This project takes an ambitious approach to investigating the trajectories of artists and their works in and from Lebanon since its independence in 1943. In the absence of an institutionalised local art history, artists are often stereotyped according to the agendas of labelling institutions. The project proposes a shift of perspective in approaching Lebanon’s art world by placing emphasis on the multi-dimensionality of artists’ individual trajectories. It investigates (1) the forces that have shaped the emergence of a professional field of art in their local, regional and global contexts, (2) how to rethink the impact of the political, social and economic environment on the art world and its protagonists, Lebanon often being defined by its experience of violence and conflict, (3) how artists are represented in relation to the nation, and (4) how the trajectories of individuals shape the field. The focus will be on artists in and from Lebanon using the forms of painting (Arabic: lawha), sculpture and new media art. The specificity of Lebanon’s history after gaining independence from France in 1943 makes it particularly worthwhile to study the power-relations between artists and institutions at home and abroad. The project’s objectives are to (1) develop a new approach to rethink artistic production from a cultural-political perspective while placing the trajectory of artists and their works at the centre, (2) re-evaluate the impact of war and migration on a country’s artistic production, (3) build a collaborative digital platform and database (DDP) to create a central and open-access repository and innovative tool for future research and preserving Lebanon's cultural heritage, and (4) to connect the scientific cultures of academic research and museums/art institutions. The project’s five thematic clusters and DDP will identify new methods on how to interrelate context and artistic production, serving as a model for revisiting art histories in post-colonial contexts.

In the Mediterranean in the first millennium CE, environmental and climatic changes have been identified as causes for significant short- and long-term societal and political processes and events, such as epidemics and the rise and fall of empires. However, the effects of environmental or climatic variation on humans are substantially more complex than a narrative of causation of major events, since culturally specific perceptions and interpretations of environmental or climatic variation can have significant social, religious or political implications. SSE1K builds on state-of-the-art research but goes beyond it to ask novel, important questions about relationships between past societies and environmental / climatic fluctuation. The project will pioneer an approach which is both multi- and interdisciplinary, centring on these questions: How did humans experience and perceive environmental and climatic variation across the Mediterranean in the first millennium CE, and how did they respond both intellectually and socially to these changing conditions? SSE1K addresses issues which have been raised as significant challenges for collaborative study of climate change but have yet to be fully addressed: it will investigate how the circulation of knowledge and adaptability intersect with sustainability and resilience in pre-modern societies, and how human perceptions and ways of thinking shaped societal, political or religious responses to environmental / climatic change. The project will integrate textual, archaeological and environmental evidence to investigate a large geographical area (the Mediterranean) at a scale which balances human lived experience and climate trends (the first millennium CE) over macro- and micro-levels. This integration is crucial in producing a holistic picture of past knowledge, resilience and sustainability, and will change the ways that scholars understand the relationships between past humans and environmental / climatic fluctuation.

OPERAS-D (Design) project will support the 5 main partners (“core group”) of the OPERAS network in the development of a European e-infrastructure for open access publications in the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH). The project will address long-term requirements for the development of the e-infrastructure and community building, as well as seek to expand other interested parties within and beyond Europe, and in diverse fields of the SSH. To achieve this goal, the key objectives of the OPERAS-D project are to: -prepare a design study that defines governance models, structures and scientific and technical concepts for future services that the infrastructure will provide, and establishes a roadmap to achieve these goals according to the requirements for long term sustainability . -engage the current and future partners in the OPERAS network to strengthen the community and develop the network of partners participating in OPERAS across Europe, specifically in central European countries. The project will establish a roadmap for OPERAS consortium that includes e-infrastructure service providers (publishing platforms, libraries) and research and education communities (universities and university presses). It will define long term requirement by producing a user driven design for future services and the technical requirements to implement them and also a final governance model and business plan for OPERAS development. The community building will help all participants in OPERAS to have a clear picture of their technical environment and a better understanding of the different technical options within the community. It will gather all stakeholders in workshops to validate data collected during the project and to share the results and the vision for the development of the infrastructure. Operas-D will identify key stakeholders inside and outside Europe and engage them for potential collaboration with OPERAS.