New AAHM Executive Committee to strengthen cultural heritage management

The new Executive Committee for the Asian Academy for Heritage Management network was announced on 4 June 2019, during a meeting on strengthening higher education in cultural heritage management, organized by UNESCO, University of Hong Kong and Southeast University (China) with support from the Government of Korea.

The AAHM was founded under the aegis of UNESCO and the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) in 2001 to strengthen professional capacity to sustainably manage heritage resources by providing a regional platform for institutional cooperation in education, training and research.

The collaboration among AAHM universities will help to fill competency gaps that UNESCO has identified in cultural heritage management training and education, targeting both in service-professionals working in the heritage field as well as students.  

The new members include representatives from leading universities in cultural heritage management across the Asia-Pacific region.  They include Deakin University (Australia), Tongji University / WHITRAP (China), Tsinghua University (China) and Ahmedabad University (India). Southeast University (China) and the Institute for Tourism Studies (Macao SAR, China) also serve on the committee in their capacities as the network secretariat and Knowledge Management Hub, respectively.

Professor Johannes Widodo (National University of Singapore) was elected to represent the individual members of the network. In addition to the elected members, UNESCO and ICCROM also serve in an ex officio capacity. 

AAHM events will take the form of research conferences, Field Schools and other joint activities.