Collaborations

Cambridge Heritage Research Centre at University of Cambridge, UK
I hold a research affiliation with CHRC where I work closely with Dr. Andreas Pantazatos on a project that investigates the Durham Cathedral and Castle World Heritage Site and the history and heritage of coal mining communities in County Durham, surrounding the World Heritage Site. 

Nottingham Trent University, UK 
I collaborate closely with Professor Mike Robinson, Professor of Cultural Heritage. One of the products of our collaboration is the co-edited volume, Encounters with Popular Pasts. Cultural Heritage and Popular Culture (Springer 2015), which resulted from a conference we organized at UIUC. In 2017-2018 we studied sustainability at four World Heritage Sites: Ironbridge Gorge (UK), West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou (China), and Cuzco and Machu Picchu (Peru). That initial research was presented to UNESCO staff in Brussels.

Critical Heritage Studies Network at Stockholm University, Sweden
I work closely with the CHSN colleagues at Stockholm University to develop our “Dark Matters” theme. In September 2015 Mattias Frihammar (SU) and I co-organized a “Heritage of Death” conference in Stockholm, which produced the co-edited volume Heritage of Death. Landscapes of Emotion, Memory and Practice (Routledge 2018).

CERL/US Army Corps of Engineers
In March 2017 Dr. George Calfas (CERL/PhD, Anthropology, UIUC) and I did a brief but fascinating project on Cyprus, studying the contested heritage of this divided island. Our focus was the buffer zone of the capital, Nicosia, where we proposed to deploy geospatial and archaeological approaches to document the physical traces of division and develop an interpretive platform that would result in an open-air museum, attracting tourists and engendering better relations between the parties. We hope to be able to return to continue the research.

UNESCO Center for Global Citizenship (UCGC)
I am a founding member of UCGC, an organization that seeks to further understanding of UNESCO and to support its mission through community activities at the local level.