Pelle Valentin Olsen presents with the title "Idle Days and Nights: Perspectives on Leisure, Entertainment, and Everyday Life in Modern Iraq".

During the late Ottoman period, the British mandate and the years of the monarchy, Iraq experienced modernization, urbanization, political reforms and the transformation of Baghdad from a regional city to a fast-growing capital. The urban landscape and layout of Baghdad and other cities changed dramatically. Cities witnessed the establishment of modern streets with electrical lighting, suburbs, new forms of housing and architecture, and public parks and gardens. At the same time, new modes and institutions of lesireu and entertainment emerged. By examining modern Iraqi history through the lens of leisure, entertainment, and everyday life, in this talk I explore the institutions, practices, distractions, and discourses of leisure that occupied increasing space and time in the life of many Iraqis in the twentieth century. In the talk, I will also explore some of Iraq’s multiple global connections and relationships. Iraqi children, students, nightclub performers, politicans, teachers, police officers, parents, cinema entrepreneurs, intellectuals, and musicians all play a part in this history. We will follow these characters, who belonged to different social and economic classes, as they moved between cafés, cinemas, censorship offices, schools, nightclubs, libraries, and private homes. By accompanying these diverse historical actors as they sought out and debated ways to spend their free time, in this talk I will present insights from my past, current, and future research, including leisure’s centrality to many of the broader discussions on morality, productivity, nationalism, gender, and sexuality that characterised the first half of Iraq’s and the Middle East’s twentieth century.

About Pelle Valentin Olsen

I am a cultural, social, and transnational historian of the modern Middle East. My research focuses on the history of leisure, gender and sexuality, historically inflected media studies, and Jewish life in the modern Middle East. I focus mainly on twentieth century Iraq, but my work simultaneously explores transnational and global connections beyond the Middle East. My research interests converge in my book manuscript, Idle Days and Nights: Leisure, Entertainment, and Everyday Life in Modern Iraq. Examining Iraqi history through the lens of leisure, it offers entirely novel perspectives on a country whose modern history is often narrated through battles, sectarian conflicts, and failed attempts to create a democratic society.