PhD position_Silk Road Project
written by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on Monday 23 November 2009
JOB ANNOUNCEMENT: PHD Position
Project: Silk Road (Central-Asia) - Development of an Information System in view of the nomination of the serial World Heritage Site
WHP Silk Road (3 years grant funded with possibility of one year extension)
Period 2010 – 2012 financed by the Belgian Science and Policy Agency
Project description
As a follow-up to the Periodic Report for Asia, the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and the International Council of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) have been assisting States Parties in identifying new and under-represented categories of properties to be nominated for possible inscription on the World Heritage List. In this context, an initiative was launched in 2005 for the nomination of a serial and/or transnational World Heritage property representing the cultural phenomenon of the Silk Roads.
The initiative involves for the time being six States Parties from East and Central Asia – the People’s Republic of China and the Republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan – and has progressed over the last few years on the basis of a concept paper and through a number of regional workshops and preparatory work at the national level.
The project proposal aims at providing a holistic approach for the recording, documentation, protection and monitoring of potential World Heritage Properties in the Silk Road’s C-Asian countries. This will be carried out in consultation with Belgian Federal Science Policy Office and with UNESCO by a Belgian consortium headed by the Raymond Lemaire International Centre for Conservation (RLICC), University of Leuven.
In addition to the development of an approach, this project is aimed at developing capacities in the C-Asia countries in World Heritage documentation, protection, management, monitoring and in preparing periodic reporting based on documentation and monitoring.
The proposal wants to start from yet existing understanding of the documentation and monitoring needs in the region for the purpose of the preparation of a (serial) nomination application to the World Heritage List. Further research will complete those needs with up-to-date international standards on identification, documentation and monitoring aspects of local, regional and universal value. So doing it may become a standard for similar regional and world-wide activities.
Profile
This research position as PhD research candidate with a PhD-grant is located in the Raymond Lemaire International centre for Conservation (University of Leuven). Established by Professor Raymond Lemaire († 1997) in 1976, at the initiative of the International Council of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), within the framework of the College of Europe in Bruges, the Raymond Lemaire International Centre for Conservation (RLICC) is now part of the post-initial-master’s programme of the Faculty of Engineering of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. The RLICC is dependent upon two departments of the Faculty, the department of Architecture, Urban and Regional Planning and the Department of Civil Engineering.
The general objectives of the Centre are to gather thorough understanding of both the cultural and constructive features and the multi-layered character of the historical architectural, urban and rural heritage, thereby transcending national, cultural and conventional professional boundaries to stimulate exchange and feedback between academic theoretical research and the conservation practice to encourage intervention in the context of the historical architectural or urban environment, that reflect concepts of heritage conservation and sustainable development.
The proposed research fits within the objectives of the activities of the UNESCO chair on Preventive Conservation, Monitoring and Maintenance of Monuments and Sites (see: precomos.org). The research contribution of the selected candidate will be the major part of the PhD dissertation, therefore the research will have to be a fundamental contribution to the role of documentation in the nomination and the management of World Heritage Sites of exceptional nature (vast, based on routes as heritage concept, …).
Research candidates should have a good understanding of the procedures of World Heritage Sites nomination and periodic reporting; they should be able to reflect critically on the role of advanced documentation in the field understanding the role of monitoring in that respect; they should be able to collaborate in team with specialist in the field of remote sensing. Knowledge on the cultures in the area of the Central Asian countries involved in the research or on the Silk Road is an advantage.
Inquiries can be send to: Hannelore De Keyser (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)) at the attention of Prof. dr.ir.arch. K. Van Balen, director of the Raymond Lemaire International Centre for Conservation.
Application should be done on-line: http://phd.kuleuven.be/set/voorstellen_departement?departement=50000536#detail
Additional information on the Doctoral School is available at http://set.kuleuven.be/phd
Application deadline: 10 December 2009, Start date probably 1 February 2010 (it may depend on administrative procedures)
Applicants will have a relevant degree and ideally an advanced Masters in a conservation of monuments and sites, language skills are expected (English). Applications should include:
• A full CV including personal details, qualifications, educational history and, where applicable, any employment or other experience relevant to the application
• Contact details for TWO referees able to comment on your academic performance
• A statement of 500 (words) outlining your reflections on the topic in relation to your knowledge on the field.