17th Karlsruhe Dialogues – Speakers

The ‘In-Between Society’: Tradition and Modernism in Conflict

Prof. Dr. Susanne von der Heide

Speaker

von der Heide

Prof. Dr. Susanne von der Heide is a cultural scientist and conservation specialist. She was curator for education at the Museum of East Asian Art in Cologne from 1988 to 1995. Until 2001, she has been working for UNESCO at the World Heritage Centre in Paris and then for the Division of Cultural Heritage. Since 2001, she is the director of the HimalAsia Foundation, which is operating in the Himalayan areas, South and Central Asia. She is a professor for cultural management and heritage studies at the Hyderabad University and at the Kathmandu University in Nepal, where she has established the international postgraduate Master programme ‘Landscape Management and Heritage Studies’. Furthermore, she is one of the editors of the UNESCO book series World Cultural and Natural Heritage Sites. Von der Heide has also carried out exhibitions, e.g. at the EXPO 2000 in Hanover and at UNESCO headquarters in Paris. She is the director of five films on the Himalayan region. In 2005, she received the SEED Award from the United Nations in New York for her programme to safeguard the biodiversity of the Himalayan Area.