MENACS blog

Carole Bennett and Feras Alkabani at the Silk Road event. Image credit: Violet Xanthe Bennett

The audience included distinguished writers and artists, patrons of the arts, diplomats, global CEOs and influential public figures. Image credit: Violet Xanthe Bennett

The Silk Road event attracted an audience of over 50 attendees from across the UK. Image credit: Violet Xanthe Bennett

Influential public figures, patrons of the arts, diplomats, global CEOs, distinguished writers and artists were among over 50 guests from all over the UK who visited Sussex on the evening of Friday 21 March, for an important ‘Silk Road’ event organised by the Middle East & North African Centre at Sussex (MENACS) - and hosted by its Co-Directors, Dr Feras Alkabani and Dr Jacob Norris.

Centre stage was local rural ceramicist, artist and Arabist, Carole Bennett, whose celebrated work focuses on the significance of the Silk Road as an ancient intercultural force whose artefacts reveal the true interconnectedness of many of the world’s great civilisations. Carole’s work, which includes an Arabic inscription of an early 17^th century sonnet onto six vases to celebrate the coronation of King Charles III, has been exhibited in major venues, including the Royal Academy of Arts and the Royal Pavilion. Several pieces were on display at the MENACS event and even available to be handled and studied in detail.

Dr Alkabani, MENACS Co-Director and Associate Professor of Comparative Literature, organised and chaired the event; Dr Alkabani discussed Carole’s work and recited an Arabic poem inscribed on one of her ceramic artworks. Nizar Qabbani’s poem is a declaration of love to the City of Damascus, where Syria’s national poet (a relation of Dr Alkabani) was born.

“Of course, I come from somewhere that was actually on the Silk Road”, commented Dr Alkabani. “Damascus was for centuries a major trading hub on the route between India, Persia and the cities of the Mediterranean and Europe. Some of our greatest monuments in the city are still the grand lodging houses and palaces built specially to accommodate the merchants and their caravans constantly travelling between East and West and intermingling their ideas, languages and cultures”.

Among the guests were British diplomat Nicholas Hopton who has been UK ambassador to Qatar, Iran and Libya and is now Director-General of the highly influential Middle East Association.

Also present were powerful CEOs: the global chair of a leading Risk Consulting firm, the founder of a data analytics group combatting online extremism and the CEO of Europe’s leading financial and political communications consultancy, as well as writers, award-winning journalists and senior government advisers (working on global energy transition and seconded to government think tanks), including Richard and Camilla Fenning and Neil Bennett.

“Many of our distinguished guests had never visited Falmer before,” explained Dr Alkabani, “so it was great to have this opportunity to tell them more about our University and answer their questions about us”.

Professor Ed Hughes, Professor of Composition in Music and Associate Dean for Global & Civic Engagement in the Faculty of Media, Arts and Humanities (MAH), who attended the event said: “this event was remarkable for its simultaneous 'exhibition' of objects. Instead of looking at objects in glass cases they were passed around the audience so we could appreciate their unique qualities through sight and touch. Incredibly these ranged from 12th century objects to pieces shipwrecked en route in the 18th century as well as to Carole's own stunning contemporary pieces glazed using ancient and modern firing techniques. A very special event bringing public and academics together to understand history and contemporary practices at the Faculty of Media, Arts and Humanities.” Read Prof Hughes’s full post.  

Dr Jacob Norris, MENACS Co-Director and Associate Professor of Middle East History, who co-organised the event, said: "Carole Bennett's knowledge and artistic flair provided a valuable insight into exploring the importance of the Silk Road as the great historic motor of globalisation".

Dr Niall Richardson, Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies, who attended the evening said: “Carole Bennett's charming talk demonstrated that critical analysis can be both informative and entertaining.  This lovely evening, celebrating the artistic inspiration of the Silk Road, showed how MENACS can unite academic disciplines and engage with the local community.”

Special thanks from the organisers go to Carmen Long, MAH Senior Operations Manager, for her hard work and support in making this event a success.

Photos courtesy of Violet Xanthe Bennett

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