AIA Lecturer/Host: Trevor Marchand

Trevor Marchand is Scientific Director of the Monumenta Orientalia project Recovery & Conservation of Islamic Monuments in Sanaa, Yemen (in collaboration with the Social Fund for Development and funded by Aliph Foundation). He is also Research Fellow of the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (Université Clermont Auvergne), Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS, London), and recipient of the Royal Anthropological Institute’s Rivers Memorial Medal (2014). Marchand studied architecture (McGill), received a Ph.D. in anthropology (SOAS), and qualified as a fine woodworker at London’s Building Crafts College. He has published extensively, produced and directed documentary films on architecture and craftwork, and curated exhibitions for the Brunei Gallery in London, Museum of Oriental Art in Turin, Pergamon Museum in Berlin, Royal Institute of British Architects, and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. Marchand is an independent advisor on World Heritage for the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and an advisor on the international experts panel for Oxford Brookes University’s Endangered Wooden Architecture Programme.
During the past three decades, Marchand has conducted fieldwork with craftspeople in Northern Nigeria, Yemen, Mali, and the UK, and he has lectured on the art, architecture, and archaeology of Central Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, and West and North Africa. He first travelled to Oman in 2000 and has led lecture tours to this historically-rich destination ever since. In 2020, Marchand incorporated the UAE and Qatar into his expanding regional expertise. This will be his fourth tour to the region for the AIA. With extensive knowledge of the Arabian Peninsula and Indian Ocean trade, Marchand’s lectures explore the great antiquity of contact and connections between the Arabian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman, and the coast of East Africa; and reveal the might of the tribes, kingdoms, merchant-princes, and naval fleets that once ruled the seas. Marchand elucidates the rich archaeological legacies of eastern Arabia, its distinct architectural traditions and renowned craft heritages (including boat building), as well as the aspirations of the people and rulers for modern, progressive identities that honor the past.

School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS, London)