Silberman, Neil

Bio

Neil Silberman is an author and heritage scholar who has participated in heritage projects in the US, Europe, China, South Korea, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Middle East. He specializes in techniques of public engagement and has published extensively on the impact of cultural heritage on contemporary society.

From 2004 to 2007, Silberman was director of the Ename Center for Public Archaeology and Heritage Presentation in Belgium, where he oversaw the implementation of a number of EU heritage initiatives. He served for a decade (2003-2013) as the founding president of the ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on Interpretation and Presentation (ICIP) and was chief editor of the 2008 ICOMOS Charter for the Interpretation and Presentation of Cultural Heritage Sites. He currently serves as a senior advisor to the UNESCO Centre for the Interpretation and Presentation of World Heritage.

In 2008, he joined the faculty of the Department of Anthropology of the University of Massachusetts Amherst and became one of the founders of its Center for Heritage and Society. He also served as co-editor of its journal Heritage & Society (2008-2014). He is a member of the editorial boards of the International Journal of Cultural Property and the Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies.