Over the years, I have found myself developing and pursuing numerous academic interests which have enriched me personally and assisted me in enhancing my research agenda as well as offering opportunities for student participation and involvement.

Currently, my main research interests are focused on areas of socio-cultural activity within the Middle East with particular reference to tangible and intangible cultural heritage and the role it plays in shaping and building resilience in national identity.

Traditionally, military conflicts and hybrid wars are seen as a primary cause for looting and trafficking in cultural heritage. The threat to cultural heritage during such conflicts is through both military action and deliberate destruction as well as looting and trafficking of archaeological materials.  Looting and trafficking of antiquities has been well documented in recent years with objects from conflict zones being sold openly on international markets.

From the beginning of the conflict in Syria, I have been involved the documentation of damage to Syria’s cultural heritage and the role of non-state actors working with local communities in protecting and preserving it. In 2013, I set up the Heritage Protection Initiative (HPI) with support from the Prince Claus Fund and the American School of Oriental Research (ASOR). Working with ASOR, I was able to collect verified documentation on deliberate acts of cultural destruction for human rights groups, and advocate for heritage protection among the international community. 

However, a new and more sinister threat soon emerged to facilitate the looting and trafficking of antiquities. This threat comes from the growing popularity of social media platforms such as Facebook. Social media has changed the way in which we interact with each other providing a means for the global dissemination of ideas and information. In the process, however, it has unwittingly expanded the communication abilities of transnational criminal networks the world over. The same features that allow us to share photos and videos about ourselves and communicate with others are also the ideal toolkit for traffickers to buy and sell illicit materials including antiquities from some of the world’s most conflict-ridden nations.

The 2011 Arab Spring served as a catalyst for Facebook’s growth across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The platform’s role in turning local protests into a viral global phenomenon generated widespread popularity across the region for Facebook. In the years since, terrorists and transnational criminals have capitalized on the reach of social media platforms like Facebook and the gaps in online security and content moderation. The result has led to sprawling digital black markets on Facebook trading everything from drugs and human remains to wildlife and antiquities

Today, Facebook offers a veritable digital toolbox for traffickers to utilize including photo and video uploads, live streaming, disappearing ‘Stories,’ payment mechanisms, and encrypted messaging. Facebook is the perfect platform for a one-stop-shop black market. This, in turn, provides opportunities for violent extremist organizations and criminal groups to operate in plain sight with little recourse. 

The types of cultural property illegally traded on Facebook include looted artifacts from conflict and non-conflict zones, religious relics, historic pieces, and even artifacts in situ. Authorities in countries affected by the surge of the illicit Facebook trade in antiquities must now contend with a black market on a digital platform in addition to on-the-ground smuggling networks.

For a trade that can straddle the legal and illegal realm, it is difficult to ascertain the amount of looted cultural property that is currently leaving the MENA region in high volumes. There are few statistics on the trade in illicit antiquities and until recently the mechanisms of how this online trade through social media platforms is conducted were poorly understood.

This is where our research comes in. Since 2014, my colleague Katie Paul and I have been involved in researching and identifying key black market and smuggling networks that have emerged in recent years. In 2018 we established the Antiquities Trafficking and Heritage Anthropology Research (ATHAR) Project. ATHAR is a 501(c)3 registered non-profit that documents antiquities trafficked on social media in the MENA region, focusing specifically on Facebook. Through that documentation, ATHAR Project researches’ regional trends in transnational trafficking, terrorism financing, and organized crime. In June 2019, the ATHAR Project released a 90-page report illustrating how social media has created opportunities for violent extremist organizations and criminal groups to operate in plain sight with little recourse. Our findings were widely reported on major news media outlets including the BBC, CNN, NPR, The Guardian newspaper, the New York Times to name a few. Then in June 2020, one year after ATHAR’s 2019 report, Facebook finally acknowledged its culpability in the issue, and following a series of consultative meetings with us announced its first-ever policy banning the sale in historical artifacts on its platform. For further information see Antiquities Trafficking and Heritage Anthropology Research (ATHAR) Project.

We are currently tracking and monitoring over 373 groups on Facebook with tens of thousands of members, which are involved in sale and trafficking of looted antiquities. This includes the recording of nearly 9000 posts and capturing of over ten thousand images. 

To organize and store this information in searchable format we have secured a grant from the Qatar National Library (QNL) to develop a stand-alone database that will ensure the information collected is protected and easier to search. Additionally, the QNL grant will provide funding to develop automated scraping tools for gathering data from social media platforms and the hiring of research assistants. With these resources the project team will continue to train heritage experts and develop training tools so that our methodology can be applied by anyone seeking to monitor the illicit trade on Facebook or other platforms. We are also partnered with Himaya, a Qatar National Library project, for the support of efforts to counter the trafficking and illegal circulation of the documentary heritage, and the British Museum with whom we have a data sharing agreement.

Through this ongoing research, I plan to continue the study of shifting patterns of trafficking networks by understanding why and how such networks are disrupted and how new ones emerge. Equally important, is the long-term impact of such a trade and the damage it does to local communities. Such damage weakens their resilience to withstand traumatic effects of civil wars, sectarian and ethnic conflicts and other major causes of stress to the social fabric of societies in the region as a whole. 

Another important and emerging aspect of this research is the role of armed nonstate actors and militant groups including terrorist designated organizations such as ISIS (Daish). These groups not only thrive by using social media platforms including Facebook for promoting themselves and their activities but are rapidly becoming the main beneficiaries of the illicit trafficking of materials including looted antiquities. There is emerging evidence from our research that such groups are also developing more novel ways of monetizing this looting and trafficking through YouTube and TikTok. By staging looting events, these traffickers (many with connections to militant extremist groups) can generate millions of followers through staging looting videos that they then profit from each view. One such example of this kind of activity, is an individual with ties to extremists who currently has 9.6 million followers on TikTok and over 49.5 million views generating significant income for him and his group. 

Looking to the future, I seek to develop my ongoing research further into the role of cultural heritage in post conflict stabilization and reconciliation. I intend to do this by analysing how cultural heritage shapes national identity and builds resilience within it. In this context, I will be examining how museums, ancient sites, and monuments can provide legitimizing spaces in which these different identities can be both recognized and shared. They can become places in which warring parties in conflict riven states such as Syria, Yemen and Libya can be taught to reconnect with these ‘symbols’ through a ritual of genuine shared citizenship to help create a shared sense of identity in the nation-state. Museums, ancient sites and monuments effectively become the vehicle for identity creation, community outreach and cohesion. 

Working at Qatar University in the Gulf Studies centre, I hope to develop my research through an interdisciplinary approach by engaging with colleagues in other fields/departments including media, security, conflict management, politics, and sociology. This in turn will enrich my curricula and assist me in designing courses that are both academically strong and appealing to students. I will also be able to involve students in my research and assist them in developing their own lines of investigation in their graduate work.