CIE–Centre for International
About CIE
CIE – Centre for International Heritage Activities is a non-profit organisation based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Since 2006, we have worked internationally, bringing people, communities and ideas together to reimagine cultural heritage—especially in contexts shaped by colonial legacies, conflict and contested histories.
Our team includes people from many countries, cultures and backgrounds—some at the beginning of their careers, others with years of experience. What brings us together is a passion for heritage and a belief in its power to strengthen communities and shape the future.
Mission and vision
We work towards a more inclusive cultural world by challenging one-sided histories and creating space for voices that have often been overlooked. We aim to help build fairer, more sustainable futures in which communities can tell their own stories and care for their own cultural places, practices and traditions.
CIE supports work that addresses past and ongoing injustices connected to colonialism, inequality and exclusion. We do this through education, digital and traditional storytelling, research and close collaboration with communities.
By valuing local knowledge and promoting fair, creative and inclusive ways of working with heritage, we help people and organisations challenge narrow approaches and shape new, meaningful practices.
How we work
Our work starts with reciprocal cooperation. Communities are not audiences at the end of a process: they are partners who shape the questions, methods, stories and outcomes.
We connect this situated knowledge with international heritage debates, research, creative technology and learning.
CIE Fund
The CIE Fund protects and supports people in our trusted network who document memory and heritage under challenging—and sometimes dangerous—circumstances.
Emergency support, education, essential tools and the preservation of testimony help ensure that people can continue to write, film, photograph and remember.
Governance and programme leadership
CIE’s 2025 leadership connects governance, research, practice, education and the arts across its international network.
General Director
CIE’s founding director is a heritage and museum specialist with a doctorate from the University of Amsterdam. His work connects maritime archaeology, museums, community practice and international heritage cooperation.
Director of Programmes
A writer and filmmaker working across five continents, Alia explores memory, landscapes and heritage through research and storytelling. Her projects include The Golden Harvest and Future Stories in the Global Heritage Industry.
Head of Education and Outreach
A researcher, academic and writer in art, heritage and cultural studies, Alia develops interdisciplinary learning around visual literacy, digital heritage, museum practice and creative-critical writing.
Co-heads of Heritage Futures
Visual communication, media and exhibition design, interactive installations and material research.
Art and design, film, video and animation across linear and interactive environments.
Creative technology, new media and decolonial digital storytelling rooted in Palestine and its diaspora.
Governance
The Board oversees CIE as a non-profit NGO. Its members are unpaid and meet four times each year with the Board of Directors.
Founder, General Director and Chair of CIE, with a background in heritage and museum studies, maritime archaeology and international cultural cooperation.
A researcher and lecturer in memory, heritage and cultural politics who also serves as CIE’s Privacy Officer.
A cultural entrepreneur and producer who coordinated CIE’s Maritime Heritage Programme in Sri Lanka.
A researcher and strategic adviser in international rule-of-law reform, transitional justice, human rights, governance and criminal justice.
Knowledge and counsel
Independent perspectives supporting CIE’s international programmes, research and institutional development.
International network
Researchers, writers, filmmakers, archaeologists, designers and creative technologists working across CIE programmes and places.
Annual Report 2025 ↗Alia researches how online platforms and emerging technologies shape political understanding. A PhD candidate at NYU and co-founder of Decifer Studio, she creates interactive experiences that make complex technologies accessible to broad audiences.
Asem is a writer and journalist from Gaza, Palestine. His reporting documents life under occupation and conflict, preserving memory and testimony in the face of cultural erasure.
Ava studied Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology at Leiden University. Her interests include social and cultural history, contested heritage, popular culture and bottom-up approaches to heritage management.
Batuhan studies Tourism Guidance and researches cultural heritage. His experience includes vocational fieldwork in the Marmara region, public guiding and international education projects that use digital tools to preserve and share heritage.
Begüm studies Tourism Guidance and works on the continuation and promotion of Turkish heritage. Her practice combines field tours, local expertise, museum and site research, conferences and sustainable approaches to cultural tourism.
Dev is a software engineer with a background in Computer Science and Interactive Media at NYU Abu Dhabi. His CIE work includes the Dhakira heritage database and the redevelopment of HeritageLab’s digital storytelling platform.
Devaki is an anthropology researcher at the University of Oxford, a designer for TreeRouted and author of HeritageLab’s Kerala Co-Lab. Her work explores material and museum anthropology, indigenous representation, endangered knowledge and South Asian heritage.
Georgia contributes to CIE’s research programme, including collaborative work on ocean heritage and conflict across the organisation’s international network.
Hassan works at the intersection of computer science, interactive media, web development and virtual and augmented reality. Within HeritageLab, he contributes technical skills to digital heritage experiences and platforms.
Léa is a museum-studies researcher with a background in archaeology and rock-art heritage. Her work examines how physical and digital reproductions can make endangered or inaccessible sites available to wider audiences.
Matthew explores film’s ability to produce and represent heritage knowledge. He has worked on TreeRouted, a documentary on the date palm’s global heritage, and contributed research on George Town’s street-food heritage to Future Stories.
Nazlı studies Tourism Guidance and Tourism and Hotel Management. Her work includes heritage research in Istanbul, museum and historical-site tours, and close attention to local lives, traditions and stories.
Niccolò works across arts, museology and curatorship, with a focus on heritage, contemporary art and decolonial practice. A former Dhakira research fellow, he co-edited Future Stories in the Global Heritage Industry.
Nurcan is an Istanbul-based archaeologist who has led CIE field schools and identification missions in Sri Lanka and Tanzania. She also develops sustainable heritage-education programmes and community-based research.
Sarah is a researcher and creative technologist whose practice spans web development, software art, augmented reality and physical computing. Her work explores internet cultures in Palestine and the diaspora and the decolonial potential of new media.
Talal is an award-winning media maker and maritime-heritage researcher. His work combines film, grant development, underwater cultural heritage and 3D photogrammetry, including the Science Malta-supported Project 3D-Q8 in Kuwait.
Umayya is a writer and researcher specialising in cultural policy, identity and future planning. Her experience spans journalism, teaching, cultural institutions and public policy, and she contributes to CIE events, heritage activities and publications.
Profiles draw on the CIE Annual Report 2025, CIE’s historical people and project directory and the HeritageLab directory.
International network
CIE’s annual reports document a changing network of community organisations, public bodies, universities, museums, funders and international institutions.
Organisations connected to Culture and Development, MUCH, shared heritage, field schools, museums and international exchange.
Explore the earlier network ↗Relationships recorded through HeritageLab, heritage justice, ocean heritage, education, Co-Labs and creative practice.
Explore partners since 2020 ↗The overview links directly to every CIE annual report from 2008 through 2025.
View reports and methodology ↗Institutional profile