Nour Munawar’s research focuses on archaeology, cultural heritage, memory and the politics of representing the material culture of the past in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Nour is particularly interested in the destruction, reconstruction, decolonization, documentation practices, and representations of archaeological collections, monuments, and facilities in conflict zones, and how cultural heritage is used and abused in post-conflict times. He is currently working on his new book that explores the lifecycles of archeological heritage in conflict, by shedding light on the attitudes of communities affected by contemporary conflicts towards heritage destruction and reconstruction in times of war, and how they intersect with the identity construction and collective memory remembrance in post-conflict times. He is currently working on several publications that examine the nexus among cultural heritage, social media, displaced communities, and the politics of the past.

Prior to joining Brown University, Nour finished his Ph.D. at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), the Netherlands in 2021. He was an Associate Research Fellow at the UCL Qatar in Doha (2019-20). Nour received his M.A. in archaeology from the University of Warsaw (Poland), following his M.A. studies in Near Eastern archaeology and heritage studies at Leiden University (the Netherlands), and a B.A. in archaeology from the university of Aleppo (Syria). Nour is a UNESCO expert on Safeguarding Syrian Cultural Heritage, a member of several international organizations, such as ICOMOS, and the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA), and a guest researcher at the University of Amsterdam (UvA).