UNESCO Chair on Threats to Cultural Heritage and Cultural Heritage-related Activities, has been awarded to the Director of GeoLab at the Ionian University Professor Stavros Katsios
On June 29, 2021, the UNESCO Directorate of Higher Education approved the award of the UNESCO Chair on Threats to Cultural Heritage and Cultural Heritage-related Activities to the Ionian University, with Professor Stavros Katsios of the Department of Foreign Languages, Translation and Interpretation (DFLTI) and director of the Laboratory of Geocultural Analysis (GeoLab) as chairholder.
The UNESCO-approved Chair is the first in the Ionian Islands, and of particular importance for Corfu as a city inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The Chair concerns the study and analysis, the provision of consulting support, the research and the teaching (at undergraduate, postgraduate-doctoral level and lifelong learning) for any kind of threat (such as environmental, economic, criminal, geopolitical, technological, terrorist, etc.). ) for the Cultural Heritage and for any activity related to the Cultural Heritage (such as threats to infrastructure, transport, tourism, etc.).
Implementing body of the action of the Chair is the Laboratory of Geocultural Analysis (GeoLab) of DFLTI, of the School of Humanities of the Ionian University. The Chair is staffed by an international interdisciplinary team of professors and researchers.
A UNESCO Chair is: ‘a project and a team at a university or a higher education or research institution that partners with UNESCO in order to advance knowledge and practice in an area that is a priority for both the institution and UNESCO. The partnership is formalized by means of an agreement signed between the Director-General of UNESCO and the head of the institution hosting the UNESCO Chair (Rector, President, Vice-Chancellor)’.
The UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Programme: guidelines and procedures (2017)
