Event Details

Sandra L. López Varela received her Ph.D. in Archaeology from the University of London in 1996. After her working experience in CRM in the United States, she has dedicated her efforts to implement new perspectives to balance heritage preservation with economic growth and development. She has measured the effects of economic and social development policies to combat poverty on Mexico’s heritage, a research project awarded with the Bessel-Forschungspreis excellence in science of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. She held the Archaeology Seat at the Executive Board of the American Anthropological Association (AAA), served as Past President of the Society for Archeological Sciences, was elected recently as Treasurer of the Sociedad Mexicana de Antropología, and is a member of the Cultural Heritage Task Force of the AAA. She is general editor of the upcoming Wiley International Encyclopedia of Archaeological Sciences and has published articles in various journals, including Journal of Archaeological Science, American Anthropologist, and Advances in Archaeological Practice. She is a professor at Mexico’s National University (UNAM) where she teaches cultural heritage management and heritage business and marketing.

This course will be presented in Spanish.

Cultural resources management (CRM) around the world emerged within a context of economic growth. Infrastructure development, its main instrument, poses great risk to the preservation of heritage resources. CRM is a thriving industry contributing strongly to a country’s economy, while preserving heritage resources in the context of complex public and state negotiations. Latin America is a key market for world investment opportunities. With businesses being invited to Latin America to invest and exploit natural and cultural resources, archaeologists are facing many preservation challenges. Thus, there is a need to adapt to existing laws and definitions of cultural heritage. It is necessary to accept that insufficient training has been provided to heritage professionals and archaeologists to meet the regulations imposed by financial institutions—for example, in developing land-use plans or social and heritage impact assessments. Environmental companies are mostly doing this work now, as CRM companies are rare in Latin America. Building CRM capacity in Latin America requires new professional credentials, close collaborative efforts with experienced companies, and above all, new business heritage models and regulated standards that recognize the CRM industry as an effective heritage preservation industry in Latin America. In this one-hour, online presentation, the instructor explores these avenues to building a fair business market for heritage preservation in Latin America.

1. Learn the standing of CRM or Cultural Heritage Management in Latin America;
2. Understand cultural heritage, economic growth and development, and the laws and ethics of doing CRM business in Latin America; and
3. Understand the value of CRM for Latin America.