CIE - Centre for International Heritage Activities
Centrum voor Internationale Erfgoedactiviteiten
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19 May 2025 Robert Parthesius to Speak at the EU–Kuwait Cultural Forum
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On 9 May 2025, Dr. Robert Parthesius will speak at the EU–Kuwait Cultural Forum, held in celebration of Kuwait’s designation as the Arab Capital of Culture. His keynote address, “Managing the Past at Home and Abroad,” will explore the evolving dynamics of European–Kuwaiti collaboration in heritage management and cultural exchange.
Now Streaming: The Golden Harvest by Alia Yunis — This Week Only –
We are proud to announce that The Golden Harvest, a powerful documentary by our Director of Program, Alia Yunis, is available to stream for one week only — from 8 to 15 May 2025.
Documentary | 1h 25m
Writer & Director: Alia Yunis
Editor & Producer: Jaime Estrada-Torres
The Golden Harvest is a 6,000-year-old love story that follows the filmmaker’s journey to uncover the deep and sometimes painful connection between the people of the Mediterranean and the olive tree — a symbol of resilience, identity, and shared heritage. Through a personal lens, Yunis explores this bond, including her own family’s ties to the olive groves of Palestine.
Don’t miss this moving tribute to one of the world’s most enduring cultural and agricultural legacies.
Climate Cartographies: Glitch Course in Dubai
CIE Director of Programs Alia Yunis presentes at the Climate Cartographies: Glitch course organised by the AA Visiting School 25 April 2025–3 May 2025.
The course examines the intersection of climate change and heritage, while also considering innovative ways of representing these themes through the medium of sound. In the past, human settlements were primarily shaped by geographical terrains; today, however, they are predominantly defined by borders. A new conversation has arisen around the challenges posed by border regimes and restrictions on movement, especially in the face of environmental disasters. Valuable insights can be gained from places where border controls are temporarily lifted—areas that exist as anomalies within the modern nation-state system.
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Book Launch: (RE) EMERGING PASTS
In February 2025, CIE celebrated the release of Future Stories in the Global Heritage Industry (Routledge 2025) with an online panel with the authors and editors in a four-year long CIE project. Written by an interdisciplinary group of emerging scholars and heritage professionals connected to these sites through their own heritage, this volume considers how a community can engage with a site’s globalized importance while retaining its own sense of history. Here is the full conversation.
Manifest:IO
In February 2025, CIE founder Robert Parthesius and program head Alia Yunis delivered the keynote address at the third edition of Manifest:IO in Berlin, discussing the role of heritage and the arts, particularly as we move into electronic and AI art. CIE was also one of the co-sponsors of the two-day event which brought together heritage-driven artists from around the world.
ICOM conference Dubai
In November 2024, program head Alia Yunis was one of the invited speakers to the opening day of the ICOM Symposium in Dubai. She spoke about the role of heritage in youth education. Other invited speakers include Sultan Al Qassemi and Pablo Guayasamin of UNESCO’s Virtual Museum of Lost Objects.
Global Heritage Symposium
Networked Heritage –Collaborative Strategies
for Global Research
​The symposium “Networked Heritage – Collaborative Strategies for Global Research” offers an international platform for the exchange of research results and ideas. The focus is on promoting global collaborations that advance research in the areas of cultural heritage, digital networking and collaborative strategies. In particular, the use of the collaboration platform “Heritage Universe” will be discussed, which was developed over the last two years by the international team HeritageLab.Center.
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FH Münster University of Applied Sciences 
Technology Campus Steinfurt 
Creative Technologies Lab, E-015 
Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024
Award for the HeritageLab
Alia Yunis presented at 23 July the HeritageLab platform at the 2024 Awards for World Heritage Education Innovative Cases, by the World Heritage Institute of Training and Research for Asia and the Pacific Region under the auspices of UNESCO (WHITRAP). A side event at the UNESCO 46th session of the World Heritage Committee, New Delhi, India.
​CIE launched the HeritageLab platform in collaboration with international partners and heritage communities. The HeritageLab for academics, artists and heritage professionals who seek to give voice to forgotten and neglected narratives, connect heritage landscapes across oceans and seas, and share with marginalized communities the skills that empower them to unlock, document and celebrate their heritage and collective memory.
“Gaza is Alive” A cultural event celebrating the power of heritage and the recognition of humanity in the Palestinian story.
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This exhibition celebrated the resilience and creativity of the people of Gaza and how this connects its people to their past and future—and to the rest of the world. Spanning two months, this dedicated space centred around an exhibition featuring works by Gaza-based artists, portraits of notable contemporary Gazans, and audio-visual installations that highlight the rich and vibrant heritage and arts of Palestine. By presenting the art, traditions, and culture of Gaza and Palestine. This event encourages visitors and participants to see beyond propaganda and politics, fostering a deeper understanding of the human stories and cultural richness that persist despite adversity. Join us in building a bridge of awareness and in recognizing the enduring strength of heritage and art in the face of challenges.
21 September-3 November 2024. Tolhuistuin Exposition Space, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Conference One Ocean | One Heritage,
29 April-1May 2024, Abu Dhabi
Heritage and the ocean are deeply intwined in coastal communities across the globe. The way our ancestors were affected and adapted to changes in climate is documented in both the cultural memory and the material traces of the past. Looking to the past for guidance and reflecting on the outcomes of COP 28, the Ocean Decade Conference, and the passing of the High Seas Treaty last March, brings together ocean heritage scholars, policymakers, artists, and practitioners with the goal of fostering interdisciplinary “heritage future” projects that support and empower local communities.
Reviving Deleted Cities: Jaffa & Gaza,
Pakhuis de Zwijger, Amsterdam (April 17, 2024).
This CIE co-hosted event looked at how to build the future of the urban, cosmopolitan, and intellectual Palestinian cities with deleted (hi)stories. We presented and had a lively discussion of our Heritage Co-Lab Jaffa Resurfacing. This Co-Lab was begun in 2020 by the project coordinator Umayya Abu Hanna and included multiple perspectives on the history of this rich port city. Alia Yunis and Robert Parthesius presented CIE–Universe and HeritageLab and its wider context and theme of heritage and conflict. The event recording is available here.
The Ocean's Past is our Future – Cultural Heritage and Climate Change Round Table discussion in the Ocean Pavillion at COP28 Dubai, UAE:
5 December 2023
"The COP roundtable centered on leveraging insights from underwater cultural heritage to understand past environmental conditions and devising ways to shield humanity's treasures from the perils of climate change. This event was a collaborative effort between UNESCO Paris and Cairo, Scripps Institute, NYU Abu Dhabi, the Center for International Heritage Activities (CIE), and the Ocean Decade Heritage Network (ODHN), aligning with COP 28 goals and Sustainable Development Goals 6, 11.4, 13, and 14.
Fall 2024
ICOM conference Dubai
In November 2024, program head Alia Yunis was one of the invited speakers to the opening day of the ICOM Symposium in Dubai. She spoke about the role of heritage in youth education. Other invited speakers include Sultan Al Qassemi and Pablo Guayasamin of UNESCO’s Virtual Museum of Lost Objects.