Keeping Up with the SCHG | Issue # 2
Save Cultural Heritage Group
A team of professionals dedicated to explore, interpret, preserve and promote the Cultural Heritage. #SCHGPK #SCHGWT
Word of Welcome!
Esteemed colleagues and friends,?
We are excited to share with you the second issue of our newsletter, in which we would like to take a look back at 2022 and all of our milestones here at Save Cultural Heritage Group.?
With a network of professionals from all over the world, Save Cultural Heritage Group is the only organization of its kind working globally, serving each day with a variety of online programs and services.?
We invite you to take a look below for an interwoven narrative of our organization in the past, present, and future!
Warmly,
The President, SCHG (Global)
Free Online Courses 2022
We are looking back at yet another very successful year of our Free Online Course (FOC) program,?which was designed, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, for anyone who wants to learn about archaeology, cultural heritage, and any related fields. Our FOC mentors volunteer to teach a six-week online course on a topic of their choosing (but related to cultural heritage) within their respective professional field to a virtual classroom of students with different cultural and educational backgrounds. No prior knowledge of any of the courses is required as they are conceptualised at an introductory level. Moreover, the students can complete the coursework at their own pace, having to dedicate only around three hours per week to the course, for which they will receive a certificate of completion at the end.
Since 2020, we have been able to provide an inclusive and accessible platform fostering the interest in cultural heritage worldwide, which was only possible with the help of our wonderful mentors teaching superb courses. In 2022, we had the pleasure of having an amazing group of new mentors to re-teach highly successful courses, as well as some of our senior mentors coming back to re-teach their courses: Carina Moleano Leiri?o (Introduction to Human Osteology),? Dr Mirna Saad Barakat (Introduction to Geography), Sarah Hudson (The Archaeology of Architecture), Dr Hellen Almoustafa (The Impact of Cultural Heritage), Virág Pabeschitz (Trafficking in Cultural Property), Dr Madison Leeson (Introduction to Cultural Governance), and Humphrey Nyambiya (Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage).?
These courses represent the heart of the Academic team who diligently review the course contents and provide an even further improved support network for the mentors. Although the FOC team is working on a voluntary basis, SCHG has created an international community of motivated instructors and enthusiastic learners that has reached all five continents of the globe, and resulted in hundreds of enrollments worldwide.?
Check out our past mentors’ testimonies of their experience when teaching a course with the SCHG here! If you are interested in becoming a mentor, please feel free to fill out the application form on our website here. We are looking forward to speaking with you!
For 2023, our FOC program will introduce new exciting courses as well as repeat highly sought-after past courses, including “Discover Korea beyond the Media” by Ga Yeon Kim, “Introduction to Palaeontology” by Jenna Davenport, and “Prehistoric Archaeology of Britain” by Ceri Pennington. Stay tuned! For joining the course please feel free to fill out the enrollment form on our website here.
Museum Week 2022
For Museum Week from June 13-19, 2022, the SCHG participated in interesting online activities, challenging its team members to create content related to the individual hashtag of each day.?
During MW 2022, we also introduced a new format called “90 Seconds Museum Talk”, which enabled archaeologists, museum professionals, and cultural heritage enthusiasts from all over the world to share their experiences. Check out Chiara Brancato’s short video, in which she shared her thoughts on how museum community engagement can be improved:
Our team had again a lot of fun preparing the events for Museum Week 2022, and are grateful to all those who have taken part in our events. We look forward to next year’s Museum Week in 2023!?
ArchTalk 2022
In 2022, we from SCHG launched our new format of ArchTalk on International Archaeology Day (IAD). The goal was to bring together individuals across cultural heritage fields to share their expertise and research, thus creating a platform for presenting combined academic and practical experience. The diverse group of speakers provided a wonderful opening for this new event, which reflected the incredible digital opportunities for sharing their passion for the field of cultural heritage, raising awareness of its importance, and simply keeping the discussion going.?
