Dr Francesca Giliberto

About

In the past nine years, Dr Francesca Giliberto has carried out comparative and interdisciplinary research on cultural heritage and sustainable development as well as urban heritage conservation and management in the framework of the UNESCO’s Historic Urban Landscape Approach, the Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). She completed her PhD in 2018, which was jointly supervised by Polytechnic University of Turin and the University of Kent, and she is currently PDRA at the University of Kent and the University of Leeds. Her post-doctoral research has focused on heritage’s contribution (both tangible and intangible) to solving global developmental challenges and fostering sustainable development in ODA-recipient countries, discussing its relevance and impacts on the ground. Her work purposely aims to have an impact in theory and in practice, to influence decision-making and to foster societal challenges.

Francesca’s current post-doctoral research at the University of Kent is entitled ‘Harnessing the Power of Heritage, Tourism and the Creative Industries for Poverty Alleviation and Sustainable Development In Sub-Saharan Africa’ and is carried out under the supervision of Prof Sophia Labadi (principal investigator), School of European Culture and Languages. Funded by the University of Kent’s Global Challenges Doctoral Centre (GCDC), this research aims to identify innovative and inclusive tourism and heritage-based strategies for poverty alleviation and sustainable development at Mosi-oa Tunya/Victoria Falls (Zambia and Zimbabwe), the most visited site in Africa. In addition, it aspires to better operationalize the 2015 UNESCO Policy on World Heritage and Sustainable Development on the ground, which is the only tool to implement an inclusive and bottom-up tourism policy at World Heritage sites in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).