Faedah Totah, associate professor of political science, talks about her new book, Preserving the Old City of Damascus (Syracuse University Press, 2014). One of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and a major cultural and religious center, Damascus is a repository of numerous civilizations, ancient and modern, that embody the collective national, as well as Arab/Islamic, memory. Although a protected UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979, the Old City attracted the interest of investors only toward the end of the last century. The historic neighborhoods of greater Damascus became the focus of private investment when the government encouraged a more market-based national economy. The Old City — distinguished from other neighborhoods by the large number of religious buildings, historic monuments and a wall with foundations in the Roman period — was important for government efforts to promote heritage tourism as part of their entry into the global economy. In Preserving the Old City of Damascus, Totah examines the ways in which this urban space became the site for negotiating new economic and social realities.

Learn more.