This year, amazing partners collaborated us, such as Dr Laura Castro Royo (Las Plumas de Simurgh), Matilda Siebrecht (The Archaeologist’s Teacup), and Tara Panesar. Not only did these wonderful partners promote the event in the weeks leading up to ArchTalk 2022, but they also contributed to the three sessions as both moderators and speakers. The keynote was given by the incredible Natasha Billson (Behind the Trowel), a British archaeologist and co-presenter of “The Great British Dig”. In an interview, Natasha shared her knowledge on how to share the past in creative ways digitally, and the importance of why commercial archaeologists should be using digital media for disseminating their work. One of her final wisdoms, which particularly aligns with the SCHG’s goals: the more diverse voices the field will gain, the better the professions in the cultural heritage sector will become.
We would like to thank our partners and our keynote speaker for their continued support!
Moderated by Dr Laura Castro Royo, the session focused on the question of how different disciplines and practices in the field of archaeology have adapted and changed in the post-pandemic climate. The speakers were Tara Panesar (Ethics of archaeological practice), Shalaish Baisla (Prehistoric localities of Delhi NCR), and Humphrey Nyambiya (Marine Isotope Stage 6 in Southern Africa).
Moderated by Matilda Siebrecht, this session dealt with the way of how global strategies can aid in raising awareness of cultural heritage on a local as well as on an international level. The speakers included Dr Madison Leeson (Ottoman heritage consciousness), Lubna Abbas (Media as a tool of globalization), and Tumiso Dolamo (South African culture).??
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Moderated by Matilda Siebrecht, this session proposed as a discussion point into how digital media can be utilized in conjunction with archaeology and broadening cultural heritage space. The following speakers shared their insights: Rebeka Gergácz (Effective online posts), Maria Dasenaki (Online activities for children in Greek archaeological museums), Dr Laura Castro Royo (“Divulgación” via Twitch), Blanche Kennedy (Audiences as collaborators in museums), and Matilda Siebrecht (Sharing archaeological research on social media).
ArchTalk Season 01 proved to be a highly engaging event; it was an incredibly enriching experience to see young professionals share their research and experience globally, reaching out to a diverse audience group and expanding the organization’s international community. The SCHG would like to thank their lovely partners, speakers, and attendees for their input and time, and are looking forward to seeing all of you again next year, for ArchTalk Season 02 in 2023!
Weekend Talk: A Year in Review
From its initial launch on the 14th of November 2021, Weekend Talk has been one of our favorite projects here at Save Cultural Heritage Group. By providing a platform for scholars, researchers, and other experts in their respective fields, our host Megan Kumorek was? able to bring professionals in cultural heritage to a 21st century audience while also providing a network for those professionals to expand their own knowledge, collaborate on projects, and create long lasting friendships.?
Over the course of a year, Weekend Talk produced 10 episodes which included our launching ceremony (here). These episodes were filled with not only interviews but also fun and engaging games which challenged both the guests and the audience to think in new and exciting ways. Now, we want to take you through the highlights of episodes 1-9 as we take a look back on this past year of Weekend Talk and provide a little teaser for what is to come.
From “The Story of God with Morgan Freeman” to “Expedition Unknown” and even “Unexplained and Unexplored,” our 1st guest Annelise was known for bringing history’s mysteries to a modern audience through her exceptional work as a TV producer. On our show, we played a game called “Cinematic Curses” which saw Anelise having to guess what real-life, allegedly cursed, object famous movie objects were based on - such as the Crystal Skull in Indiana Jones 4, The Hope Diamond in Titanic, and the box from the movie The Possession.?Full episode available on YouTube here.
Our second episode saw us exploring the influences and trends that ancient history has had on contemporary fashion with South African anthropology student Tumi. As someone who is currently researching the non-verbal dialogues present in clothing and its ability to express aggression and violence within a socio-cultural framework, Tumi was excited to explore the cultural influences present from designers such as Zuhair Murad, Dior Cruise, Guo Pei, and Mzukisi Mbane in the game we now fondly refer to as “Stitch-ology.” Full episode available on YouTube here.
No history show would be complete without at least one mention of ancient aliens and that is exactly what Rachel and host Megan explored in episode 3. As a Human Osteo-Archaeologist turned digital marketing executive who also runs their own successful Youtube channel about all things archaeology, Rachel played the game “A + B = Aliens (Debunking Ancient Astronaut Theorists from the show Ancient Aliens)” where she tackled topics such as, “why are there pyramids around the world,” “The Maya ‘Rocket’ Man,” and the famous ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs which ancient astronaut theorists suggest show evidence of helicopters, spaceships, and tanks - oh my!?Full episode available on YouTube here.
