Thesis title: Strategies for Post-Disaster Recovery of cultural heritage sites in Iran: Focusing on land subsidence

Co-supervision: UoE & UZH

Biography: Ali Asar is a PhD candidate in Architecture based at the University of Edinburgh (home) and University of Zurich (host). His research focuses on post disaster recovery of the built heritage affected by land subsidence. His research aims to explore frameworks for practical measures, policy recommendations and community engagement as well.

He holds a Master’s in Architecture with over a decade of working experience in different positions in the architectural field. He is an active member of the “international council on monuments and sites” (ICOMOS) and has had opportunities to speak at conferences, lead meetings, and deliver speeches on the different aspects of conservation of his country’s built heritage. Also, his travels to many of the cities and villages of his ancient country, Iran, led to the creation of over 7000 documentary photos of historical buildings, ancient sites and monuments.

He is currently working to establish the national committee of the “Blue shield” in his country,which is an international organization aimed at preserving cultural properties during armed conflicts and natural disasters.

Thesis title: Resilient Heritage: Towards Common Guidelines for the Protection of Architectural Heritage in Conflict-to-Peace Transition

Co-supervision: UNIBO & UCM

Biography: Alina Vlasova is an emerging researcher in architectural heritage conservation and a PhDcandidate in Architecture and Design Cultures at the University of Bologna. Her Doctoral thesis entitled “Resilient Heritage: Towards Common Guidelines for the Protection of
Architectural Heritage in Conflict-to-Peace Transition” focuses on the protection, restoration and management of architectural heritage in the contexts of armed conflicts and conflict-to-peace transition periods. Her research approach combines heritage resilience models, qualitative comparative methods, and international legal frameworks.

Alina holds a Master's degree in Historic Buildings Rehabilitation from the University of Bologna (2025) as well as Bachelor's (2018) and Master's (2022) degrees in Restoration and Reconstruction of Architectural Heritage. In her recent Master’s thesis she analysed restoration and reconstruction of architectural heritage in the USSR during and after World War II (1941-1955).

As a researcher, Alina aims to develop transferable, evidence-based guidelines forsafeguarding architectural heritage in crisis and recovery contexts. Her work seeks to strengthen coordination between international legal instruments, heritage professionals, and local communities, contributing to more resilient and inclusive approaches to post-conflict heritage protection.

Beyond academia, Alina actively participates in discussions on dissonant heritage, cultural narratives and the ethical challenges of interpreting contested past in contemporary societies.

Thesis title: Coloring Antiquity: Wilhelm Zahn between Archaeological Reflection and the Invention of Neo-Pompeian Aesthetics

Co-supervision: UP1 & FUB

Biography: Ambra Famiglietti is a PhD student in the Una Europa Doctoral Programme in Cultural Heritage, jointly supervised by Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and Freie Universität Berlin. Her doctoral research focuses on the role of Wilhelm Zahn (1800 - 1871) in the visual documentation and dissemination of Vesuvian wall paintings through chromolithography, and on his contribution to the formation of a neoPompeian aesthetic in nineteenth-century Europe.

She holds a double Master’s degree in Heritage, Museums and Visual Arts from Université Paris 1 PanthéonSorbonne and the University of Bologna, and a Bachelor’s degree in Ancient History from the University of Pisa. Her academic training is complemented by extensive professional experience in major cultural institutions, including the Gallerie degli Uffizi, the Parco Archeologico del Colosseo, the Museo
Archeologico Nazionale di Firenze, and the archaeological parks of Paestum and Velia.

Her research interests lie at the intersection of archaeology, art history, visual culture and heritage studies, with particular attention to conservation, management, preservation and transmission of cultural heritage. Her work adopts a transnational and interdisciplinary perspective, fully aligned with the objectives of the Una Europa programme.

Thesis title: Assisted Belonging: Transnational Heritage Practices of Intercultural Mediators in School-Based Education

Co-supervision: JAG & KUL

Biography: Anastasiya Sudyk is a PhD candidate in Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland. She holds a BA (2017) and an MA (2023) in Swedish Philology and spent several years pursuing academic and professional activities connected to Scandinavia. Research on language policy in education conducted in Sweden sparked her interest in intercultural mediation, eventually prompting her shift from linguistics to cultural anthropology and migration studies. She is currently completing a second MA in Interfaculty Individual Studies in the Humanities and has volunteered and conducted workshops in the heritage sector, including a collaboration with the Małopolska Institute of Culture.

Thesis title: The Archaeological Collections of Peru in French and European Institutions: A History of Taste. A Study of the Paul Berthon Collection.

Co-supervision: UP1 & UNIBO

Biography: Aurore Breit holds a Master’s degree in Art History, specialising in Art History Applied to Collections, obtained at the École du Louvre in Paris. She is currently a first-year doctoral student at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (UMR 8096 – Archéologie des Amériques), under the supervision of Nicolas Goepfert (CNRS) and Anna Rosellini (Alma mater studiorum -Università di Bologna). Her research focuses on the development of Americanism in the twentieth century.

