MECHTILD RÖSSLER

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Mechtild Rössler (*1959) studied geography and literature 1978-84 at Freiburg University (Germany), has a PhD (1989) from the Department of Geosciences, University of Hamburg (Germany), joined the French CNRS (1998/90,

Cité des sciences et de l’industrie, Paris, France), and was a visiting scholar

at UC Berkeley (USA, 1990/91). Since end of 1991, she worked for 30 years

in different programmes at UNESCO (MAB programme, Culture Conventions, World Heritage) and is the former Director of UNESCO’s Heritage Division

and the World Heritage Centre (2015-2021). She is a researcher in geography, planning, institutional history and heritage, as well as a specialist of cultural landscapes and nature-culture linkages.

 

After her retirement from UNESCO end of 2021, she returned to academia

and the French CNRS (CNRS-UMR 8504 Géographie-Cités). She teaches

at different institutions (e.g. ICCROM, University of Heidelberg – Heidelberg Center for Cultural Heritage) and gives lectures globally. She has published

and co-authored 14 books and more than 130 articles, among them “Many Voices, One Vision: The Early Years of the World Heritage Convention”

(Routledge 2016, with Prof. Christina Cameron). She is currently writing another book with co-author Prof. Cameron on the history of the World Heritage Convention. Both developed the Oral Archives of the World Heritage

Convention (https://whc.unesco.org/en/oralarchives/) with nearly 80 interviews of key actors.

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