Interns 2019

Information about 2019 interns

Ilenia Atzori

She has recently been awarded M.A. in Museum Studies, Leicester University, where she was particularly interested in the cultural representation of immigrants and the social and cultural impact of “traditional” and political narratives concerning the so-called “other”. Firmly believing that cultural institutions, and their professionals, have a relevant social role, she wants to give her contribution to the heritage sector by analyzing the cultural and social impact of communication. At the same time, in an attempt to identify and deconstruct her own prejudices, she observes museums and cultural institutions from different perspectives: social media, ICOM Italy, Museums Association (UK), Acesso Cultura are some of her windows on the world.

Culture and Heritage are incredibly powerful means of communication. Thus, her goal is to help everyone being an active part of this cultural dialogue. Respectively, her B.A. dissertation was about the cultural tourism in the rural destinations where she lives, in Sardinia (Italy), highlighting local archaeological sites and traditions. In addition, her M.A. dissertation was about what ethnographic museums can (and should) do to tackle racism and intolerance. Both had a focus on the inextricable relationship between heritage and identity.

Sukanya Sharma

She has B.Sc in Architecture, School of Built Environment and Design, Lingayas University, Faridabad, Haryana. She has a high passion for supporting cultural and Rural heritage. Along with the last three years, she works meticulously in the field of Historic Preservation and Conservation of monuments in India. She participates in arranging numerous ICICH / ICOMOS events. In addition, she documents over 600 heritage properties in Old City of Jammu and Kashmir (India) and has come up with an exclusive map of the old city of Jammu. Overall, she is actively involved in the conservation of built heritage in various states of India. She helps in conducting various awareness programs as an attempt to stimulate the young minds across the country. She has a good hold in the #visualization of adaptive reuse of built heritage.

Madhura Sham Joshi

She is an architect who is interested in rural and urban heritage regeneration of India. She worked in the architecture studio focusing the urban, rural tourism and heritage related large-scale projects for three years. After Obtaining M.A. in International Architectural Regeneration and Development, Oxford Brookes University (UK), she worked in South East Asia in the social sector. In addition, with Singapore based organization (2016 – April 2019), she worked in a rural area, disaster zones, and refugee camps with the community developing creative solutions for the affected people; and acting a strategy for sustainable rural development. She is currently working on a sustainable development strategy for two rural areas in India.

Siyun Wu

She is a foodie Cantonese born in #Foshan in the south of China, a ‘city’ known as ‘a land of fish and rice’ and ‘food heaven’. Despite being a ‘farmer’ citizen in her ID document, she mainly grew up in Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Beijing, three biggest cities in China where she saw traditions, the rural background, and folk culture. While keeping on with a passion for travelling abroad to explore various cultures, traditions and lifestyles, she obtained M.A. in Critical Heritage Studies of Asia and Europe, Leiden University. Her M.A. dissertation, combining methods from media and visual studies, discourse analysis and ethnographic fieldwork, was looked after a historical village of Xin-Ye in eastern China and critically analyzed the impacts of media (TV and new media), heritage policies and preservation, and tourism development on the sustainability of local heritage and improvement of life standards “quality” of the local community. Currently, she is doing a PhD. in Leiden University about the music heritage and citizenship in Estonia. Although, in her PhD research project, she is focusing on the musical phenomenon, she is approaching heritage practices, cultural tourism, community life and local development of #Kihnu Island; as well as, she is encountering the local food traditions, fishing and farming practices, and food tourism and economy. In sum, she strongly believes that heritage is not just ‘an object’ which can be kept in the museum or archive, not something that is ‘authentically’ unchanged. Heritage is formed in the very process of living practices and in all possible aspects of everyday life.

Münire Nurgül Büyükgüllü

She graduated from the Architecture program of Istanbul Technical University (ITU) in July 2018. During a bachelor study, she participated in several architectural workshops and was an exchange student in Universita Degli Studi di Ferrara, Italy. She is a Masters candidate in Restoration (Conservation) program of ITU. İn addition, she did numerous internships in both Istanbul, Turkey and Den Haag, Netherlands. During her Masters, she worked on two revolving fund based site conservation projects of ITU in rural heritage sites Aydın and Çanakkale, Turkey. Therefore, she is very interested in rural heritage. Earthen architecture, archaeology, history, drawing portraits and sketches, travelling and learning languages are her interests. She was a member of several student clubs, participated in and organized many heritage activities.

Nichole Weimer

She is M.A. candidate in Folkloristics and Applied Heritage Studies program at Tartu University, Estonia. Through her childhood, she has a great background about many ethnicities such as Korean, Japanese and so on that create the local identity tapestry of her home country, Hawaii. Traditional food has always been central to her life, academically growing into an interest of how the meaning of self, community and heritage is constructed through and around food. She has a B.A. in Arts from Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington DC, USA. She explores various anthropological courses there such as Christianity and its representation in texts, vernacular and art throughout history as well as conducting three-month independent fieldwork focusing on the evolution and influences affecting modern Thai food. Later, she delves deeply into the study of Russia, travelling through its historical markers, literature and its reflection of the intelligentsia and society of the time, as well as the language and paintings. In the present day, she decides to pursue her passion for food, both the tangible and intangible heritage and traditions. Her M.A. dissertation is developing towards exploring the Estonian agricultural heritage, local food production and the relationship oscillating between man, environment and landscape; and focusing on the rural food production through locally made Estonian goat cheese and its significance to rural and national heritage. Therefore, she would like to explore why urban folks are moving back to the land and starting a rural #business and producing local goods, and how this shift is a testament, not only to the specific locality but the global scale as well. Her research will be paired with a creative component as well, tentatively a photographic exhibition based on analogue film.

Barjesh Kumari

She has M.A. in Tourism Administration, Himachal Pradesh University. She obtained numerous training and #workshops in Agri-tourism. She is looking forward to doing a PhD. focusing on the intangible rural heritage in North India. She belongs to a rural village recognizing very well the values of the rural community. She fascinates by their rituals and customs. Thus, she has great motivation and enthusiasm for researching and creating her own career in this field.

Reema Islam

After working in the Bangladesh development sector – mainly with rural communities, which are living around forests and wetlands, including the WHS Sundarbans Mangrove forest; and living with them and experiencing their lives and the problems – for about 8 years, she obtained M.A in Heritage Management, Kent University (UK) and Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB) in Athens, Greece. She did her dissertation on making Carob, a product of heritage value, to be inscribed in UNESCO ICH. she worked with a local organization based in Crete, living there for more than a year and the outcome of this effort was that the carob was inscribed in UNESCO ICH, under the Modern Cultural Heritage Directorate, by Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports. After M.A., she works on documenting and promoting ICH, especially a food has been a challenge. Also, she worked with many local organizations and travelled all over Crete promoting the aforementioned ICH theme. She already writes about the archaeological and cultural heritage of Bangladesh in international magazines for a few years and has been published in the Archaeology magazine, the National Geographic and Atlas Obscura to name a few. She now continues to write and research about the heritage of food while also, working on submitting academic papers.

Acknowledgement to the professionals and organizations that were supported the interns (2019) – HeritageForAll International Online Internship “Rural Heritage and Traditional Food”

Graduating the International Interns (Intake 2019) of HeritageForAll International Online Internship “Rural Heritage and Traditional Food”, we would like to acknowledge the following professionals and organizations that were supported our interns with a great primary informative data and knowledge covering the multiple themes of ICOMOS/UNESCO-WHC-based annual theme “Rural Landscapes”:

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