Maria Gravari-Barbas is a professor of cultural and social geography at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. She holds a degree in Architecture and Urban Design and a PhD in Geography and Planning. She was Fellow at the Urban Program of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA. Since 2008 she is the Director of the EIREST, a multidisciplinary research team dedicated to tourism and heritage studies. Since 2009 she is the director of the UNESCO Chair “Tourism, Culture, Development” and the coordinator of the UNITWIN network “Culture, Tourism, Development” bringing together 30 universities around the world (including 3 UNA Europa universities: Bologna, KUL and UCM. She is expert for local development at the UNESCO WH Preah Vihear temple, Cambodia. Maria is the chief editor of Via Tourism Journal, an open, interdisciplinary and multilingual journal (7 languages) dedicated to Tourism studies (https://journals.openedition.org/viatourism/). She is the author of several books and papers related to Tourism, Culture and Heritage with special focus on gentrification, tourismification and heritagization of urban spaces; World Heritage; Tourism and Geographical imaginaries; Tourism, authenticity and simulacra.

 

Maïa Ghattas,  PhD, is a post-doctoral manager of the CUMET project and a researcher at the Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University. She is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Laboratoire EIREST and a Fellowship Researcher in the Laboratoire PRODIG, where she pursued her doctoral research about urban heritage in public spaces. She has worked on urban government and urban planning in Cameroonian cities. Her research combines cultural geography, urban planning, as well as social and political approches of cities in the Global South. She uses various methods, some of which she developed during her thesis and during residencies using mediums such as filming, drawing and making maps. Her most recent work is published in the review L’Espace Politique. She did fieldworks in Cameroon and in France.

 

Jenny L. Herman is a researcher and writer focusing on connections between food, the arts, and society. Jenny holds a PhD in Cultural Studies from KU Leuven in Belgium, obtained as an FWO fellow in fundamental research. Jenny’s work incorporates the fields of cultural studies, social and literary theory, and policy analysis, focusing on culinary heritage, identity, and the intersection of cultural and agricultural policies. Jenny is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the EIREST lab at University of Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne, working on the EU-funded project, CONVIVIUM (2024-2028) and leading the sub-project "Re-framing Viti-cultural Landscapes" which explores wine production and sustainability at the crossroads of heritage and innovation.

 

Gábor Oláh, PhD in Urban studies and History, postdoctoral researcher at EIREST, Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University and Atelier Department for Interdisciplinary History, Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), Budapest. In 2023, he defended his PhD dissertation in the framework of ELTE-École des hautes études en sciences sociales cotutelle program. His research is focused on urban heritage, as well as the concepts of urban landscape and culture-led urban regeneration. He has been involved in several EU-funded projects: REACH (2017-2020), UNCHARTED (2020-2024), SECreTour (2024-2027) and HerEntrep (2024-2027). In 2025, his book Espaces urbains protégés : le changement d'échelle spatiale du patrimoine urbain 1928-1987 was published by L'Harmattan.