Dr Aris Anagnostopoulos,

Honorary Lecturer University of Kent, HERITΛGE Public Director

Dr Aris Anagnostopoulos holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Kent. He has trained as a historian at the University of Leicester. His post-doctoral work is in the interdisciplinary field of archaeological ethnography. His research interests focus on the politics and poetics of the material aspects of the past in the present; he has also published extensively on the creation of public space in early 20th century Crete. He has conducted ethnographic fieldwork with several archaeological projects, including the Kalaureia Project in Poros, Greece, and Koutroulou Magoula at Neo Monastiri, Fthiotida, Greece. He has been the director and principal instructor of the Archaeological Ethnography Summer School in Gonies, Crete since 2014. He currently works as a public programs director with the Heritage Management Organization, holds a Honorary Lectureship at the University of Kent, and is teaching at the Heritage Management MA (Kent & AUEB) in Elefsina as well as the Anthropological Research Laboratory at Panteio University, Athens.

Dr Eleni Stefanou,

Dr Archaeologist-Museologist. Hellenic Open University, MSc Management of Cultural Organizations. HERITΛGE Public

Dr Eleni Stefanou is an archaeologist – museologist (PhD, University of Southampton, UK). Since October 2008 she has been teaching at a number of Greek Universities on courses related to the theory and practice of museum studies, museum education, and management of cultural heritage, while also collaborating with diverse cultural and educational institutions on museum planning, educational design and community archaeology and heritage programs. From October 2013 she teaches as an Adjunct Lecturer at the postgraduate course Management of Cultural Organisations (MSc) of the Hellenic Open University. She has participated in many Greek and international conferences. Her publications and her research interests evolve around the ideological uses of the past in the present, as these are shaped through the fields of museology and cultural heritage, archaeological ethnography, community engagement, reception and interpretation studies, memory practices and education, i.e. the predominant fields that shape the intimate relationship of various social groups with the past.

Marlen Mouliou,

Museologist, Assistant Professor, Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece

Marlen Mouliou is Assistant Professor of Museology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Department of History and Archaeology) and a member of the Special Interdepartmental Committee of the Postgraduate Programme in Museums Studies, NKUA.
She is also responsible for the Public Archaeology Activities organized in the context of the university excavation project in Marathon. Since 2016, she has been a member of the Panel of Judges for the European Museum of the Year Award and Vice-Chair of the European Academic Heritage Network (UNIVERSEUM). From 2010 to 2016, she has served as Secretary and Chair of the International Committee for the Collections and Activities of Museums of Cities (ICOM-CAMOC) and within this context also she has also been Co-Coordinator of the project Migration: Cities /(im)migration and arrivalcities.She has worked as an archaeologist-museologist at the Hellenic Ministry of Culture (Directorate of Museums, Exhibitions and Educational Programmes) (1997-2013).Her research focuses on museums and their social value, museum history, material culture, museum archaeology, city museum policies and urban narratives, participatory museum interpretation, historic house museums, university museums, museum professionalism and training, museum accreditation, archaeological ethnographies and local communities. She studied Archaeology and History of Art at NKUA and Museology (MA, PhD) at the School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester, U.K. She is founding member of the Scientific Committee of the scientific journal TetradiaMouseiologias [Museological Notes] and of the journal CAMOC news. In 2020, she launched the initiative The Museum Inside Me, one of her developing projects to advocate the valueof museums.

Rolf Hapel,

Affiliate Instructor, Information School, University of Washington

Rolf Hapel is Affiliate Instructor at the Information School at University of Washington after serving as Professor of Practice under the “Distinguished Practitioner in Residence” program. He was director of Citizens’ Services and Libraries and City Librarian in Aarhus, Denmark, holds an MLIS in librarianship and Master of Digitization and Public Governance from Aarhus University, and has a long career as international speaker and writer on library related issues.

