Ian Simpson

My work within heritage focuses addresses secular and religious discourses and practices in the mobilizing of cultural heritage. Based on my research at Jarash town in Jordan, I examine how and why heritage governance structures employment and belonging along lines of class, gender and ancestry, and in turn has amplified divisions among communities and stakeholders rather than delivering the promises of international and national heritage declarations. This project deals with secularism in mobilizing cultural heritage, the ethics of knowing, and how more equitable exchanges of religious and secular knowledge can be achieved with communities.