Emilia Fernengel

Research Manager (parental leave)

Tel: +49 (0)228 738476

As research manager of the Global Heritage Lab, I support our team in all aspects of research coordination and management (such as the application for research funding, communication with international partners and public engagement).

I am a cultural anthropologist working at the intersection of archaeology, heritage and material culture. My regional specialisation focuses on Latin America. From 2010 onward, I participated in excavation projects in Peru and Mexico, carried out by the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) and the Ibero-American Institute. From 2017 to 2022, I worked at the Center for Development Research (ZEF) of the University of Bonn as coordinator of a bilateral graduate school on environmental peace-building and development in Colombia.

My doctoral research project deals with the (re)appropriation processes of the stone sculptures of the National Archaeological Park of San Agustín in southern Colombia. In particular, my work traces the role of the megalithics in (re)producing power relations and bodies of knowledge by different actors over time. Within these processes, the sculptures are given agency and various political and social functions depending on the intentions of groups and individuals. Based on the data I collected during long-term fieldwork in San Agustín and Bogotá, I seek to disentangle the multiple meanings and stages in the monuments’ life histories and the roles they continue to play in the context of tourism and commercialisation.

Publications

Journal articles and book chapters

Mader C, Godde P, Behl M, Binder C, Hägele E, Isla J, Leceta F, Lyons M, Marsh E, Odenthal R, Fernengel E, Stryjski P, Weber A-K, Reindel M and Meister J (2024) An integrative approach to ancient agricultural terraces and forms of dependency: the case of Cutamalla in the prehispanic Andes. Front. Environ. Archaeol. 3:1328315. doi: 10.3389/fearc.2024.1328315