This event opens the exhibition ‘Ruptured Domesticity: Mapping Spaces of Refuge in Iraq’ by Dr Sana Murrani, Associate Professor in Spatial Practice at the University of Plymouth. Using photographs, illustrative maps and drawings, Murrani examines the domestic and intimate spaces of refuge created by Iraqis in preparation for, and in response to, wartime and violence.

Murrani will be joined by Ammar Azzouz (University of Oxford) and Dena Qaddumi (LSE) in a broad-ranging discussion on the exhibition and her forthcoming book ‘Rupturing architecture: spatial practices of refuge in response to war and violence in Iraq’ (Bloomsbury, 2024). Themes will include the role of architecture and the built environment in understanding violence and trauma; deep-mapping and visual story-telling; and the role of diaspora populations in knowledge production on the Middle East.

Photograph by Ali Albaroodi, 2022