Rama Al Rabady
Biographic Data
| ID | 256901 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Rama Al Rabady |
| GIVEN NAMES | Rama |
| FAMILY NAME | Al Rabady |
| SIGNATURE | AL RABADY R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Hashemite University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9488-0613 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 18 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 11 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Decolonising time: Vernacular villages and the politics of heritage temporality
What criteria should be used to inform architectural heritage and protection? Jordan’s Antiquities Law defines heritage by a 1750 CE cut-off date, a colonial inheritance that excludes Ottoman-era vernacular villages from protection. This chronological boundary severs communities’ living connections to ancestral places. Drawing on decolonial critiques of time and Giles Deleuze’s philosophy of multiplicity, this study examines five abandoned villag…
Materiality of Divinity in an Atypical Flat-Roofed Apsidal Aula Ecclesiae
Aulae ecclesiae occupy a space between secular and sacred church architecture and can be considered a post-domus and pre-basilica version of the ecclesia. This article examines the origin of the representation of divinity in the Lubbēn Large Church as an aula ecclesiae and presents a contextual reading of the historical, regional, and local conditions that led to its final incarnation. The church is located in one of Syria’s largest lava fields—a…
The history of Jordan: Biblical archaeology and local heritage-making within a discourse on epistemological (dis)continuity
The history of Jordan is an epistemological construction of the colonial past with Biblical archaeology at its core. At the same time, vernacular heritage is addressed by many foreign scholars as decaying, disappearing and accidental. This article takes issue with the foreign Biblical formation of the past and introduces local heritage-making as part of a decolonising construction. We debate the historical continuity of Biblical epistemology whil…
Liberating genealogies in Amman: Urban histories between a colonizing legacy and a decolonizing illusion
Colonialism operated in Amman through a matrix of power generated from a Western emphasis on its biblical and classical pasts. The cultural dominance of this matrix persisted in the postcolonial period. It perpetuated the coloniality of knowledge and the coloniality of being as it accentuated Western imperial pasts and marked the local - whether heritage or something else - as marginal. Coloniality is reflected in the successive planning and rege…
Hands-On Heritage! Establishing Soft Authority over Heritage through Architectural Experiment: A Case Study from Jordan
This study identifies ‘heritage as practice’ as an alternative to ‘authorized’ heritage engagement. Heritage, in this sense, is perceived as a source of inspiration and creativity rather than just an asset to be preserved. ‘Heritage as practice’ is informed by the conventional identification and evaluation of heritage, coupled with the architectural and artistic instincts, capacities, creativity, and commitment found in the field of architecture,…
Urban heritage 'space' under neoliberal development: A tale of a Jordanian plaza
What happens when urban heritage spaces within developing countries, such as Jordan, are subject to touristic development funded by international bodies, such as the World Bank? This question is explored theoretically and practically by considering a popular local plaza in the secondary Jordanian city of Jerash that has been subject to three tourism development projects funded by the World Bank. The study, which incorporates and critiques the dis…
The crowsteps motif in Nabataean architecture: Insights into its meaning and use
Nabataeans, in constructing their tombs, added many symbols and geometrical forms, plants and animals. Crowsteps, as a geometrical form, are the most common among these symbols. This study investigates the use of the crowsteps motif found frequently on the facades of Nabataean tombs. The primary focus is to replace models of typological explanation for the introduction of crowsteps into the Nabataean rock-cut facades. The study begins with tracin…
Urban heritage governance within the context of emerging decentralization discourses in Jordan
Creative cities through local heritage revival: A perspective from Jordan/Madaba
Cities in developed countries are increasingly challenged by the advent of a global economy that mandates generating creative images of their cities. Meanwhile, it is argued in this study that globalisation, and its Arabic version of Dubaisation, is affecting the sustainability of cities as distinguished destinations because urban representation is influenced not only by ‘standardised global cliché’ but also by ‘standardised local images’ that tr…
The "Jordanian" Roman Complex: Reinventing Urban Landscape to Accommodate Globalization
The central urban landscape of Amman, including the archaeological sites of the Roman Theatre, Odeon and Forum, has played an essential cultural, political, social, and economic role in local identity and memory since the establishment of the Emirate of Transjordan in 1921. This research is an ethnographic study of this urban landscape. It combines local people's responses to recent governmental interventions to develop the downtown area around t…
Place-based heritage regeneration in Madaba, Jordan
While image-based heritage regeneration, emphasizing the preservation of the immediately visible environment, has dominated efforts in most Islamic and developing countries, this article uses a case study of Madaba, Jordan to highlight the advantages of place-based regeneration approaches that focus on the preservation local users and uses built environments and spaces. As Jordan continues to face economic challenges, officials have focused on im…
Creative cities through local heritage revival: A perspective from Jordan/Madaba
Cities in developed countries are increasingly challenged by the advent of a global economy that mandates generating creative images of their cities. Meanwhile, it is argued in this study that globalisation, and its Arabic version of Dubaisation, is affecting the sustainability of cities as distinguished destinations because urban representation is influenced not only by ‘standardised global cliché’ but also by ‘standardised local images’ that tr…
Place-based heritage regeneration in Madaba, Jordan
While image-based heritage regeneration, emphasizing the preservation of the immediately visible environment, has dominated efforts in most Islamic and developing countries, this article uses a case study of Madaba, Jordan to highlight the advantages of place-based regeneration approaches that focus on the preservation local users and uses built environments and spaces. As Jordan continues to face economic challenges, officials have focused on im…
Hands-On Heritage! Establishing Soft Authority over Heritage through Architectural Experiment: A Case Study from Jordan
