Why do armed groups deliberately destroy cultural monuments? How does monument destruction correlate with patterns of direct violence against civilians? And what types of empirical evidence can we use to assess the impacts of rebuilding communities through the recovery or loss of shared cultural property? To answer these questions, we are experimenting with time-space analytical techniques. One of the key products of this project is a fully-georeferenced dataset of incidents from the Syrian war (2011-2018). The dataset is a collaboration with the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) in the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University. We welcome inquiries and ideas from researchers and practitioners interested in peace and conflict studies, cultural and political theory, critical cultural heritage studies, and post-war community rebuilding. This project was supported by the National Science Foundation and a seed grant from the Quantitative Collaborative at the University of Virginia.

For more information about the project: NSF Grant #1948947

This tool allows you to explore incidents of cultural heritage damage and destruction during the Syrian War from 2014 to 2017. These data represent a sample of the full dataset from this project. Incidents are sourced from the American Society of Overseas Research (ASOR) weekly reports produced during the conflict. The full dataset and code book are available upon request.