The “UNESCO-Chair on Threats to Cultural Heritage and to Cultural Heritage-related Activities” at the Ionian University, is deeply committed to fostering dialogue and understanding about the preservation and significance of our global heritage for generations to come and has been at the forefront of addressing some of the most pressing challenges facing our cultural heritage today. Notably, the Working Group on the Illicit Trafficking of Antiquities, under our Chair, has garnered significant attention in media outlets internationally. Heritage can be nothing less than a platform for future making, for addressing threats and challenges like the climate change and the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. And for this mission to be accomplished, we need foresight, anticipation and literacy skills.

The “UNESCO-Chair on Threats to Cultural Heritage and to Cultural Heritage-related Activities” seeks to identify the multifold threats, whether man-made or natural, that are posed to cultural heritage and cultural heritage-related activities and carry out research proposing policies and measures, whether administrative, legislative, policy or other consulting services, that will essentially protect cultural heritage and cultural heritage-related activities. Such measures entail as much as a human-rights based approach as a socio-economic approach.

In this context the Chair is operating within the Laboratory for Geocultural Analyses (GEOLab) of the Department of Foreign Languages Translation and Interpreting at the Ionian University, Corfu, Greece.