In this episode, Ipek Cem Taha, the founding director of Columbia Global Center Istanbul, and Zainab Bahrani, the Edith Porada professor of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University, talk about how the idea of the podcast was sparked by a conversation between them in the early days of the Covid pandemic in March 2020. 

Zainab Bahrani is the Edith Porada Professor of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University. She specializes in Ancient Western Asian and East Mediterranean art and archaeology as well as art theory, historiography, and philosophies of representation. In addition to these subjects, professor Bahrani has also written on the destruction of Iraqi cultural heritage and was a Senior Advisor to Iraq’s Ministry of Culture in 2004. Monument preservation and conservation is also a focus of her work and she currently directs the survey project Mapping Mesopotamian Monuments.

Ipek Cem Taha holds an MBA from Columbia Graduate School of Business and an MIA from the School of International and Public Affairs. Her career comprises a wide range of civic responsibilities and participation. She has spearheaded the establishment of many NGOs in Turkey such as URAK (International Competitiveness Research Institute), KAGIDER (Women Entrepreneurs Association) and SAHA to support contemporary art projects in Turkey. She is the co-founder of Cem Papandreou Peace Award initiated in 2016 to promote significant contributions to local and international peace, in honor of the pioneers of the Greek - Turkish rapprochement. Cem Taha has also worked in the mainstream media as a columnist in many Turkish newspapers and has produced ‘Global Leaders,’ on NTV between 2005-2010 where she interviewed people of international renown. Cem Taha is also the founding director of the Columbia Global Center in Istanbul since 2011. 

Music:

Badiaa Bouhrizi and Blundetto - Mana'a (remix)

ISRC: DE-Q12-14-22803

Taken from Sawtuha (Arabic for her voice). Copyright Jakarta Records and Heavenly Sweetness/Pura Vida Sounds, 2014.

Used with arrangement and permission from rights holders. 

Badiaa Bouhrizi, also known by her stage name Neysatu, is a singer-songwriter and composer from the alternative music scene in Tunisia. She began her performing career at age seven as a soloist in a local choir, subsequently joining the Tahar Haddad choir, which performs classical styles of Arabic music such as muwashshahat and ma’luf. Later she moved to Paris to study musicology. Eventually, she began composing in a minimalist style influenced by the Amazigh Berber music of northwest Tunisia while singing in fuṣḥá (Modern Standard Arabic). Her style is self-described as a “new sound of Northern Africa,” a mixture of local traditions, classical Arabic music, jazz, funk, neo-soul, electronica, and reggae. She has collaborated with musicians of many different nationalities and genres, including the London-based Afrobeat fusion group Awalé. 

As well as being a program planner on Radio Nova, where he does his best to give airtime to others’ music, Max Guiget is also out on his own under the pseudonym Blundetto, immersed in records, instruments and machines. Having graduated in the space of two albums from a promising tinkerer to a recognised artist, Blundetto hasn’t changed a thing about his way of working. Constantly collaborating with musicians from a variety of genres, he has created an organic mix of contemporary Western music, soulful reggae, Latin and hip hop vibes, ethio jazz and Arabic music to name a few.  

Audio post-production: Aref Heidar (Ceé)

Image: Ishtar Gate. VA Bab 01408-VA, VA Bab 01456, VA Bab 07661: © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin-Vorderasiatisches Museum, Foto: Olaf M. Teßmer