The Victoria and Albert Museum’s Culture in Crisis Programme, in partnership with the School of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester are staging an international conference scheduled for 28th February 2023, exploring the past and present risks of military conflict to heritage.

Heritage at War: Plan and Prepare’ will bring together voices from Europe, the US, Africa, and Asia to explore how lessons learned from past experiences of conflict can inform our approaches to the safeguarding of cultural heritage today. We will discuss how the heritage sector, the military and other stakeholders collaborate to protect cultural heritage under attack, navigating the specific risks of direct military conflict on the ground.

Speakers Announced

• Dr Ammar Azzouz, Lecturer in Heritage Studies at the School of Philosophy and Art History, University of Essex, and Research Associate at the School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford
• Captain Tim Le Berre, Deputy Director French Army Heritage Office, French Army
• Yang Chang-hun, Head of Education and Culture Dept. & ICOMAM Executive Board Member, The War Memorial of Korea
• Carlotta Coccoli, Associate Professor of Architectural Preservation, University of Brescia
• Commander Roger Curtis, Royal Naval Reserve, Commander UK Cultural Property Protection Unit
• Major Mark Dunkley, SO2 Cultural Heritage, British Army
• Vanessa Fraga Prol, Manager, Cultural Emergency Response
• Manana Tevzadze, Chairperson, Georgian National Committee of the Blue Shield
• Captain Ankie Petersen, Liaison Officer Cultural Property Protection, Royal Netherlands Army
• Amira Sadik, Egyptian Heritage Rescue Foundation
• Dr Anna Tulliach, Research Fellow, School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester
• Corine Wegener, Director, Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative

In the first of two sessions, ‘Learning from the Past’ will explore case studies from previous conflicts which highlight interdisciplinary efforts to protect heritage, drawing guidance from these experiences and comparable strategies for the present.

The second conference session; ‘Preparing for the Present’, will invite speakers to share their views on how the heritage sector can successfully work to protect heritage from the risks of direct ground attack today; from documentation and databasing, to salvage planning and evacuation.

This one-day, in-person event will be hosted by the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington, London. The conference is free to attend and simultaneously streamed to online audiences around the world.

The conference is aimed at those working in the Heritage Sector, with specific relevance to those engaged in Cultural Property Protection and including those working in related interdisciplinary fields.

To reserve a place, email us directly at cultureincrisis@vam.ac.uk with the following information:

Name

Role

Institution

Online or in person

This conference is generously supported by the University of Leicester’s ESRC Impact Acceleration Award