As we approached the hallway mark of season 1 of Weekend Talk, we were joined by Indigenous Archaeologist Carlton, a member of the Pawnee Tribe and host of the podcast “A Life in Ruins” (which our very own host Megan Kumorek was a guest on in episode 92) who has just recently received their PhD - congratulations! In this episode, Carlton played a game to help introduce people to the extraordinary and rich Native American heritage cultural sites currently located around the United States while discussing the historical significance, and even misinformation (another ancient alien case), of each location. Full episode available on YouTube here.
Episode 5 was an exciting one for our host Megan as she got to talk with Hannah, a PhD researcher working with English Heritage - Megan’s 2021 wedding venue was an English Heritage site (Wrest Park). Together, Hannah and Megan played “Guess the English Heritage Site” which took the audience around to 5 of the 400 historic buildings, monuments, and sites currently in the care of English Heritage which included a funerary monument from the Neolithic Period (10,000-2,200 BCE) and a Cold War bunker which was in use from 1961-1991.?Full episode available on YouTube here.
From curses to ancient aliens to ancient sites around the world, episode 6 took a step into one of the world’s most comforting drinks, tea. Our guest Matilda, who is an archaeologist and journalist, is famous on Instagram for her Tea Time segments where she enjoys telling stories from the past, present, and future while sharing creations inspired by prehistory and on our show we played a game honoring those interests by exploring the history of tea itself. From the simple to the unexpected, tea appeared to have more than one surprising fun-fact up its sleeve - or should we say tea bag??Full episode available on YouTube here.
We took a turn in episode 7 away from the past of people and into the past of our planet as we talked with paleontologist Jenna. Of course we could not welcome a paleontologist on our show without talking about the new Jurassic World Dominion movie. After the fan-girling subsided over the reintroduction of the original Jurassic Park cast, Jenna played a game called “Fossil Field Trip” where she was given images directly from her Twitter to discuss further such as a squirrel like mammal that lived around 56-33.9 mya (million years ago) to one of the oldest known bats which lived around 48 mya.?Full episode available on YouTube here.
With experience in museums, National Parks, as a historical researcher, a media production assistant for historical projects, and restorer of rare antique books, maps, and documents Nicole loved to talk about all things surrounding antiquities and museum collections while enjoying a brief moment to stray off topic to discuss with our host Megan their mutual love for Henry Cavill. During the game “Museum Quest,” Nicole had to guess famous museums around the world based on a photo and tell us more about their historical significance - for bonus points of course! Full episode available on YouTube below.
For the final episode of Weekend Talk, we interviewed Swedish Egyptologist Josefin who specializes in the ancient Egyptian language. With her love for all things involving ancient Egyptian media, we played a game called “Egypto-Media” where Josefin had to decipher ancient Egyptian text present in movies such as Tomb Raider and The Mummy and in video games such as Assassin’s Creed origin - a game both her and our host Megan have played thoroughly.?Full episode available on YouTube here.
Season 2 Teaser
With Season 2 of Weekend Talk now in production, we are excited to already have a few episodes recorded with editors of the Kleos Bulletin, Hanna Hoogenraad and Sara Mura, and? Medievalist Matthew Ponesse. However, we want to take this moment to invite anyone who is interested in being in the next season of Weekend Talk to reach out to us here. Do you have a passion for bringing your research to a 21st century audience, do you know someone who would enjoy sharing their interests with the world, or do you and your friends/ colleagues want to try your hand at one of our various trivia games? If so, we cannot wait to hear from you! Till then, please check out our previous episodes!?
We here at SCHG will see you all for Season 2 coming 2023.?
Thank You!
We immensely appreciate your support, and we would like to wholeheartedly thank you for your interest in our organization and projects. As teammates, collaborators, mentors, colleagues, and friends, you have become part of a large network of experts and enthusiasts alike as well as invaluable members of Save Cultural Heritage Group. Please continue to support us in the future so that we can continue to provide great content.?
We are looking forward to creating even more exciting formats in 2023. Stay tuned!
The Save Cultural Heritage Group wishes you the best of health and success for the New Year ahead.
The Team of SCHG (Global)