Collaborators

Joni Vainikka is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki interested on decarbonisation, identities, attitudes, and time. He is involved in the Decarbon-Home Strategic Research project and is the president for the Geographical Society of Finland. His current work focuses on the spatialities of climate attitudes, sustainable living, socially equitable transitions, and geographies of time. Holding a PhD in Human Geography from the University of Oulu (2015), Joni has lived in nine cities in Finland, England, and Denmark.

Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet is the Walter H. Annenberg Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania. She has worked on the history of frontiers, borderlands, and boundary-making in Iran and the Middle East, among other subjects.

Tuuli Lähdesmäki Associate Professor of Art History (tenure track) at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, and has the title of Docent in Art History at the University of Jyväskylä, in Critical Heritage Studies at the University of Turku, and in Area and Cultural Studies at the University of Helsinki, Finland. Lähdesmäki's research interests and publications focus on EU cultural, heritage, and diversity policies, heritage narratives, and reception of cultural phenomena. She is currently leading the HERIDI project (EU Heritage Diplomacy and the Dynamics of Inter-Heritage Dialogue), funded by the Academy of Finland.

Iain Robertson is Associate Professor in Historical Geography at the Centre for History, University of the Highlands and Islands and an Adjunct Professor at Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia. His research in critical heritage studies has been built around the formulation and exploration of the concept of heritage from below. First essayed in 2008 and fully developed in Heritage From Below (2012) the concept draws on notions of performativity, affect and the everyday to recognise the counter hegemonic possibilities of the use of the past in the present. His most recent work, ‘“Tracking” working class heritage’ (2019) seeks to extend this exploration to the realm of largely ignored ruination and decay. In so doing it raises the question what is heritage unless it is noticed, put to work, preserved, polished and presented? Robertson answered this by suggesting that ephemerality, transience, decay and destruction perform heritage work as effectively as does any authorised, preserved and conserved heritage icon.

Sofya Shahab is a Research Fellow in Power and Popular Politics at the Institute of Development Studies and a UK Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellow. Her research employs decolonial feminist approaches to understand the lived experiences of conflict, violence, migration and oppression with a focus on how social and physical landscapes are created and utilised in campaigns of terror and resistance and the consequences this has for people’s sense of place, belonging and security. 

Shivan Toma is the Head of the Department of Translation at the College of Languages, University of Duhok. He additionally works as a freelance English, Syriac, Kurdish, and Arabic translator and interpreter. He was previously the faculty coordinator supervising the work of 25 Assyrian heritage gatherers as part of the CREID programme with the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex in collaboration with the University of Duhok.

Dorte Jagetic Andersen is senior researcher in the Centre for Border Region Studies, with a background in European Ethnology and European Continental Philosophy. Her main research interest concerns identity-formation in areas influenced by the presence of geopolitically drawn borders, and she has published extensively and made major theoretical and empirical contributions within the field of border studies. Her recent contributions in the field of border studies and conflict-resolution include research on Northern Ireland and multiple expressions of borderlands resilience more broadly. She also works on expressions of borders and identity express in European civil society. 

Elżbieta Opiłowska, sociologist, is Associate Professor at the Institute of Sociology and Head of the Center for Regional and Borderlands Studies at the University of Wrocław. Her main expertise is in borderlands studies, memory cultures, European integration and German-Polish relations. Guest Professorship at the UniGr-Center for Border Studies, University of Luxembourg (2021) and at the Viadrina Institute of European Studies (2020/2021). Her recent publication is: Poland and Germany in the European Union: The Multi-dimensional Dynamics of Bilateral Relations, Abington: Routledge 2021 (ed. with M. Sus).

Eeva-Kaisa Prokkola is professor in human geography, specializing in regional development and regional policy. Her research and teaching interest include political geography, regional and border region research, political borders, security and securitization, regional resilience and the politics of mobilities. She has published widely in leading international journals such as Political Geography, Antipode, Environment and Planning, Social and Cultural Geography, Citizenship Studies, ACME, Tourism Geographies, and European Urban and Regional Studies. She leads a research project on Cross-border resilience (Eudaimonia 2022-2025) and a work package on border landscapes as part of Borders shaping perceptions of Europe research consortium (Horizon Europe 2023-2026).

