A look back at the evening of thanks for Inalco's Chair in Afghan Arts and Heritage

On Thursday June 19, the Inalco Foundation organized an evening of thanks to mark the launch of the Arts and Heritage of Afghanistan Chair at Inalco.

In 2023, a Junior Professorship was awarded to Inalco by the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research. This success is the result of collaboration between Inalco and the Inalco Foundation.

After the fall of Kabul in August 2021, the Inalco Foundation launched the "Urgence Afghanistan"campaign, which made it possible to host two academics and five Afghan students at risk at Inalco, complementing the Collège de France's PAUSE program.

Reaffirming their commitment to the protection of people and knowledge, and in order to protect and perpetuate knowledge linked to Afghanistan's arts and heritage, Inalco and the Foundation have initiated work to prefigure the creation of a teaching and research chair, in close partnership with the Centre de Recherche sur le Monde iranien (CeRMI).

This chair aims to cover the earliest periods through to the contemporary era, and to contribute to the preservation of Afghanistan's artistic and heritage heritage, both tangible and intangible, and its dissemination to a student and academic audience. At the same time, it will encourage research to deepen knowledge of Afghanistan's scriptural, linguistic and contemporary art heritage.

The Inalco Foundation welcomes Dr. Arezou Azad who will hold this Junior Professorship awarded to Inalco by the Ministry of Higher Education and Research. She and would like to warmly thank all the partners who have been able to make this Chair possible:

• L'Académie des inscriptions et Belles-Lettres (AIBL)

• The Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN)

• The International Alliance for Heritage Protection in Conflict Zones (ALIPH)

• The Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)

• The Collège de France - PAUSE program

• The Délégation Archéologique Française en Afghanistan (DAFA)

• The Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme (FMSH)

• The Institut National du Patrimoine (INP)

• The Associazione Internazionale di Studi sul Mediterraneo e l'Oriente (ISMEO)

• The Ministère de l'Europe et des Affaires étrangères (MEAE)

• The Ministry of Higher Education and Research (MESR)

• The National Museum of Asian Arts - Guimet (MNAAG)

• The University of Naples "L'Orientale"

Find out more about this exceptional evening in photos!