Professor Jacek Purchla of the Jagiellonian University Faculty of International and Political Studies became head of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee. He will hold this position until the end of the next session of the Committee, which is to take place in Kraków in July next year.
The 40th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee was held from 24 to 26 October 2016 in Paris, the main seat of this institution. It was a continuation of the July session in Istanbul, Turkey, abruptly ended due to the coup attempt. The candidacy of Prof. Purchla was unanimously approved during that session.
The UNESCO World Heritage Committee is a prestigious body, consisting of representatives of 21 countries, elected from among 192 signatories of the World Heritage Convention. It oversees the implementation of this convention, decides which sites are listed as UNESCO world heritage sites and allocates resources from the World Heritage Fund..
Prof. Jacek Purchla conducts research on city development, social history, the history of art in the 19th and 20th century, as well as the theory and protection of cultural heritage. He authored more than a dozen books and over 300 articles published in more than a dozen languages. Prof. Purchla was the Vice-President of Kraków during the years 1990-1991. He has also been the Head of the International Cultural Centre in Cracow, the Vice-President of Comité international d'histoire de l'art, and a member of many organizations and associacions, including the Europa Nostra Council and the Committee on Arts Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences. From 2000 to 2016 he headed the Monument Protection Council at he Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. Since 2012 he has been the head of the Polish Committee for UNESCO.
