In 1954 the decision to build the Aswan High Dam was made. This dam would lead to the creation of a huge artificial lake covering the Upper Nile Valley from Aswan in Egypt to the Dal Cataract in Sudan - a culturally extremely rich area, which has been known as Nubia since antiquity.
In 1959 the Egyptian and the Sudanese Governments requested UNESCO to assist their countries in the protection and rescue of the endangered monuments and sites. In 1960, the Director-General of UNESCO launched an ap more...

'Cultural endowments such as traditional architecture, unique streetscapes, and historic sites are increasingly recognized as important economic resources in both developed and developing countries. Cities are often an important focal point for development based on these resources because they provide concentrations of heritage assets, infrastructure services, private sector activity,
and human resources. Improving the conservation and management of urban heritage is not only important for pres more...

'Beirut World Book Capital 2009 has three objectives. Publishers and booksellers are keen on the first objective which deals with the strengthening of the book industry in Lebanon, with special focus on youth literature. Schools, for their part, are rallying around the second objective which aims at promoting reading and the taste for reading. Finally, embassies are interested in the third objective, namely, the adoption of a diversified approach to culture, by inviting writers from their countr more...

'The World Digital Library makes available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from cultures around the world, including manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, architectural drawings, and other significant cultural materials. The objectives of the World Digital Library are to promote international and inter-cultural understanding and awareness, provide resources to educators, expand non-English more...

'Jamillah Karim takes an extremely complex and contentious set of topics - race, class, gender and faith - and skillfully examines them within the framework of the ummah, or the Muslim community. American Muslim Women is an ethnographic account, but it is also a deeply personal look into the lives of a group of women whose voices are not typically heard in American society.'

'News about Muslim women in America is usually saddled with the same woeful tales—abusive husbands, gruesome honor killings and the occasional controversy over headscarves. The tales are poignant, political and sad. Which is why American Muslim Women: Negotiating Race, Class and Gender within the Ummah (NYU Press) by Spelman College Professor of Religious Studies Jamillah Karim is a welcome departure from the usual portrayals of Muslim women in the U.S. as victims of their religion.'

'In this presentation, Bruce Katz provides an overview of current patterns of racial and ethnic separation in the United States, using the Chicago, Washington DC, and New Orleans metros as case studies. He shows how racial segregation relates to the problem of concentrated poverty and describes the broader effects on job access, educational attainment, and other social outcomes. He identifies past public policies that have served to exacerbate these problems, and concludes by discussing some cur more...

The World Digital Library will make available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from cultures around the world, including manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, archi­tectural drawings, and other significant cultural materials. The objectives of the World Digital Library are to promote international and inter-cultural understanding and awareness, provide resources to educators, expand non-Eng more...

Survival does not depend on a few musicians or a few folklorists who are singing or writing about it. It is the people who matter. When people change, their habits, customs way of thinking, everything takes transformations. Folk songs survive in a society which is agrarian, village oriented and poor. When people become richer, folk songs are forgotten.

Bangladesh is poor, agrarian, but why then Folk songs are not thriving as it should? The reasons are varied. The globalization of music, the g more...

'Through different types of media, people adopt behaviors, assume attitudes, and build stereotypical images that affect their actions in real life. The issue of the portrayal of women in the Arab media has been under examination for many years due to its negativity and its ability to aversely affect the image of Arab women in society at large. Although some positive models are beginning to appear, the movement in this direction is quite slow. This Policy Brief discusses the image of women in the more...