Lena Mortensen
Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology
University of Toronto
Canada
Biography
Lena Mortensen’s research covers several interrelated themes: the circulation and reconfiguration of culture and heritage through tourism and other forms of commodification; the politics of value in representing the past; and the effects of mobilizing “heritage” in social and economic development programs for contemporary citizenship, rights, and belonging. Previously she has conducted research and published about ethnographic approaches to archaeological work, archaeological tourism, and heritage management, specifically in Honduras, and continue to maintain in active interest in heritage politics in the region. Her current research looks at the implications and effects of “culture-branding” through the intersection of tourism marketing, academic production, public culture forms, and international cultural policy institutions. She is also co-chair of the Working Group on Cultural Tourism in a multidisciplinary, international collaborative project on intellectual property issues in cultural heritage, “IPinCH”.
Research Interest
heritage, cultural and archaeological tourism, commodification and place-making, politics of culture, representation, ethnography of archaeology, material culture, globalization and development
