Why Should Cultural Heritage Be Protected?

Between the nineteenth century and today, colonial officials, collectors, and anthropologists dismembered African buildings and dispersed their parts to museums in Europe and the United States. Most of these artifacts were cataloged as ornamental art objects, which erased their i ...  Show more

Architecture, Empire, and Trade: The United Africa Company (Bloomsbury, 2025) pieces together a new architectural history of West Africa from the high colonial period through to independence. From the imperial Royal Niger Company’s charter in the 1890s through to commercial deve ...  Show more

Kim Chakanetsa talks to two women who help save cultural heritage in areas afflicted by conflict and natural disasters.

Kateryna Goncharova has a Ph.D. in Museum and Monuments Studies. She joined the World Monuments Fund in April 2022 as Ukraine Heritage Crisis Specialis ...

En 1993, à l’occasion des négociations sur le GATTE, l’accord général sur les tarifs douaniers et le commerce mondial, s’est posée la question d’inclure les produits culturels dans le champ du libre-échange des biens et services. Naturellement, cela a soulevé une opposition de l’ ...  Show more

Benjamin Martin’s The Nazi-Fascist New Order for European Culture (Harvard University Press, 2016) examines the attempt by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy to forge a European cultural empire out of their military conquests during World War II. Martin shows that the idea of Europe ...  Show more

What do Gwen Stefani, Iggy Azalea, and Camille Monet have in common? They are all blonde women who are probably guilty of cultural appropriation. In episode 73 of Overthink, Ellie and David tackle cultural appropriation, starting with the kerfuffle over Claude Monet’s painting ...