Dr Elke Selter

Biography

Dr. Elke Selter is a Research Fellow in Cultural Heritage. She joined BIICL in 2021, working on the international politics, heritage, repatriation and reparations, a project funded by the Leverhulme Trust.

Prior to joining BIICL, Elke has worked for over 15 years with various agencies of the United Nations. Most of these, she worked in conflict and disaster-affected places where she advised governments on cultural policies and international conventions, and managed programs on heritage recovery and reconstruction. Elke is also a regular trainer and lecturer on heritage and armed conflict, including with ICCROM and at the Institute of Disaster Mitigation for Urban Cultural Heritage, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto. She has recently co-authored an innovative tool for conflict analysis in the heritage sector (ICCROM, 2021).

Elke holds a Ph.D. in International Politics from SOAS (UK), and an M.A. in Art History and an M.Sc. in Heritage Conservation from the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium). Her doctoral research focused on the interests of international organizations, the Security Council, and the International Criminal Court in post-war heritage and the growing interest to link heritage with R2P-based interventions