Claudia Grünberg
Claudia Grünberg is deputy director and research associate of the Institute Heritage Studies. She holds a B.A. in Cultural Studies (Europa Universität Viadrina) and an M.A. in World Heritage Studies (BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg). Her focus is the implementation of the educational mandate of the World Heritage Convention through the development of educational concepts and their implementation in World Heritage. With the aim of motivating and empowering young people to take responsibility for their (World) Heritage, she developed school projects, teacher trainings, teaching materials as well as further trainings for associations - and this also across borders. In 2015, she worked in the project team of the Cultural Foundation of the German Federal States (Kulturstiftung der Länder) under the leadership of Marie-Theres Albert at the BTU Cottbus for the symposium "Steps to Implement the Global Strategy in Germany". Subsequently, she worked for the World Heritage Coordination of Saxony, with a special focus on World Heritage interpretation and education.
She has been at the IHS since 2017 and was involved in the projects "Our World Heritage - the Mining Landscape Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří" and "Transboundary European World Heritage - a topic for UNESCO Associated Project Schools", among others. Since 2022, she has been leading the project "Young Climate Action for World Heritage" in cooperation with the German Commission for UNESCO and funded by the German Federal Environmental Foundation (Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt). With that she positions World Heritage and educational approaches within the framework of the 2030 Agenda and Education for Sustainable Development.
Anna Grigoreva
Anna Grigoreva holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism from the Ufa State Petroleum Technological University/Russia and a Master's degree in World Heritage Studies from the Brandenburg University of Technology in Cottbus/Germany. She wrote her Master's thesis on the subject "Storytelling in the context of heritage tourism and destination marketing: Narratology-based framework".
Based on her experiences in using storytelling for sustainable tourism her main interest lies in the sphere of heritage storytelling, heritage interpretation, developing communication strategies and further tools to transfer the values and significance of heritage including heritage education. Anna joined the European Heritage Times newspaper as an author/ Social Media Team member and furthered the cooperation with European Heritage Volunteers through group coordination and support of partner meetings. She has also worked in the Cold War Museum and as a city guide in Berlin.
Anna Grigoreva and the IHS have already worked together several times and therefore know each other well. Worth highlighting are her participation as a speaker at the conference “World Heritage Education for a climate-conscious and sustainable development” at the trade fair Denkmal in Leipzig and her great job as a volunteer supporter of the conference "50 Years UNESCO World Heritage Convention - Times of Peace, Conflict and War" in 2022. She currently supports the IHS and specifically the “Young Climate Action for World Heritage” project.
Sandra Nasser
Sandra Nasser holds a Master’s degree in World Heritage Studies from BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Architectural Studies from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, England. After finishing her Masters, she worked within the world heritage field, in which she gained 3 years working experience in drafting tentative list entries within Germany as well as in the UAE. This included tasks such as conducting feasibility studies and comparative analysis. Sandra Nasser has also conducted studies for attribute identification and mapping, for which she used GIS programmes (ArcGIS and QGIS) to document and map attributes that contribute to the Outstanding Universal Value of a World Heritage Site. The results were often used as a basis to develop improved management plans for the protection of the site, for example the World Heritage Site of the Monastic Island of Reichenau, Germany. Due to her previous studies, Sandra Nasser acquired additional skills such as graphic design and event management skills. Coming from Lebanese and Italian origin, and having grown up in Germany, Sandra Nasser has particular interest in the world of heritage and how culture is formed within and throughout societies.
Topics: Documenting Heritage/GIS/Heritage and identity/Capacity Building
Shane Thomas Cullen
Shane Thomas Cullen completed his bachelor degree in Heritage Studies at Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, in Galway city on the west coast of Ireland. In recognition of his accomplishments he received the GMIT Academic Achievement Award 2016. He has completed his master degree in World Heritage Studies at Brandenburg Technical University, and his master thesis “Sustainability as a common thread through disparate strands of Heritage Studies”. Shane is mainly interested in the theoretical exploration of heritage concepts, and making these concepts practically applicable. However, Shane Cullen is not only qualified for reflecting and discussing basic theoretical questions within the field of heritage studies, he is also interested and qualified for reflecting the diversity of intercultural perceptions of heritage. Based on this knowledge and interest, he copyedited the recent Marie-Theres Albert, Francesco Bandarin and Ana Pereira Roders edited publication Going Beyond- Perceptions of Sustainability in Heritage Studies No.2. which for the first time published visions and critical perceptions of the subject heritage and sustainability from Africa, Asia and Latin America. His theoretical and intercultural know how qualify him for editing the publications of Heritage Studies in general and for the current publication specifically. This publication aims again at voices from Africa, and is the result of the International Summer School ‘African Heritage and the Pillars of Sustainability’ in Iringa 2016”.
Topics: Sustainability/ Sustainable Development/ Heritage Narratives/ Local Heritage