Join P.T. as he sits down with Dr. Melissa R. Kerin to discuss all things cultural heritage! From museums and art to crime and war, they discuss it all as they explain what the heck "cultural heritage" is, and why you have a stake in what goes on with cultural heritage.  This episode sets the scene for what is to come and broadly discusses key topics aimed at enabling YOU, the listener, to know what is happening with YOUR cultural heritage.

P.T. Meadors is a Art History student at Washington and Lee University. P.T. is also a Johnson Scholar at Washington and Lee University and has spent the past year researching and engaging with art and cultural heritage issues. His bio is way less cool than Dr. Kerin.

Melissa R. Kerin is an associate professor of art history whose primary field of research is the art and material culture of South Asia from the medieval and modern periods. Along with a number of articles (her most recent: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17432200.2021.1944795?journalCode=rfmr20) and chapters, Kerin has authored two books. She is currently serving as guest editor for a special issue of the International Journal of Cultural Property entitled “Re/Collection and Destruction: Defining new ethical solutions.” She is also finishing a manuscript, Bodies of Offerings: The Materiality and Vitality of Tibetan Shrines, which received an American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship (2014-15) and Howard Foundation Fellowship (2018-19). Since joining the faculty of Washington and Lee’s Art and Art History Department in 2011, Kerin has taught a range of courses related to the interconnections among art, religion, memory, and identity. Kerin holds a Ph.D. in Art History from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.T.S. from Harvard Divinity School.