Our Team

Dr. Ali Naji Attiyah is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Engineering – University of Kufa. He graduated from Civil Engineering Department in 1986 and he completed his higher studies in structural engineering at the University of Baghdad. His interest in heritage started in 2003 when he worked as a consultant on the conservation of the Imam Ali shrine at Najaf City. At 2009, he wrote a book titled the Spiritual Values of the Holy Shrines Architecture, where he tried to explore the intangible values affected the traditional design of the shrines. Later he was appointed to be a member of the National Committee to inscribe Wadi Al-Salam Cemetery to the World Heritage List in 2013. He got training courses at the UNESCO Iraq Office on the protection and enhancement of tangible and intangible heritage. In 2019, he secured a grant from the Nahrein Network / University College of London to document the heritage buildings of historic Kufa city. 

Stefan Karakolev is Liwan's Finance Officer. He is responsible for the financial affairs of the organisation, including financial planning and management. Stefan is a graduate of the UK based Anglia Ruskin University and has significant international financial experience. Stefan is ACCA qualified.

Frank Stremke is a documentation expert and archaeologist specialist, with over 20 years experience in Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East. Frank has extensive experience working in Iraq, including Iraqi Kurdistan, Baghdad and Basrah and led the documentaiton work at Khan Marjan and Kish, Temple of Ishtar. 

Mehiyar is a UK-based academic, working at the University College London's History Department. Mehiyar has over twenty years of experience working in international projects in Iraq, in the field of civil society, culture and heritage. Mehiyar works to develop new and innovative practices and approaches to cultural heritage in Iraq through the operationalisation of concepts associated with safeguarding, sustainability and continuity. His recent publications include 'Decolonising Babylon' published in the International Journal of Heritage Studies and 'Heritage Predation' published by London-based think-tank, Chatham House. 

 Nadia is a Research Associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS, University of London), currently investigating the illegal exportation of Iraq’s tangible cultural heritage (primarily cuneiform tablets and manuscripts) by antiquities dealers in the late 19th and mid-20th centuries. Trained as an assyriologist, her primary research interests are cuneiform, and the provenance history of cuneiform tablets purchased on the antiquities market by museums between 1884 and 1940. Nadia obtained her PhD in the languages of the Near and Middle East (Akkadian, Sumerian) from SOAS. She was a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow between 2019 and 2023. Her work focuses on the Iraqi-French antiquities dealer Ibrahim Elias Gejou (1868-1942), a major collector, seller, and smuggler of ancient artworks from Iraq. 

Nadia is leading the conservation work in Kish, at the Temple of Ishtar, in the province of Babylon.