Dr. Zainab Bahrani is an Iraqi professor of Ancient Near Eastern Art and Archaeology at Columbia University. She is the author and editor of twelve books and has written over 50 articles, one of which, the Hellenization of Ishtar, is particularly fascinating to me. In it, she analyzes concepts of the body and ideologies of gender in both ancient Greece and the Near East. Another aspect of Bahrani’s work has been in the area of monument preservation, conservation and the politics of cultural heritage. Listen to learn about gender and the ancient cradle of civilization and why we should all look to preserve the historical record!