Afghan universities by trained Afghan academics. While this type of institutional capacity building was based at Kabul University, a longer-term goal of the project will be to build a consortium of institutions working in partnership to protect Afghanistan’s cultural heritage. New methods of approaching cross-cultural problems in a postwar environment, including identifying international sources of funding, technical assistance, online training, and research methods are essential.

Institutional capacity building must also include investments in university infrastructure including labs, classrooms, library, and storage facilities, best done in partnership between educational and cultural institutions, governmental and non-governmental organizations, and Afghan and international agencies.

As the government evolves, new opportunities for preservation education and practice will develop and this early preparation will help secure the future of Afghanistan’s rich heritage.

Suzanne E. Bott, PhD, is Director of the Afghan Cultural Heritage Conservation Higher Education Project at the Drachman Institute, College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture of the University of Arizona. R. Brooks Jeffery is Director of the Drachman Institute. Atifa Rawan is Librarian Emeritus at the University of Arizona. Nancy Odegaard, PhD, is Conservator and Head of the Preservation Division at the Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona.

For Further Reading

Professors from Afghanistan Visit UA to Learn Historic Preservation

http://capla.arizona.edu/news/professors-afghanistan-visit-ua-learn-historic