“World Heritage for All” – day 2’s speakers are:
Melissa Strauss, National Lottery Heritage Fund: Melissa works in the policy team at the National Lottery Heritage Fund, leading on children and young people and cultures and memories. She developed the Kick the Dust programme, strengthening youth engagement with heritage, and the Dynamic Collections campaign. More widely, Melissa is a trustee of the Food Museum, a co-founder of Museum Space Invaders, and has published research on community participation in heritage decision-making and governance.
Stephen Balfour, Antonine Wall Project Manager, West Dunbartonshire Council: Stephen has worked in a variety of roles in the Scottish tourism sector and is a former chair of the Scottish Local Authorities Economic Development (SLAED) tourism group. Stephen has managed other National Heritage Lottery Fund and LEADER funded projects in the past including the development the new Linlithgow Museum which achieved 5-star status in 2019. From February 2022 Stephen managed the successful completion of the Rediscovering the Antonine Wall project and has now started the process of researching and scoping out a successor project.
Christine Bell, Cycling Without Age Scotland: Having founded the project in Scotland in 2017, whilst employed as a Project Officer for the small yet hugely successful multi award-winning community group, Communities Along the Carron Association (with its primary focus on community regeneration and environmental improvements), Christine has led Cycling Without Age Scotland (CWAS) since its inception and formal inauguration in 2018. In its five years to date, CWAS, a registered charity, has grown substantially from just one Chapter (branch) in Falkirk with two Trishaws, to now having 67 Chapters (branches) and over 130 Trishaws across the country. With an active and hands-on approach and contributing to all aspects of the organisation’s activities, she leads a small and dedicated team that more than “punches above its weight”. Christine herself is utterly dedicated and committed to, and passionate about the project and the benefits it brings to everyone involved.
Hsiao-Chiang Wang (Hope), University of Glasgow: Hope holds the UNESCO Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts (RILA) PhD Scholarship. Her research interests span participatory action research, heritage education, and refugee integration. She spearheads the “We are Living Heritage and We Share World Heritage” project. Her current research, titled “Co-creating the Values of World Heritage Sites with Refugees: A World View Perspective,” seeks to foster a profoundly inclusive and multicultural method of heritage education. This endeavour utilizes UNESCO designations as pivotal mediums for achieving restorative integration and embodied decoloniality.
Tony McCaffery, Diversity Scotland: Tony (he/they) is Founder and CEO of Diversity Scotland -a leading Diversity, Equity and Inclusion consultancy. With over 30 years’ experience in People & Talent, Tony has achieved success as a leader in Human Resources, Learning & Development, Employability, Recruitment, and more recently in Diversity & Inclusion. A regular contributor in the media, Tony has featured in radio and television programmes where diversity and equity have been the focus, along with publishing articles and opinion pieces in national newspapers and magazines. He regularly undertakes speaking engagements for global businesses and NGOs. As a proud Queer, multi-ethnic Person of Colour, with disabilities and neurodivergence, they integrate these intersectional characteristics along with his own lived experience of childhood homelessness, the foster care system and poverty into their work. His ethnic heritage is a delightful mix of Indian, Somalian, Celtic and Indigenous Circumpolar people. Tony’s work has been recognised through a range of honours. For the second consecutive year they have been shortlisted as a finalist for Diversity Hero of the Year at the upcoming Diversity Awards in Scotland.
Emily Goff and Karl Mercer, Curating for Change: Emily is Project Manager for Curating for Change, the ground-breaking 3-year National Lottery Heritage Funded programme tackling the underrepresentation of D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people in our museums. Emily is an experienced volunteer manager, museum educator and qualified primary school teacher who has worked for a range of independent, national and university museums and collections over her 12-year career. Karl is a writer, poet, musician and communicator with a passion for improving access and diverse voices in culture and heritage. Fuelled by his working class upbringing and late diagnosis of autism. Karl believes anything and everything can be interesting if you can find the right story in it. But his main subjects of interest are biology and natural history (please ask him about wasps, he will make you love them!), and Roman history; particularly the late Republic and early Principate, and early Roman Britain. Karl was our Curating for Change Trainee at Colchester and Ipswich Museums; where he curated a display, Un/Masked, which looked at the absence of autism and neurodivergence in museum collections, challenging discriminatory collections practices. He is now working as Digital Content Creator for Curating for Change.
Irene Mosota FRSA, Edinburgh Slavery & Colonialism Implementation Group: Irene is the Independent chair for the Edinburgh Slavery and Colonialism Implementation group. She’s a social enterprise practitioner and Deputy chair for Social Enterprise Scotland. with experience in delivering a variety of social projects and community projects. An advocate for social Justice, Human rights, and dignity for all. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA). With a Master of Science in Intercultural Business Communications, Ms Mosota is founder and managing director of Knowledge Bridge, which supports organisations to translate equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI), and sustainability strategies into meaningful action, change and impact.
Dr Kate Roberts, Chief Inspector of Ancient Monuments and Historic Buildings, Cadw: Kate is Head of Cadw’s Historic Environment Branch which is responsible for implementing Welsh Government’s statutory responsibilities for protection of the historic environment. Kate first became involved with World Heritage as Cadw’s Principal Inspector of Ancient Monuments when she worked on projects in the Castles of Edward WHS and she was a core member of the team responsible for the inscription of the Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales WHS.
Lewis Hetherington: Lewis is Glasgow-based playwright and performance maker. His work is rooted in collaboration, storytelling and play. He has won two Fringe First Awards with Analogue Theatre and an Adelaide Fringe Award. He is co-founder of fieldwork performance, Constellation Points, and an associate of The PappyShow. He has worked with companies including National Theatre of Scotland, Platform, Lyceum Theatre, Traverse and Grid Iron. He has created performances in castles, climbing arenas and swimming pools, as well as theatres, all over the world, including venues and festivals in Australia, Canada, China, USA, Singapore, Japan and more. He often makes performances with community groups and has a real passion for uncovering stories which need to be heard, and using creativity to empower people to find their voices and agency. He makes a lot of work for children and young people, and finds their capacity for imagination and honesty as audience members hugely inspiring.
This year’s conference is kindly supported by:
