Professor Graeme Were has been awarded an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) networking grant to explore the impacts of liberal reform and privatisation on heritage and memory in East and Southeast Asia.

In collaboration with Professor Pieter ter Keurs (University of Leiden) and the Vietnam Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism, this project will be the first comparative study to examine the rapid expansion of private sector involvement in managing museums, heritage sites and commemorative practices in the region.  The research network will map and analyse private museums, heritage sites and commemorative activities across East and Southeast Asia, and investigate the memorialising tactics and strategies at play.

It will identify the shifts and dynamics of museums, heritage and memory in a rapidly changing political and economic climate, and generate new knowledge of the opportunities and constraints under which the industry operates, which will be of use to practitioners and policymakers, nationally and internationally.

The network will comprise of two main events - a workshop at the University of Leiden in late summer 2021 and an international conference at the University of Bristol in 2022. A project website will be set up shortly to showcase the research of the network.