Authenticating the Local: Heritage Expertise and Nation-Building in Qatar
What does it mean to study 'locally-grown' heritage traditions? In this talk, I respond to postcolonial calls in the field of heritage studies that seek more diverse, inclusive, and situated approaches to heritage and preservation. Examining the rise of a heritage preservation tradition in Qatar, I discuss a history of heritage expertise that was shaped to identify, circulate, and authenticate local voices in alignment with different nation-building strategies. Celebrated for resisting a monolithic universal heritage ethos, being a ‘marginal’ player, and also leading major projects of heritage diplomacy and advocacy in global heritage, Qatar offers a more complex landscape of heritage expertise than the simple intention to conduct 'bottom up' research.
Trinidad Rico is Associate Professor and Director of Cultural Heritage and Preservation Studies at Rutgers University, USA, and holds Associate Faculty positions in the departments of Anthropology, Landscape Architecture, History, Geography, and the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. She has a B.A. in Archaeology from the University of Cambridge, an M.A. in Principles of Conservation from University College London, and a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Stanford University. Her research explores heritage cultures and preservation practices in post-colonial contexts in Indonesia, Qatar and, more recently, Argentina. Her most recent books are 'Global Heritage, Religion, and Secularism' (Cambridge University Press 2021), 'Methods and Methodologies in Heritage Studies' (UCL Press 2024) and The Heritage State: Religion and Preservation in Contemporary Qatar (Cornell University Press, 2025).
