50 Years World Heritage Convention: Shared Responsibility – Conflict & Reconciliation

Marie-Theres Albert (Germany) is a retired professor and former Chairholder of the Chair Intercultural Studies and the UNESCO Chair in Heritage Studies at the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg, where she co-initiated and presided the “World Heritage Studies Master Program” (1999-2010) and founded the PhD Program Heritage Studies (2010). In 2014, she founded the Institute Heritage Studies (IHS) at the Internationale Akademie Berlin (INA) gGmbH. In the context of the IHS, she developed a new paradigmatic approach to Heritage Studies together with her former students. It interprets our heritage in the interest of human development. Since then, she has successfully implemented it in many international projects.

Roland Bernecker (Germany) is Visiting Professor for the Chair of Cultural Management at Brandenburg University of Technology. He was Secretary-General of the German Commission for UNESCO (2004-2019). He took part in the negotiations of the legal instruments of UNESCO for the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003) and the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (2005) and was Member of the Panel for the European Heritage Label (2013-2017). From 2002 to 2004, he worked in the German Federal Foreign Office in Berlin. Previously, he was Director of the French-German Cultural Institute in Nantes, France, and Lecturer at the University of Nantes.

Claire Cave (Ireland) is a lecturer and coordinator of the World Heritage Management programme at University College Dublin (UCD). She holds a Ph.D. in Zoology from UCD with a focus on conservation biology. Her work centres on protected area management in view of globalization and sustainable development. Claire founded the innovative UCD distance learning course in World Heritage Conservation and leads the UCD World Heritage PhD programme which is engaged in diverse research in different countries. Claire is currently a member of the expert advisory group supporting the revision of Ireland's World Heritage Tentative List.

Anca Claudia Prodan (Romania/Germany), Ph.D., is a research consultant at the Institute Heritage Studies, Berlin and guest lecturer at the Latvian Academy of Culture, Riga, where she helped establish a master’s programme in Cultural Heritage Governance and Communication. She holds degrees in Philosophy-Anthropology and (World) Heritage Studies, and she initiated academic research on the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme. She is corresponding member of the Sub-Committee on Education and Research of the MoW Programme; a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Heritage Studies Series; the Association of Critical Heritage Studies; and the International Association of World Heritage Professionals.

Matthias Ripp (Germany), Ph.D., historical geographer, is coordinating the “Old Town of Regensburg with Stadtamhof” site. He specializes in integrated heritage management, heritage communication, governance and resilience of urban heritage and is chairing the German Association of World Heritage Cities. He is also an appointed member of the European Heritage Panel and the Regional Coordinator for Northwest Europe and North-America in the Organization of Heritage Cities (OWHC). He very much enjoys teaching at the University of Regensburg and the Ostbayerische Technische Hochschule Regensburg.