Thesis title: Intangible Cultural Heritage in Post-conflict Recovery and Peacebuilding: A case study of the Cambodian Royal Ballet

Co-supervision: JAG & UP1

Biography: Carole Idczak is a cultural professional with over ten years of experience, including three years with the UNESCO Office in Cambodia, where she coordinated projects across four World Heritage sites and advanced initiatives on intangible cultural heritage and the creative industries in support of peacebuilding and sustainable development. Her work has involved close collaboration with governments, experts, multilateral donors and academic institutions to promote culture as a driver of resilience, dialogue and social cohesion.

She holds two Master’s degrees: one from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris, in Music and the Social Sciences, and one from Goldsmiths, University of London, in Creative and Cultural Industries. Combining a strong research background from leading European institutions with extensive field experience, her doctoral research focuses on the role of intangible cultural heritage in post-conflict recovery and peacebuilding, building on her professional engagement in conflict-affected contexts.

Thesis title: Beyond Earth: Planning for the Curation and Inclusion of Art, Culture, and Heritage in the Second Space Race

Co-supervision: UoE & JAG

Biography: Christopher Connor Dunwoody holds two master’s degrees: one in International Development (2018) and another in Sustainable Cultural Heritage (2023). He has over a decade of professional experience in international development, working on humanitarian assistance, conflict prevention, and large-scale economic development initiatives across Africa, Asia, and South America. His development career concluded at the Asian Development Bank, following earlier work in a diplomatic capacity in Washington, DC.

In 2021, Dunwoody transitioned into the field of cultural heritage. During his second master’s program, he worked with UNESCO on sustainable heritage asset development in India, where he authored the Jaipur Tourism Sector Plan. The plan was adopted by UNESCO in 2022 as an officially recognized methodology for sustainable heritage development.

Two years after completing his master’s in cultural heritage, Dunwoody began a PhD in Science, Technology, and Innovation Studies at the University of Edinburgh. His doctoral research focuses on cultural heritage practices in space-based habitats, with particular interest in the interaction between heritage and emerging technologies, and the role heritage may play in shaping future space-bound societies.

Thesis title: Crafting Futures: Crafts, Shared Heritage, and the Reimagination of Contested Spaces

Co-supervision: UoE & UP1

Biography: Charalambia (Chara) Constantinou is a PhD candidate in Cultural Heritage at the University of Edinburgh. Her research examines how crafts can foster solidarity and peacebuilding in contested societies, using Cyprus as a case study. Drawing on critical heritage studies, craft theory, peace and conflict theory, and utopian and futures approaches, her work explores crafts as embodied, intergenerational practices of care, memory, and social cohesion, as well as the potential of the Buffer Zone to be re-imagined as a shared heritage space.

Chara holds an MA (Hons) in History of Art and an MSc in Cultural Heritage Futures from the University of Edinburgh. Her academic work combines ethnography, participatory action research, and speculative design methods, with a strong interest in heritage futures and policy pathways. Alongside her doctoral research, she is actively involved in heritage and community initiatives, including the UNDP Technical Committee on Cultural Heritage as a Heritage Youth Ambassador, the Fashion Heritage Network Cyprus and NEPOMAK. Her broader interests include intangible cultural heritage, crafts, contested spaces, and the role of culture in reconciliation and sustainable futures.

Thesis title: Manufacturing Identities: The Role of Material Heritage in the Construction of Identity in Uzbekistan

Co-supervision: UZH & UP1

Biography: Dilafza Haydaraliyeva is a doctoral researcher in Social Anthropology at the University of Zurich, specializing in the intersection of material heritage, national identity, and state policy in post-Soviet Central Asia. Her research examines how architectural and monumental heritage is curated, conserved, and publicly narrated in Uzbekistan, and how these practices shape identity-making across state institutions, expert communities, and everyday urban life, with case studies in Shakhrisabz, Samarkand, and Tashkent.

With training in archaeology and heritage conservation (UCL Institute of Archaeology) and anthropology (McGill University), she brings a multidisciplinary approach that combines material analysis with ethnographic fieldwork. Her interests include the politics of monumental heritage, heritage policy and governance, the management of World Heritage sites, and the afterlives of Soviet heritage infrastructures and planning logics. Conceptually, she is attentive to how global heritage frameworks are negotiated locally and how legitimacy is produced through built form, conservation practice, and “Silk Road” narratives.

