Maria Gravari-Barbas, Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University:

FROM DEFENDING PARIS TO CULTURE: THE HERITAGE OF PARIS'

Maria Gravari-Barbas has a degree in Architecture and Urban Design (University of Athens, 1985) and a PhD in Geography and Planning (Paris IV – Sorbonne, 1991). She was Fellow at the Urban Program of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA (1990). She is the Director of the EIREST, a multidisciplinary research team dedicated to tourism studies, with focus on cultural heritage, development, and urban-tourism evolutions. Since 2009 she is the director of the UNESCO Chair of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University and the coordinator of the UNITWIN network ‘Tourism, Culture, Development’. From 2020 to 2025 she was the Chair of the Cultural Heritage focus area of Una Europa and the Head of the Joint Doctoral Committee of the Una-Her-Doc. Her research focuses on urban and metropolitan transformations in relation with heritagization, gentrification and tourism. She is the scientific coordinator of the JPI CH “Cultural Heritage in the Urban Peripheries” (CUMET); and the of the Franco-Canadian project "Les 'entrepreneurs du patrimoine': Mécanismes, outils et durabilité des projets de redéveloppement du patrimoine en France et au Québec" (HerEntrep). She coordinates, for Paris 1, the Alliance for Research on Cultural Heritage in Europe (ARCHE) project, Coordination and Support Action (CSA), Horizon Europe.

In the recent years she authored or coauthored the books:

Tourism and the Metropolis. Exploring conceptual and geographical frontiers (2025) Westminster Press; Tourism gentrification (2025), Elgar; Cultural Heritage on the Urban Peripheries Towards New Research Paradigms (2025) Routledge; Tourism & Fashion. Parallel Stories (2023) Emerald; Tourism and architectural simulacra (2021) Routledge; Tourism Dynamics in Everyday Places: Before and After Tourism, (2021) Routledge;  A research Agenda for Heritage Tourism (2020) Elgar; Le patrimoine mondial, Mise en tourisme, mise en images (2020) L’Harmattan; Lieux ordinaires, avant et après le tourisme, (2018) PUCA; Tourism and Gentrification in Contemporary Metropolises.  International Perspectives (2017) Routledge; World Heritage Sites and Tourism. Global and Local Relations, (2017) Routledge.

Donatella Rita Fiorino 

Donatella Rita Fiorino, University of Cagliari:

INTERINSTITUTIONAL SYNERGIES FOR REGENERATION STRATEGIES.

THE CASE STUDY OF LA MADDALENA ENTRENCHED FIELD IN

SARDINIA (ITALY)

Donatella is an Associate Professor of Restoration at the Department of Civil-Environmental and Architectural Engineering, University of Cagliari. She is an Engineer, Ph.D. in Conservation of Architectural Heritage, and Specialist in the Restoration of Monuments at the Milan Polytechnic, ICOMOS and ICOFORT Expert Member, member of the Italian Society for Architectural Conservation/ Restoration (SIRA), member of the Organizing Committee of the School of Specialization in Architectural Heritage and Landscape and member of the Academic Board of the PhD in Civil Engineering and Architecture (University of Cagliari) and of the PhD of National Interest in Defence against natural hazards and ecological transition of the built Heritage (University of Catania). 
Donatella’s research focuses on the recognition and analysis of cultural heritage, including aspects related to the National Risk Charter and UNESCO Management Plans. It also encompasses archaeology, archaeometry, the archaeology of built heritage, and urban stratigraphy, as well as the framework and quality of restoration projects for cultural heritage. Since 2018, she has been the scientific manager of the Collaboration Agreement signed on 18 September 2018 between the University of Cagliari and the Ministry of Defence - General Secretariat of Defence on research and training activities in the field of engineering and architecture, a full member of the Scientific Technical Committee and coordinator of the project technical boards. Currently, she works on mensiocronological study of monumental architecture in Sardinia, and in particular, of vast urban convent complexes, rural churches, fortified systems and city walls, and modern military architectures, including the development of information systems for management and interpolation of data. In parallel, she conducts research on the history of protection in Italy and the sustainable use and reuse of defence and military Heritage. 

John Harris, Fortress Study Group, UK:

A COMPARATIVE REVIEW OF BEST PRACTICE IN THE SUSTAINABLE

REUSE OF POST-ARTILLERY FORTIFICATIONS IN THE UNITED

KINGDOM AND INTERNATIONALLY

John Harris B Arch RIBA is a retired architect. He trained at Liverpool School of Architecture where he was taught by Dr James Quentin Hughes who in later years became an important name in the study of fortifications. John’s interest in fortifications moved from pre-gunpowder castles to post-gunpowder fortresses in about 1975 when an inspirational book fell into his hands. In 1991 he joined the Fortress Study Group. For a number of years, he edited the FSG’s annual refereed journal FORT and contributed articles to it and to the Group’s other publication, Casemate on a variety of subjects. He was Chairman of the Group between1921 and 1923. He also gave a number of the webinars in the FSG’s archives.

Over the years he has represented the fortress enthusiasts of the United Kingdom at several international meetings and conferences. His interest spans from the early Italian theorists of the sixteenth century to Napoleonic times, although he admits to a fascination with the Maginot Line. In particular he is interested in the relationship of military architecture to other aspects of a nation’s history and culture.