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Ms. Rebecca Weldon Sithiwong

Consultant in Museology
Participates in 1 Session
Rebecca Weldon Sithiwong

Working experience

2008-Present Cultural Consultant, Chiang Mai, Thailand

\- Historic Structure Report in cooperation with Chiang Mai University Faculty of
Architecture, Prince Mahidol Museum Project, Chiang Mai, Thailand
\- Structural services to Mae Fah Luang Art and Cultural Park, Mae Fah Luang
Foundation, Under Royal Patronage, Chiang Rai, Thailand
\- Structural services to Wat Phra Kaew Museum, Chiang Rai, Thailand

2002-2008 Curator, Rai Mae Fah Luang, Mae Fah Luang Foundation, Chiang Rai, Thailand

1998-2000 Assistant director, Rai Mae Fah Luang, Mae Fah Luang Foundation Chiang Rai, Thailand

Education

1976 Anthropology, Pomona College, Claremont, California
2001- Master Museology, Reinwardt Academy, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Background summary

Growing up in Laos I developed an interest in anthropology and material culture. After working with
handicraft cooperatives in Haiti and Thailand, I settled with my husband in Chiang Rai, Thailand in 1983,
founding Golden Triangle Tours, the first touring organization conceived and run by locally born and
raised residents.
In 1993, I established Ahimsa Gallery, the first cultural centre in Chiang Rai featuring exhibitions by local
artists, poetry readings by local writers and lectures on art and culture. While working with village
carpenters building locally inspired architecture, I served as a volunteer docent at Rai Mae Fah Luang,
Later, I supervised the development of the first museum of ethnology in the area, at which I finally
served as a curator.
The challenges of creating a professional institution based in local participation led me to follow a
master course at the Reinwardt Academy, the faculty of museology and heritage of the Amsterdam
University of the Arts. Working as a consultant I research Southeast Asian museology linking it to local
participation.

Links
Mae Fah Luang Art and Cultural Park: masterpieces.asemus.museum/museum/detail.nhn?museumId=1113
www.maefahluang.org/rmfl
asemus.museum/museum/mae-fah-luang-foundation/

Hong Luang Saeng Kaew Museum, Wat Phra Kaew: www.watphrakaew-chiangrai.com/eng/museum.php

Convenor: Informal Northern Thai Group www.intgcm.thehostserver.com/

Publication
Weldon, R., “Transformative Museology”, Cadernos de Sociomuseologia, no. 37 (2010), 75-85
(http://revistas.ulusofona.pt/index.php/cadernosociomuseologia/article/view/1635/1301)

Sessions in which Ms. Rebecca Weldon Sithiwong participates

Tuesday 7 June, 2016

Time Zone: (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
9:00
9:00

Paper

Ms. Rebecca Weldon Sithiwong, Consultant in Museology (Participant)

Conflicts may arise when international standards of museological practice are applied in heritage preservation at the local level, engendering u...

Sessions in which Ms. Rebecca Weldon Sithiwong attends

Friday 3 June, 2016

Time Zone: (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
11:30
11:30
Public Debate: Heritage and Tourism | Débat public: Patrimoine et tourisme
1 hour 30 minutes, 11:30 - 13:00
Signup required

UQAM, pavillon Athanase-David (D) - DR-200

Roundtable with simultaneous translation / Table ronde avec traduction simultanée

Mr. Craig Bennett Jr., Bennett Preservation Engineering PC, Charleston, South Carolina (Participant)

Martine Lizotte, École internationale d’hôtellerie et tourisme du Collège LaSalle (Moderator)

Pierre Mathieu, Explorateur Voyages (Participant)

France Lessard (Participant)

David Mendel, Mendel Tours (Participant)

What does heritage change for tourism? | Le patrimoine, ça change quoi au tourisme? Ce débat veut interroger les r...
12:30
12:30
Registration
5 hours, 12:30 - 17:30

UQAM, pavillon J.-A. De Sève (DS) - DS Main hall

13:00
13:00

UQAM, pavillon J.-A. De Sève (DS) - DS Registration table (meeting point)

Tour

Avant de s’appeler le Vieux-Montréal, la vieille ville était le cœur vivant de Montréal habité par l’ensemble de ses classes sociales : riches et p...
17:00
17:00
Opening Ceremony and Cocktail
2 hours 30 minutes, 17:00 - 19:30
Signup required

Concordia, Grey Nuns Motherhouse (GN) - Former Chapel

Cocktail

Prof. Tim Winter, Deakin University (Potential)

Lucie Morisset, Canada Research Chair in Urban Heritage (Potential)

Dr Clarence Epstein, Concordia University (Moderator)

Christine Zachary-Deom (Participant)

Luc Noppen, Canada Research Chair in Urban Heritage (Participant)

Hon. Serge Joyal c.p., o.c. (Participant)

Welcome addresses and cocktail, followed by the Concordia Signature Event "The Garden of the Grey Nuns". As the opening ceremony and cocktail...
19:30
19:30

Concordia, Grey Nuns Motherhouse (GN) - GN 1210

Research-Creation

Prof. Cynthia Hammond, Concordia University (Moderator)

Working with archival documents and the current-day morphology of the Grey Nuns' site, Dr Cynthia Hammond, Dr Shauna Janssen, in collaboration w...