Thesis title: Regenerative Cultural Tourism and Heritage Preservation: A Doughnut Economics Perspective on European Traditional and Heritage Music Festivals

Co-supervision: UCM & KUL

Thesis title: World Cultural and Natural Heritage in Danger. Rules, Instruments and Enforcement in International Law

Co-supervision: UNIBO & KUL

Biography:

Giulia Bortino is a PhD Candidate in International Law at the University of Bologna. Her doctoral thesis, entitled “World Cultural and Natural Heritage in Danger: Rules, Instruments and Enforcement in International Law”, focuses on the international legal protection of endangered heritage. She is also a member of the International PhD College of the Collegio Superiore at the University of Bologna.

She graduated cum laude in 2021 in Languages for International Relations from the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, and in 2024 in International Cooperation on Human Rights and Intercultural Heritage from the University of Bologna.

Giulia Bortino works as a teaching tutor for the International Law Chair at the Ravenna Campus of the University of Bologna. After graduating, she carried out an Erasmus traineeship at Europa Nostra – the European voice of civil society committed to cultural heritage, in Brussels. Her main research interests lie in cultural heritage and international law.

Thesis title: In Memory of Remembrance: A Comparative Study of National Trauma in China and Japan after 1945,

Co-supervision: UCM & UP1

Biography: Han SHEN is a current PhD student at the Geography and History Department of Complutense University of Madrid, whose research interests are in Asian studies, collective memory, and contemporary history. He also once worked at Nagoya University in Japan as a research assistant following the graduation from CUHK in 2023.

His publications include Land custom and the development of adverse possession in HKSAR: Taking the case of "Adverse possession" at A Kung Ngan Village Road, Shau Kei Wan as an example, Journal of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences (ISSN 2771-2907), 2024, Pp906-914 and Land Dispute and Traditional Customs in the New Territories: Analysis of Tang Kwong Yu Tong Case, Transactions on Social Science, Education and Humanities Research (ISSN: 2960-1770), 2024 Pp 335-342. His topic for PhD dissertation is Collective Memory in the Memorials: A Comparative Study of National Trauma in China and Japan.

Thesis title: The ‘world-heritagization’ of historic urban public parks from a stakeholder perspective – challenges and opportunities

Co-supervision: UP1 & UCM

Biography: Marie Le Devehat is a PhD researcher at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, associated with EIREST (Interdisciplinary Research Team on Tourism Studies). Her research focuses on the ‘world-heritagisation’ of Historic Urban Public Parks as potential World Heritage Sites. Alongside her research work, Marie is the UNESCO World Heritage Site application supervisor for Birkenhead Park, the pioneering People’s Park.

Before she embarked on this journey, she has worked in various roles with a focus on World Heritage Sites and heritage management. Based in Paris, she has provided support for the evaluation process of aspirant World Heritage Sites for ICOMOS International Secretariat. While working as a project researcher for the Institute of Archaeology at University College London, she contributed to a cultural heritage management consultancy for the World Heritage Site of Butrint in Albania.

Thesis title: Performing the Past: Cultural Staging and Tourist Consumption of Adaptive Heritage Spaces in Hanoi

Co-supervision: UP1 & UCM

Biography: Pham Thuy Linh is a lecturer and researcher in architectural history, urban heritage, and tourism studies at Hanoi Architectural University. Trained as an architect, she has over ten years of professional and academic experience working at the intersection of heritage conservation, adaptive reuse, and urban transformation in Vietnam. Her work is grounded in the realities of rapidly changing postcolonial cities, where heritage sites are increasingly mobilised as cultural, economic, and symbolic resources.

Her doctoral research examines how adaptive heritage spaces in Hanoi are curated, staged, and consumed within the frameworks of cultural industries and urban tourism. Drawing on interdisciplinary approaches from heritage studies, cultural geography, and urban anthropology, her thesis investigates how selective narratives of the past are performed through spatial design, programming, and everyday practices, and how these performances reshape notions of authenticity, memory, and urban identity.

Through in-depth case studies, her research aims to contribute to critical debates on heritage governance and heritage-led development, while building comparative perspectives between Southeast Asia and Europe. Her broader academic ambition is to bridge research, policy, and creative practice in the field of contemporary urban heritage.

Thesis title: Digitally Mediated Mourning and Digital Remains in theGalician-Portuguese Borderlands

Co-supervision: FUB & UoE

Biography: Sergio is a PhD candidate at the Freie Universität Berlin, within the Faculty ofPhilosophy and Humanities. He has an academic background spanning Art History, Film Studies, and Interaction Design, shaping an interdisciplinary profile situated between cultural practice and design research, with professional experience in the digital healthcare field, alongside long-standing experience in cultural production contexts.

His doctoral research explores how mourning practices are transformed incontemporary digital contexts, focusing on how communities relate to the digital remains of the deceased and how these emergent forms of mediation can reshape or displace local traditions of grief. The project is grounded in the Galician-Portuguese borderlands, a region where death remains deeply embedded in everyday life, and where these practices are increasingly mediated through digital infrastructures and platforms.