Fernando Carvajal will give a talk entitled Yemen, Beyond the Horizon. Mr Carvajal holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Political Science with a focus on International Relations and Middle East Studies. At present he is enrolled in a PhD program at the University of Exeter and his dissertation topic is 'Constructing Political Subjects in XX Century Imamic Upper Yemen’. Mr Carvajal has travelled extensively in Yemen with part of his research focusing on the evolution of the relationship between tribal areas and central government within an emerging democratic environment.

The meeting will be held at the Middle East Association, 33 Bury Street, St James’s, London SW1Y 6AX at 5.30 for 6 p.m. Refreshments will be served.
For planning purposes, please advise the Hon. Secretary if you wish to attend (tel: 020 7603 8895 or e-mail: i-am-rebecca.johnson@virgin.net) 

Thursday, 20th November 

Quentin Morton will make a presentation on The Early Oil Exploration of Yemen. Quentin Morton is a barrister whose interest in oil exploration came about through the exploits of his father Mike Morton, a field geologist for the Iraq Petroleum Company. Quentin has researched his father's journeys and published a book "In the Heart of the Desert," which includes an account and photographs of journeys through Beihan, the Hadhramaut and Mahra country in the late 1940s. 

This lecture will also be held at the Middle East Association at 5.30 for 6 p.m. with refreshments served beforehand.

Again, the Hon. Secretary would welcome advance notice from members wishing to attend this event.

Society newsletter

Red Sea IV – Connected Hinterlands

This is the Fourth International Conference on the Peoples of the Red Sea Region and will take place at the Centre for Maritime Archaeology, University of Southampton on 25th-26th September. The conference will explore themes of connection and communication across and along the Red Sea through the material culture, anthropology, ethnography, history, and languages of peoples living in the hinterlands of the sea from the earliest times to the early modern period. 
For further information, see here, email: redsea@soton.ac.uk or tel: 023 8059 4439.

Society for Arabian Studies

Members may also be interested in the Society for Arabian Studies’ conference: Death, Burial and the Transition to the Afterlife in Arabia and Adjacent Regions to take place in the Stevenson Lecture Theatre at the British Museum from 27th-29th November. This conference will review, synthesise, and contextualise the evidence for burial practices and associated beliefs in Arabia and neighbouring regions from earliest prehistory to the present day. 

Details are available here. Additional inquiries can be directed to: Dr. Lloyd Weeks, Dept. of Archaeology, University of Nottingham - Tel: 0115 846 7355 or Fax: 0115 951 4812

2008 Tour to Yemen

Alan D’Arcy has regretfully had to cancel the tour he was arranging for this year. The FCO has significantly relaxed its Travel Advice, in that it no longer advises against all but essential travel to Yemen, but we hope that the current advice against all but essential travel to Hadhramaut will soon be changed. 

Far Frontiers Expeditions Ltd will be running a tour to Yemen in late 2009, which should be of interest to B-YS members. To register an interest or for further information as it becomes available, please email jan@farfrontiers.co.uk or tel: 0844 800 9029.

Murray Graham

We greatly regret to record the death on 5th September 2008 of Murray Graham, a long-standing member of the Society who had served with BP in Aden.