Russian president Vladimir Putin has claimed his war in Ukraine is justified based on the centrality of Ukraine — and particularly of its capital Kyiv, a city with a heritage dating to ancient times — to Russian history and identity. Yet already, the war has taken a grave toll not only on cultural heritage workers at museums and historic sites but also on the very sites of heritage that Russia claims are the impetus for its occupation of Ukraine. What is the cost of war for museums, historic neighborhoods, and the localities around which people build their identities? As the war in Ukraine seems set to only escalate, with dire costs for both people and the heritage they value, Antiquities Action presents a special panel "Cultural Heritage and the War in Ukraine”, featuring two renowned experts, UT archaeologist and classics professor Adam Rabinowitz, and Director of the Penn Heritage Center Brian Daniels.
Adam Rabinowitz, "The Presence of the Past in the War for Ukraine's Future”
Brian Daniels, “Russia and heritage sites during military and intelligence operations in Ukraine and beyond"
Register for the virtual event →
Please note that this meeting will be held both in-person and virtually, via Zoom. To attend virtually, please register at the link above. To attend in-person, please join us in room 2.204 in the Doty Fine Arts building. Both in-person and virtual options are open to the public.
Adam Rabinowitz is an Associate Professor in UT's Department of Classics and a field archaeologist specializing in the colonial Greek world. From 2002 to 2013, he worked at Chersonesos in Crimea with the Institute of Classical Archaeology, and he now directs the Histria Multiscalar Archaeological Project at the Greek and Roman site of Histria on the Romanian Black Sea coast.
Brian I. Daniels is director of research and programs for the Penn Cultural Heritage Center at the University of Pennsylvania Museum, adjunct assistant professor in the University of Pennsylvania anthropology graduate group, visiting professor in the Sustainable Cultural Heritage Graduate Program at the American University of Rome, and research associate at the Smithsonian Institution. He has recently been elected Vice President of the U.S Committee of the Blue Shield.