Dr Elgidius B. Ichumbaki,

Lecturer, Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies, University of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania

Dr Elgidius B. Ichumbaki is an archaeologist, a heritage scholar, and National Geographic Explorer based in the Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies, College of Humanities, University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania where he works as a Senior Lecturer. Dr. Ichumbaki explores theories, methods and practices that aim at decolonizing research, interpretation of research data and the writing of African pasts. For the past nearly 10 years, Dr. Ichumbaki has devoted his efforts to conducting research, training students in heritage studies and has established community enterprise at various heritage sites in Tanzania all aimed at building communities’ futures while serving heritage locales.

Lejla Hadzic,

Executive Director, Cultural Heritage without Borders-Albania

Lejla Hadzic is the Executive Director of Cultural Heritage without Borders Albania (CHwB Albania), an independent non-governmental organization dedicated to preserving tangible and intangible cultural heritage. Trained as a conservation architect, her field experience in conservation and management aspects of cultural heritage range from post war reconstruction and engagement in peace building processes to conservation development projects in transitional societies. CHwB Albania is recognized internationally and locally for their work. Some of the awards include: Certificate of Excellence European Heritage Stories from the Council of Europe (2018), Man of the Year Award for the City of Berat (2018), Grand Award for Special Contribution by Serbian Association of Conservators (2015), the European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage by EU Nostra Award (2014).

Lejla graduated from the University of Sarajevo in 2002 with a degree in Architecture. She received a scholarship from the Bosnia-Herzegovina Government to pursue her post graduate studies at the Academia Istropolitana Nova in Slovakia (2002-2003). In 2008, she pursued post-graduate studies in architectural conservation at Lund University in Sweden on a scholarship from the Swedish Government.

Dr Gai Jorayev,

Research Associate, Institute of Archaeology, University College London, UK

Dr Gai Jorayev holds degrees in tourism and archaeological heritage management and currently works at UCL Institute of Archaeology. He is a Degree Programme Co-ordinator for MA in Managing Archaeological Sites and works as part of the research teams focusing on two main areas of modern-day heritage management and digital heritage. Dr Jorayev has a background in heritage management, tourism planning and public outreach, and he has worked with international heritage management and research projects since 2004. He recently carried out projects in post-Soviet space, Africa and European Union, and he currently collaborates closely with organisations such as UNESCO, ICOMOS, UNWTO and international development agencies particularly on their activities in Central Asia. Although cultural heritage, cultural tourism, preservation and capacity building are the main focus of his current activities, Gai has previously worked on development projects with the EU and UNFPA where he has experience in economic and infrastructure development. He is experienced in spatial analyses and modelling and manages Digital Heritage laboratory at UCL Institute of Archaeology and works on Virtual and Augmented Reality applications for public outreach, interpretation and education. Using digital documentation for creating open-access heritage inventory systems, and for monitoring change and informing decisions,are some of the key areas of his research at present.As part of his heritage tourism research, he organised a led specialist heritage tours to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan for the last 5 years.

Andrea Witcomb,

Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia

Andrea Witcomb graduated with a PhD in Media and Communication Studies from Central Queensland University in 1997 (her dissertation looked at the Australian National Maritime Museum and situated it within emerging practices in the new museology). She has a Graduate Diploma in Museum Studies and an Honours Degree in History from the University of Sydney. She worked as a social history curator in the lead up to the opening of the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney and then at the National Museum of Australia. After completing her PhD she took up a lectureship in cultural heritage at the Research Institute for Cultural Heritage at Curtin University in Perth in 1996. She was promoted to a Senior Lecturer in 2000. In 2006 she took up an appointment as an Associate Professor (Research) at Deakin University. She was promoted to Professor at the end of 2013. She is the author of Re-Imagining the Museum: Beyond the Mausoleum (Routledge, 2003) and the co-author of From the Barracks to the Burrup: The National Trust in Western Australia (University of NSW Press, 2010) with Kate Gregory.  Her edited books include South Pacific Museums: An Experiment in Culture (Monash e-press, 2006) with Chris Healy and, with Kylie Message, Museum Theory, which is volume 1 of the International Handbooks of Museum Studies co-edited by Sharon Macdonald and Helen Rees Leahy (Wiley and Sons 2015).