Afghanistan: De tragiek van een verscheurd land

Veertig jaar geleden leerde Willem Vogelsang (IIAS) als jonge archeoloog het prachtige Afghanistan kennen. Hij keerde er nog vele malen terug in verschillende rollen: als journalist, conservator, militair en diplomaat. In deze lezing  vraagt hij zich af hoe het mogelijk is dat vriend en vijand het land zijn gaan zien als een arena waar iedereen zijn ideeën op een gewelddadige manier aan anderen kan opleggen en waar het lijkt alsof de hele wereld er zijn problemen wil uitvechten. 

Since mid-2011 Willem Vogelsang is the institute manager of the International Institute for Asian Studies, the Netherlands. He studied ancient Indian and Iranian Languages and Cultures at Leiden University. After extensive periods of archaeological fieldwork in Afghanistan, Iran and Syria, and graduate research in Cambridge, UK,  and Gent in Belgium he obtained his PhD degree at Groningen University, the Netherlands, on the subject of ancient Afghanistan and Eastern Iran in the mid-first millennium BC. Until 2002 he was the Executive Secretary of the Centre for Non-Western Studies of Leiden University. Between 2002 and 2008 he was curator for Central and Southwest Asia at the National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden. During this period he periodically worked in Afghanistan as officer in the Dutch armed forces advising on civil-military cooperation. In a civilian capacity he also advised on the re-establishment of the National Museum in Kabul. From 2008 until early 2011 he was the cultural and regional advisor to the Task Force Uruzgan in southern Afghanistan, on behalf of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He has published extensively on the ancient history and culture of Afghanistan and beyond, and on modern military and political developments in the region. Major contributions are: The Afghans(London 2001 and 2008), and, together with Dr Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, Covering the Moon. An Introduction to Middle Eastern Face Veils. See also www.leidenuniv.academia.edu/WillemVogelsang

Informatie: www.drentsmuseum.nl/nl/activiteiten/te-gast-willem-vogelsang