If ever there was a need for an accurate and critical understanding of the role of cultural heritage in contemporary contemporary society, that need became evident with dramatic international and domestic events in recent years.  Vladimir Putin’s historically inaccurate, irredentist reconstruction of the Ukrainian past as an excuse for its attacks, accompanied by Russia’s collateral and deliberate destruction of cultural heritage sites across Ukraine. 

The Ukrainian conflict erupted soon after the Cambridge Heritage Research Centre, under the leadership of Dr. Dacia Viejo-Rose and Dr. Marie Louise Stig Sorenson, launched CRIC: Cultural Heritage and the Reconstruction of Identities after Conflict, a four-year study. 

CHAMP sees an opening for further perspectives in the field of cultural heritage conflict, in addition to CRIC’s focus on reconstruction of identities after conflict. Various of CHAMP’s affiliated scholars work on cultural identity and cultural heritage conflicts around the globe, such as in India (Dr. Erin Riggs, Anthropology), Armenia (Dr. Donna Buchanan, Music), Thailand (Dr. Helaine Silverman, Anthropology), and the southern and eastern Mediterranean Basin (Dr. Brett Kaufman, Classics).

CHAMP is aware of the currently inflamed role of cultural heritage in conflicts in Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Therefore, a group of CHAMP faculty is now working to put together a curriculum – based on courses already taught – that will lead to a UIUC-CHAMP Certificate in Cultural Heritage Conflict for our international colleagues by means of online mini-courses offered through CHAMP. We will advertise this special program as soon as it is ready.