Hardly any city has experienced such massive destruction in recent times as Mosul, whose urban landscape was almost completely wiped out between 2014 and 2017.

In February 2023, the network RESI (Rethink Education & Science in Iraq) invited Isabel Toral and Marwa M. Ahmed (both experts in Arabic Studies from Freie Universität Berlin) as well as Konstantin M. Klein (History, University of Amsterdam) to Mosul to teach a group of Iraqi master's students during the student conference RESI 2023.

The course quickly evolved into a deeply moving exploration of questions surrounding the destruction and reconstruction of urban landscapes, social solidarity, and cultural memory. The highly motivated young Iraqi students developed during the discussions the idea of a digital map which was to preserve the memories of "their" Mosul.

The pilot project "MEMORY SPACES: Mapping Oral History in Mosul" (MESMOM) has now been approved by the Gerda Henkel Foundation. We are very proud of our group and delighted to have received funding to implement this exciting project in close cooperation with RESI, the University of Mosul, and other project partners in Iraq.

Project directed by: Prof. Dr. Konstantin M. Klein and Prof. Dr. Isabel Toral

Contact: isabel.toral@fu-berlin.de