Head Librarian
Phone: +961 1 359232
Email: Bellan@orient-institut.org
Monique Bellan started her position as Head Librarian on 1 October 2025. Prior to that, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher on the LAWHA project from March 2021 to March 2025, during which time her research concentrated on exhibition practices, art critique and the database and digital platform (DDP). She previously worked as research associate at the Orient-Institut Beirut (2013-2019) where the focus of her research was on aesthetic reflection and art critique in twentieth-century Lebanon and Egypt. She also worked as researcher at the collaborative research centre Aesthetic Experience and the Dissolution of Artistic Limits at Freie Universität Berlin and the Performing Arts Section of the Academy of Arts in Berlin.
She holds a PhD in Arabic Studies from Freie Universität Berlin, an MA in Islamic Studies, Sociology and Political Science from the University of Bonn, and an MA in Library and Information Science from Humboldt Universität zu Berlin.
Bellan, Monique. Dismember remember: Das anatomische Theater von Lina Saneh und Rabih Mroué. Wiesbaden: Reichert 2013.
Bellan, Monique; Drost, Julia (eds.). Surrealism in North Africa and Western Asia: Crossings and Encounters. Beirut: Beiruter Texte und Studien 2021, http://dx.doi.org/10.25673/108754
Maltzahn, Nadia von; Bellan, Monique (eds.). Contextualizing the Art Salon in the Arab Region, Beirut: Beiruter Texte und Studien (BTS) 2018, http://dx.doi.org/10.25673/33131
Maltzahn, Nadia von; Bellan, Monique (eds.). Divercities: Competing narratives and urban identities in Beirut, Cairo and Tehran , Orient-Institut Studies 3. Beirut: Orient-Institut. https://perspectivia.net//publikationen/orient-institut-studies/3-2015
Bellan, Monique. “Ruptures and Continuities: Lebanon’s art galleries in the 1980s with a focus on Galerie Damo (1977-88)”. In Lebanon’ s Visual Arts in the 1980s: Artistic Production in a Conflicted Decade. Edited by Nadia von Maltzahn. Manazir Journal, Vol. 7 (2025, forthcoming).
Bellan, Monique. “Conceptual Art in Beirut: Farid Haddad’s Hearts and Monuments”. In Smarthistory, February 2025, 2025,https://smarthistory.org/beirut-farid-haddads-hearts-and-monuments/ .
Bellan, Monique “Modern art from the Arab region — Digitization as a chance? The research and database project LAWHA as a case study”. magazén, 3(2), 2022, 235-260. http://doi.org/10.30687/mag/2724-3923/2022/06/004
Bellan, Monique. “Embedded Chronicler: Victor Hakim”. Söntgen, Beate; Voss, Julia (eds.). Why Art Criticism? A Reader. Berlin: Hatje Cantz 2022. 158-164.
Bellan, Monique. “Three eccentric manifestos: Art et Liberté, the Arab Surrealist Movement in Exile and Habib Tengour´s “non-message”. Bellan, Monique; Drost, Julia (eds.). Surrealism in North Africa and Western Asia: Crossings and Encounters. Beirut: Beiruter Texte und Studien 2021. 31-50.
Bellan, Monique; Drost, Julia. “Introduction”. Bellan, Monique; Drost, Julia (eds.). Surrealism in North Africa and Western Asia: Crossings and Encounters. Beirut: Beiruter Texte und Studien 2021. 15-27.
Bellan, Monique. »Looking for a missing…« Auf der Suche nach dem Abwesenden in Rabih Mroués »The Pixelated Revolution«. Busch, Isabelle; Fleckner, Uwe; Waldmann, Judith (eds.). Nähe auf Distanz. Eigendynamik und mobilisierende Kraft politischer Bilder im Internet. Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter 2020. 79-100.
Bellan, Monique. „Defying the Order from Within: Art et Liberté and its Reordering of Visual Codes”. Maltzahn, Nadia von; Bellan, Monique (eds.). The Art Salon in the Arab Region: Politics of Taste Making. Beirut: Beiruter Texte und Studien 2018. 135-164. View PDF (open access).
Bellan, Monique. „...ich bin sicher, dass es keine Grenzen gibt“ – Theatrale Dekonstruktionen bei Lina Saneh und Rabih Mroué. Jakiša, Miranda and Andreas Pflitsch (eds.). Jugoslawien, Libanon: Verhandlung von Zugehörigkeit in den Künsten fragmentierter Kulturen. Berlin: Kadmos 2012. 296–317.
Deputy Head Librarian
Phone: +961 1 359233
Email: banna@orient-institut.org
Dina Banna works at the OIB since 1986. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Nutrition and Dietetics from the Faculty of Agriculture and Nutrition Sciences at the American University of Beirut (1986).
Additionally she joined many further vocational trainings in library science in Germany. Since 1986 she is also a member of the Lebanese Librarians Association.
Library Assistant
Phone: +961 1 359236
Email: tayara@orient-institut.org
Nasma Tayyara joined the library team as a library assistant in 1999.
She studied Business Administration at the Lebanese University and gained some working experience at the Allied Business Bank in Beirut.
Librarian
Phone: +961 1 359282
Email: shaheen@orient-institut.org
Fatima Shaheen joined the library team in June 2017. As librarian she is responsible for cataloguing and user services.
Fatima Shaheen joined the library team as assistant librarian for cataloguing and user services in June 2017. She studied Library and Information Science at Lebanese University and has an MA in Information Management from Lebanese University. She is a member of the Lebanese Library Association since 2009.