Diplomacy Through Heritage & Storytelling: Uncovering Lost Chapters

This multidisciplinary project uncovers erased histories that shaped the Middle East, from the UAE's founding father Sheikh Zayed’s transformative 1951 Vatican visit—where he absorbed Europe’s post-war unity ideals, later inspiring UAE diplomacy of tolerance and unity—to the Great Famine of Mount Lebanon (1915–1918), a tragedy forgotten and recovered through diligent research into Ottoman & European archives. This project is founded on patient research and translations of documents, relatives survivors' accounts, art, poetry, tribal oral histories, as well as ecological data and religious accounts that captured forgotten natural heritage of the region.