Former Iraqi National Museum Director to Speak at Hamline

Hamline University’s Anthropology Department, in collaboration with The Maya Society of Minnesota, the American Committee of the Blue Shield, Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi L.L.P. and the University of Minnesota’s Weisman Art Museum, will host two presentations by Dr. Donny George Youkhanna, former director general of the Iraqi National Museum.  

Youkhanna is also the former president of the Iraq State Board of Antiquities and Heritage. He was instrumental in the recovery of thousands of objects looted from the Iraqi National Museum during the onset of the war in Iraq. He is now a visiting professor at Stony Brook University in New York.

Youkhanna will deliver two lectures in Minnesota. The first, “Mesopotamia: The Beginning of Civilization,” will focus on the archaeology and cultural history of Iraq. It will take place on Wednesday, November 12 from 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. in Sundin Music Hall, located at 1531 Hewitt Avenue on Hamline University’s Saint Paul campus. This event is free and open to the public.

The second lecture, “Looting of the Iraq Museum: The Loss of a Nation’s Memory,” will focus on the status of the Iraqi museum, the restitution of antiquities from other countries, and the ongoing looting of Iraq’s archaeological sites. A panel discussion will follow. This event will also take place on Wednesday, November 12. It will be held from 6:00-8:30 p.m. at the Weisman Art Museum, located at 333 East River Road on the University of Minnesota’s Minneapolis campus. This event is free, but space is limited.  

For more information about the events, contact Phyllis Messenger with the Maya Society of Minnesota at 952-475-9149.