This study identifies ‘heritage as practice’ as an alternative to ‘authorized’ heritage engagement. Heritage, in this sense, is perceived as a source of inspiration and creativity rather than just an asset to be preserved. ‘Heritage as practice’ is informed by the conventional identification and evaluation of heritage, coupled with the architectural and artistic instincts, capacities, creativity, and commitment found in the field of architecture,…
The "Jordanian" Roman Complex: Reinventing Urban Landscape to Accommodate Globalization
The central urban landscape of Amman, including the archaeological sites of the Roman Theatre, Odeon and Forum, has played an essential cultural, political, social, and economic role in local identity and memory since the establishment of the Emirate of Transjordan in 1921. This research is an ethnographic study of this urban landscape. It combines local people's responses to recent governmental interventions to develop the downtown area around t…
Urban heritage governance within the context of emerging decentralization discourses in Jordan
Urban heritage 'space' under neoliberal development: A tale of a Jordanian plaza
What happens when urban heritage spaces within developing countries, such as Jordan, are subject to touristic development funded by international bodies, such as the World Bank? This question is explored theoretically and practically by considering a popular local plaza in the secondary Jordanian city of Jerash that has been subject to three tourism development projects funded by the World Bank. The study, which incorporates and critiques the dis…
Place-based heritage regeneration in Madaba, Jordan
While image-based heritage regeneration, emphasizing the preservation of the immediately visible environment, has dominated efforts in most Islamic and developing countries, this article uses a case study of Madaba, Jordan to highlight the advantages of place-based regeneration approaches that focus on the preservation local users and uses built environments and spaces. As Jordan continues to face economic challenges, officials have focused on im…
Creative cities through local heritage revival: A perspective from Jordan/Madaba
Cities in developed countries are increasingly challenged by the advent of a global economy that mandates generating creative images of their cities. Meanwhile, it is argued in this study that globalisation, and its Arabic version of Dubaisation, is affecting the sustainability of cities as distinguished destinations because urban representation is influenced not only by ‘standardised global cliché’ but also by ‘standardised local images’ that tr…
The "Jordanian" Roman Complex: Reinventing Urban Landscape to Accommodate Globalization
The central urban landscape of Amman, including the archaeological sites of the Roman Theatre, Odeon and Forum, has played an essential cultural, political, social, and economic role in local identity and memory since the establishment of the Emirate of Transjordan in 1921. This research is an ethnographic study of this urban landscape. It combines local people's responses to recent governmental interventions to develop the downtown area around t…
The crowsteps motif in Nabataean architecture: Insights into its meaning and use
Nabataeans, in constructing their tombs, added many symbols and geometrical forms, plants and animals. Crowsteps, as a geometrical form, are the most common among these symbols. This study investigates the use of the crowsteps motif found frequently on the facades of Nabataean tombs. The primary focus is to replace models of typological explanation for the introduction of crowsteps into the Nabataean rock-cut facades. The study begins with tracin…
Urban heritage governance within the context of emerging decentralization discourses in Jordan
Hands-On Heritage! Establishing Soft Authority over Heritage through Architectural Experiment: A Case Study from Jordan
This study identifies ‘heritage as practice’ as an alternative to ‘authorized’ heritage engagement. Heritage, in this sense, is perceived as a source of inspiration and creativity rather than just an asset to be preserved. ‘Heritage as practice’ is informed by the conventional identification and evaluation of heritage, coupled with the architectural and artistic instincts, capacities, creativity, and commitment found in the field of architecture,…
Urban heritage 'space' under neoliberal development: A tale of a Jordanian plaza
What happens when urban heritage spaces within developing countries, such as Jordan, are subject to touristic development funded by international bodies, such as the World Bank? This question is explored theoretically and practically by considering a popular local plaza in the secondary Jordanian city of Jerash that has been subject to three tourism development projects funded by the World Bank. The study, which incorporates and critiques the dis…
Liberating genealogies in Amman: Urban histories between a colonizing legacy and a decolonizing illusion
Colonialism operated in Amman through a matrix of power generated from a Western emphasis on its biblical and classical pasts. The cultural dominance of this matrix persisted in the postcolonial period. It perpetuated the coloniality of knowledge and the coloniality of being as it accentuated Western imperial pasts and marked the local - whether heritage or something else - as marginal. Coloniality is reflected in the successive planning and rege…
Materiality of Divinity in an Atypical Flat-Roofed Apsidal Aula Ecclesiae
Aulae ecclesiae occupy a space between secular and sacred church architecture and can be considered a post-domus and pre-basilica version of the ecclesia. This article examines the origin of the representation of divinity in the Lubbēn Large Church as an aula ecclesiae and presents a contextual reading of the historical, regional, and local conditions that led to its final incarnation. The church is located in one of Syria’s largest lava fields—a…
The history of Jordan: Biblical archaeology and local heritage-making within a discourse on epistemological (dis)continuity
The history of Jordan is an epistemological construction of the colonial past with Biblical archaeology at its core. At the same time, vernacular heritage is addressed by many foreign scholars as decaying, disappearing and accidental. This article takes issue with the foreign Biblical formation of the past and introduces local heritage-making as part of a decolonising construction. We debate the historical continuity of Biblical epistemology whil…
Decolonising time: Vernacular villages and the politics of heritage temporality
What criteria should be used to inform architectural heritage and protection? Jordan’s Antiquities Law defines heritage by a 1750 CE cut-off date, a colonial inheritance that excludes Ottoman-era vernacular villages from protection. This chronological boundary severs communities’ living connections to ancestral places. Drawing on decolonial critiques of time and Giles Deleuze’s philosophy of multiplicity, this study examines five abandoned villag…
Archaeology (8 works) · Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation (8 works) · Law (7 works) · Political science (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Cultural heritage (6 works) · History (6 works) · Art (5 works) · History (5 works) · Politics (5 works)