Saturday 4 June, 2016

Time Zone: (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
8:00
8:00
Morning Coffee
2 hours, 8:00 - 10:00

UQAM, pavillon J.-A. De Sève (DS) - DS Ground Floor Hall

Pause

9:00
9:00
Keynote : What does heritage change? Le patrimoine, ça change quoi? (Lucie K. Morisset)
1 hour, 9:00 - 10:00
Signup required

UQAM, pavillon Judith-Jasmin (J) - Salle Alfred-Laliberté

Keynote with simultaneous translation / Conférence avec traduction simultanée

Lucie Morisset, Canada Research Chair in Urban Heritage (Moderator)

What if we changed our views on heritage? And if heritage has already changed? While, on the global scene, s...
10:30
10:30
Break | Pause
30 minutes, 10:30 - 11:00

UQAM, pavillon J.-A. De Sève (DS) - DS Ground Floor Hall

Pause

11:00
11:00

UQAM, pavillon J.-A. De Sève (DS) - DS-M320

Regular session

Dr Eva Löfgren, Department of Conservation, University of Gothenburg, Sweden (Moderator)

Prof. Ola Wetterberg, University of Gothenburg, Department of Conservation (Moderator)

Since the beginning of the 19th century religious buildings and artefacts of the West have been involved in a continuous process of musealization. ...
13:30
13:30
L'odyssée des mots du patrimoine
3 hours 30 minutes, 13:30 - 17:00

UQAM, pavillon J.-A. De Sève (DS) - DS-M260 - SALLE ANNULÉE

Regular session

Dr Adèle Esposito, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, UMR AUSser Architecture, Urbanistique, Société, France (Moderator)

Dr Nathalie Lancret, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, UMR AUSser Architecture, Urbanistique, Société, France (Moderator)

Dr Vincent Négri, CNRS - Institut des Sciences sociales du Politique (Moderator)

Le patrimoine recouvre des notions et des pratiques, et désigne des objets, dont « [la] perte constitue un sacrifice et [dont la] conservation s...
18:30
18:30
Keynote: Is Tangible to Intangible as Formal is to Informal ? (Michael Herzfeld)
1 hour 30 minutes, 18:30 - 20:00
Signup required

UQAM, pavillon Judith-Jasmin (J) - Salle Alfred-Laliberté

Keynote with simultaneous translation / Conférence avec traduction simultanée

Prof. Michael Herzfeld, Harvard University (Participant)

Prof. Laurajane Smith, Australian National University (Moderator)

Most of what we experience as heritage emerges into conscious recognition through a complex mixture of political and ideological filters, including...

Sunday 5 June, 2016

Time Zone: (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
7:00
7:00
Morning Coffee
2 hours, 7:00 - 9:00

UQAM, pavillon J.-A. De Sève (DS) - DS Ground Floor Hall

Pause

9:00
9:00

UQAM, pavillon J.-A. De Sève (DS) - DS-2518

Regular session

Prof. Laurajane Smith, Australian National University (Participant)

Mr Gary Campbell, ANU (Participant)

We would like to propose a session, building on the one we ran at the 2014 CHS conference in Canberra, on how emotion and affect feature in the fie...
10:30
10:30
Break | Pause
30 minutes, 10:30 - 11:00

UQAM, pavillon J.-A. De Sève (DS) - DS Ground Floor Hall

Pause

12:30
12:30
Lunchboxes | Boîtes à lunch
1 hour, 12:30 - 13:30

UQAM, pavillon J.-A. De Sève (DS) - DS Ground Floor Hall

Repas

14:00
14:00
Keynote: Renaming, Removal, Recontextualization of Heritage: Purging History, Claiming the Present, Imagining the Future? (What Change-Role for Heritage Professionals?) (James Count Early)
1 hour 30 minutes, 14:00 - 15:30
Signup required

Musée des Beaux-Ars de Montréal - Cummings Auditorium

Keynote with simultaneous translation / Conférence avec traduction simultanée

Prof. James Count Early, Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, United States (Participant)

Prof. Michelle L. Stefano, University of Maryland, American Studies, United States (Moderator)

"What does heritage change?" is a multifaceted  question to which the answer(s) are in primary respects related to real-life negotiations among dif...

Monday 6 June, 2016

Time Zone: (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
9:00
9:00

Concordia, John Molson School of Business Building (MB) - MB 3.435

Regular session

Prof. Melissa F. Baird, Michigan Technological University, Department of Social Sciences, United States (Moderator)

Prof. Kathryn Lafrenz Samuels, University of Maryland, Department of Anthropology, United States (Moderator)

The field of heritage has emerged as a key site of reflection. Influenced by shifts in the academy (e.g., post-colonial, post-structural and femini...

Tuesday 7 June, 2016

Time Zone: (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
9:00
9:00

Concordia, John Molson School of Business Building (MB) - MB S2.401

Regular session

Dr Yujie Zhu (Moderator)

Prof. William Nitzky, California State University Chico, Department of Anthropology, United States (Moderator)

To date, there has been much scholarly discussion and critique about how ideas and policies of "heritage" may be operating globally. There have als...
19:00
19:00
Pawâ
4 hours, 19:00 - 23:00

La Scena - La Scena (intérieur)

Repas

The closing dinner of the conference, called “Pawâ” according to a French-Canadian tradition borrowed from the Native American lexicon, will be an ...

Wednesday 8 June, 2016

Time Zone: (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
9:00
9:00

UQAM, pavillon J.-A. De Sève (DS) - DS Registration table (meeting point)

Tour