2022 Annual Conference

Day 2 speakers –

Prof. Cornelius Holtorf

Cornelius read prehistoric archaeology, social anthropology and physical anthropology in Germany,
England and Wales. In 1998 he gained his PhD and was subsequently employed in research and
teaching at the University of Gothenburg (1998-1999), the University of Cambridge (1999-2002), the
Swedish National Heritage Board in Stockholm (2002-2004) and the University of Lund (2005-2008).
Since 2008 Cornelius has been working at Kalmar where he is currently a Professor of Archaeology at
Linnaeus University and Director of the Graduate School in Contract Archaeology (GRASCA).
Since 2017 he has been holding a UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures at Linnaeus University.

Prof. Peter Stone OBE 

Peter Stone is the UNESCO Chair in Cultural Property Protection and Peace at Newcastle University (UK) and President of the Blue Shield (https://theblueshield.org/). He was previously Head of the School of Arts and Cultures and Professor of Heritage Studies in the International Centre for Cultural and Heritage Studies at Newcastle University. He has published widely on heritage management, interpretation, and education. Peter was Honorary Chief Executive Officer of the World Archaeological Congress between 1998 and 2008. Before joining the University in 1997 he had worked for English Heritage, as a field archaeologist, and history teacher. 

Since 2003 his work has focussed on the protection of cultural property in armed conflict and following natural or human-made disasters and on the way World Heritage sites can be used to support UNESCO’s raison d’être of building peace in the minds of men and women. He has written extensively on these topic including co-editing, with Joanne Farchakh Bajjaly, The Destruction of Cultural Heritage in Iraq (2008) and editing Cultural Heritage, Ethics and the Military (2011). His article ‘The 4 Tier approach’ in the British Army Review led directly to the establishment of the Cultural Property Protection Unit in UK forces.

Patrizia La Piscopia

Patrizia is an archaeologist currently working for the National Monuments Service (Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage), in the World Heritage Unit. She completed her first Master’s degree in Science and Conservation of Archaeological Materials in Bologna University with the CNR. She then moved to the University College Dublin, to pursue an MA in Landscape Archaeology. Patrizia has many years of experience as a researcher, lecturer and archaeologist, and has worked in both commercial and research excavations in Europe and further afield. In the past, she has collaborated with the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) to design and implement targeted trainings. She has been a member of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) since 2011 and in 2019 she has joined Blue Shield Ireland as committee member.

World Heritage Youth Ambassadors (YAMs)

World Heritage Youth Ambassadors is an award winning, royally visited program, that empowers young people aged 10-25 to have a voice, in their own lives, their communities and the World Heritage Sector. Through an innovative program of activity which combines heritage, wellbeing, and volunteering, the young people who participate are active, empowered, transformative, listened to, and supported. The program has been running over 7 years, and in that time has engaged with over 1000 young people, delivered over 5000 voluntary hours, 250 accreditations, 50 traineeships and apprenticeships, 500 heritage-based learning sessions, all across programs run in 8 different UK World Heritage Sites.