The politics of world heritage: visions, custodians, and futures of humanity

In this book launch, Elif Kalaycioglu, will present her new book, The Politics of World Heritage: Visions, Custodians, and Futures of Humanity, followed by a discussion and Q&A.

The book examines the permutations of a global cultural history of humanity that has emerged through decades of World Heritage politics. Within this history, Dr Kalaycioglu excavates the exclusions, hierarchies and contradictions that challenge UNESCO's mandate of fostering global peace and solidarity. In doing so, Kalaycioglu identifies in "nested constructions of humanity,” which refuse flat universalisms and which circulate within the regime, more robust possibilities of peace and solidarity.

Meet our speakers and chair

Elif Kalaycioglu is a Lecturer in the War Studies Department at King’s College London. Prior to joining KCL, she taught at the University of Alabama and held a postdoctoral position at Princeton University’s Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance. She received her PhD from the University of Minnesota and her MSc in European Studies from LSE. Her research is on the role of cultural and historical resources in the conduct of global politics, with an empirical focus on global heritage politics and UNESCO’s world heritage regime. Her articles have appeared in Review of International Studies, International Theory, International Political Sociology, and Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Relations.

Alvina Hoffmann is a Lecturer in Diplomatic Studies at SOAS University of London. Before joining SOAS, she taught at King’s College London and Queen Mary University of London. She holds a PhD from King’s College London, Master’s from Sciences Po Paris, and an MSc from LSE. Her research and teaching interests are in human rights and humanitarianism, the sociology of elites and experts, transnational professionals, socio-legal studies and the UN.

Sinja Graf is Assistant Professor in the Department of International Relations at LSE. Her research engages the intersection of international theory, (the legacies of) imperialism and international law; it examines mobilisations of normative universals in arguments about order, justice and the legitimacy of violence in international politics set against (post-)colonial contexts.

More about this event

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