I gained my MA in Middle Eastern Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, in 2012. Afterwards, since August 2013, I have been a PhD researcher at the Leibniz Institute of European History in Mainz, Germany. My research is part of a five-people project entitled: "Knowledge of the World - Heritage of Mankind: The History of UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage", which is funded by the Leibniz Competition of the Leibniz Association. The aim of the project is, firstly, to investigate, using archival sources, the history of the foundation of the UNESCO World Heritage Program. Secondly, through the work of five sub-projects, we aim to investigate the political dimensions of discussions about cultural and natural heritage and to measure the relationship between the state and civil society in the governance of the World Heritage Program. My research "Contested Heritage, Symbolic Recognition: International Experts, the Old City of Jerusalem and the beginning of UNESCO World Heritage (1971-1982)" focuses on the history of the Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls as World Heritage. This is a significant case study for analyzing multiple understandings and constructions of cultural heritage discourses, in the late 1960s and 1970s. Discourses that ranged from UNESCO's universal heritage paradigm and its aim to transcend the heritage logic of nation-states, to the use made by local competing actors of this international paradigm, to reinforce their national claims over the city and its urban heritage.