Marjeta Pisk is a Research Associate at the Institute of Ethnomusicology of the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU) in Ljubljana, Slovenia.  She intertwines folkloristic research of marginalised genres and practices with research of heritage-making in border regions.

Špela Ledinek Lozej is a Research Associate at the Institute of Slovenian Ethnology of the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU) in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Her research focuses on heritage and heritage-making, folk architecture and Alpine husbandry.

Dacia Viejo Rose is Associate Professor in Heritage and the Politics of the Past in the Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge and Director of the Cambridge Heritage Research Centre.

Hyun Kyung Lee is Assistant Professor at Critical Global Studies Institute at Sogang University in South Korea.

Randall H. McGuire is a SUNY Distinguished Professor at Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York.  He received his BA from the University of Texas and his PhD from the University of Arizona. From 1996 to 2007, he and Dean Saitta of the University of Denver directed the Archaeology of the Colorado Coal Field War, 1913-1914. He has worked with Elisa Villalpando of the Centro INAH, Sonora for 38 years investigating the Trincheras Tradition of Sonora, México. More recently he has done contemporary archaeology studying the materiality of the U.S. – México border. 

Robert Steele is a postdoctoral fellow in the Institute of Iranian Studies, Austrian Academy of Sciences. He holds a PhD in Arab and Islamic Studies from the University of Exeter and has held academic positions at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the London School of Economics and Political Science. He has authored or edited four books on the modern history of Iran, most recently Pahlavi Iran’s Relations with Africa: Cultural and Political Connections in the Cold War (Cambridge University Press, 2024).

Julia’s interest in heritage and its potential to address today’s pressing global issues grew from her interdisciplinary background in the humanities, developed through a BA in liberal arts. MA in Sustainable Heritage Management further deepened her focus on critical heritage studies, particularly around ecological issues. In September 2024, Julia began her PhD at Aarhus University, studying the intersections of heritage and borders within the Bialowieza Forest, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Her work examines the impacts of recent disruptions in the Forest—from logging and exploitation to a humanitarian crisis—within a world increasingly affected by climate collapse, migration, and shifting environmental policies.

Jay Mateo is a master's student in Sustainable Heritage Management at Aarhus University and contributed the cartographic research for this project. They studied communications and geography for their undergraduate career, with focuses in Asian languages (Arabic, Mandarin, Hindi) and environmental chemistry. Their research interests include cultural landscapes in relation to both identity and geopolitics and their career interests extend to conservancy and ecotourism. They currently serve as an interpretive park ranger in the US National Park Service.

Annie Gibson recieved her BA in history at Walla Walla University and is currently an MA student in Aarhus University's Sustainable Heritage Management program. Her contributions to the Futures of Eurasia project include analysis of key player organizations and their influence on heritage border complexes, and designing the project website. With varied interests in religious history,  geopolitics, and music heritage, she is open to exploring various opportunities that align with her passions for heritage preservation and understanding cultural landscapes. Annie looks forward to connecting with fellow professionals and organizations that share her commitment to heritage and its vital role in our understanding of diverse communities and histories.

Dekav is a student researcher focusing on the overlap of critical heritage studies, material culture, and Eastern-Western dynamics. She is taking a Master's degree in Sustainable Heritage Management, Aarhus University. She completed her undergraduate in architecture, with some field study on architectural heritage in Dutch-Indies colonization towards Indonesia. In this Eurasia Heritage-Border Complex project, she is focusing on the nomination of Roman Wall as World Heritage Site using institutional archive. Later on, she is keen to explore other types of archives and aiming to bring novelty in decolonizing material culture.

Aadchaya Apputhurai is a second-year Undergraduate Environmental Science student at the University of Southampton. She contributed to secondary data research and mapping the diaspora part of the project. She is interested in GIS, cartography and environmental issues. As a South Asian child born to immigrant parents in the UK, she is immensely interested in the diaspora's transnational heritage.