ITP Conference Grant awarded to Hadeer Ahmed Mohamed Belal (Egypt, ITP Fellow 2013)

Written by Claire Messenger, Manager, International Training Programme

We are delighted to announce that we have been able to carry-over an ITP Conference Grant 2022 to 2023 to support Hadeer Ahmed Mohamed Belal (Egypt, ITP Fellow 2013) to attend the CRE Conference – Current Research in Egyptology – 2023 at the Universität Basel, Basel, Switzerland from 10-14 September 2023.

This grant was awarded to Hadeer in 2022 but unfortunately, she was not able to attend the conference.  Funds have allowed us to carry over the support, so Hadeer, who is currently Registrar at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, can use these funds in 2023.

At the conference, Hadeer has been asked to speak and will present a paper on Repatriated Treasures: The Collection at the Egyptian Museum, Cairo.

Since moving to the Egyptian Museum, as member of the Registration and Documentation collection management database department in May 2022, Hadeer has started to register and document all the repatriated objects in storage at the Egyptian Museum.  These repatriated objects have been arriving at the Museum’s stores since 2007 and this continues today.  The collections are preserved in the storage of the EMC but information about the situation of confiscation, even looting, theft or illegal excavation can be lacking.  At the beginning of 2022 the database department started to register these collections with the storage department to enroll them as a part of the EMC permanent collection. Here, they face challenges as a registration team to identify the object; whether it is original or not, it’s dating, provenance and publications history. These are the many questions Hadeer and the team have to answer before registering the objects.

Hadeer also hopes that her participation in the CRE 2023 will add to her professional career and academic development.  The Current Research in Egyptology is a great gathering to meet and discuss issues in Egyptology and Museums with scholars around the world. It is also an opportunity to extend and improve her professional networks.

Since her participation on the ITP Annual Programme 2013, Hadeer has remained an active member of the ITP global network.

In November 2015 Hadeer attended the ITP Mumbai Workshop Creating Museums of World Stories. The workshop was held at CSMVS and was attended by many ITP fellows from different years and countries, UK partners and British Museum Colleagues.

In 2016 Hadeer attended the Leicester University Museum Studies Conference with the ITP team and fellows from China, Turkey and Uganda. The group gave a workshop at the conference on Shared Histories and Global Voices.

In 2017 Nelson Abiti (Uganda, ITP 2013) successfully applied for an ITP collaborative award entitled The Road to Reconciliation. As a project partner Hadeer contributed to the final products of educational resources, a touring exhibition and an updated permanent display. Hadeer visited Uganda as part of the ITP collaborative award project and took part in a panel discussion on cultural heritage in Uganda.

In October 2018 Hadeer attended the ITP+ Course on Museum Interpretation in Aswan. Fellows and colleagues from Egypt, Sudan and around the world listened to interpretation case studies, participated in project work, sessions on label & panel writing and panel discussions on audience surveys and evaluations. The course was hosted by the Nubia Museum.

We are delighted to be able to support Hadeer to attend and speak at the conference in Basel and look forward to her sharing her experience with the wider ITP network.