ICOMOS Philippines is very pleased to welcome its new members for the year 2020! Get to know them as we share with you a brief of their profile and expertise.
Kinna Mae G. Kwan
Kinna is a researcher and heritage practitioner. She received her Master of Arts in Cultural Heritage Studies from the University of Santo Tomas and is currently studying Urban and Regional Planning at the University of the Philippines. Her thesis, which earned a meritissimus (highest merit) recognition, focused on social value of historic sites hinged on community memories and attachment to places.
She works as a project-based researcher at the UST Graduate School–Center for Conservation of Cultural Property and Environment in the Tropics. Her present work at the center involves cultural mapping, drafting of conservation management plans, and providing technical assistance to local government units and heritage managers across the country. As an advocate of heritage and culture in the public sector, she has worked with government institutions such as the National Historical Commission of the Philippines, National Commission for Culture and the Arts (PCEP), Department of Tourism, Philippine Postal Corp., and served as a consultant in her hometown, Guiuan. She previously worked for the Lopez Museum and Library and the President Elpidio Quirino Foundation.
She is also active in refugee research and has been collaborating with UNHCR in studying the Philippines’ history of refugee assistance. Her focus is on the 5th Wave when the Philippines became a transit country for White Russian refugees in 1949. Her research led her to major archives in Australia, USA and France, and was published in The Journal of History.