Joanne Dingwall McCafferty

Short presentation

Thesis title - Heritage and diplomacy: UNESCO's role in cultural heritage protection during armed conflict in Yemen, Syria and Iraq 

I obtained my MA degree in History of Art and Film and Television Studies from the University of Glasgow, Scotland in 2016. In 2017, I graduated with an MSc Art History: Collecting and Provenance in an International Context (with Distinction), also from the University of Glasgow. My Master’s thesis focused on an analysis of the UK’s ratification of the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, and what form the UK’s approach to cultural heritage protection will take post ratification.

Currently, I am employed as a PhD Fellow at the Department for Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies and the National Museum of Denmark, with my thesis focusing on the role of UNESCO during armed conflict in the past years in connection with the material culture of the Middle East. This project is supervised by both Dr. Tobias Richter of the University of Copenhagen and Peter Pentz of the National Museum. 

My research explores the strengths and weaknesses of current implementations of cultural heritage protection (CHP) during armed conflict to determine the requirements for implementing a successful CHP capability. It examines how UNESCO policy could change to more effectively impact the standard of safeguarding and governance afforded to our common cultural heritage, ensuring Member States of the 1954 Hague Convention and 1970 UNESCO Convention are provided with the necessary tools and Best Practice guide to effectively enforce heritage protection in areas experiencing conflict. The positive consequence of this research will be increasing the potential for countries experiencing war to recover post-conflict.