Dr Alicia Stevens
- Postdoctoral member, Cambridge Heritage Research Centre
- Co-coordinator of heritage pillar for the MIT Comparative Global Humanities Initiative
Contact
About
I am a Gates Cambridge Scholar with MPhil and PhD from the department of archaeology at Cambridge, and postdoctoral member of the CHRC coordinating the Heritage, Memory, and Identity Pillar of MIT’s new Comparative Global Humanities Initiative with Dr Dacia Viejo-Rose. My research intersects heritage studies and political anthropology with focus on the political uses of culture amid repressive regimes, from colonialism and military authoritarianism to transitioning political systems. My monograph, Heritage, Power, and Liminality: Culture and the Crisis of Authoritarian Transitions in Myanmar (2026, forthcoming) appears in the Routledge Contemporary Liminality Series. Prior to Cambridge, I spent two decades in the museum sector running global programs for the Smithsonian Institution and the American Museum of Natural History. My professional work has taken me to 120+ countries, and I am a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. I also have an MSc. from Columbia University in communications and a BA from the University of Michigan in writing and Russian literature.
https://comparativeglobalhumanities.mit.edu/people/alicia-v-stevens/
Research
- Cultural heritage and the heritage of conflict
- Political anthropology/ contemporary liminality
- Political uncertainty & transition
- Post-truth society
- Colonialism, authoritarianism & revolution
- Heritage and displacement, dislocation, and exile
- Museum studies
Supervisor(s): Dr. Dacia Viejo-Rose
Advisor(s): Dr. Mark Elliott
Key publications
Stevens, A.V. (2026) Heritage, Power, and Liminality: Culture and the Crisis of Authoritarian Transitions in Myanmar. New York: Routledge/Taylor & Francis.
Stevens, A. (2025) 'The Tatmadaw's Cosmic Gamble: Sacred Heritage, Supernaturalism, and Fast Merit in Burmese Military Governance', International Political Anthropology, 18(2), pp. 213–231. doi:10.5281/zenodo.18172832
Available here:https://www.politicalanthropology.org/images/PDF/2025_2/IPA3601paper06Alicia.pdf
Stevens, A. (2026) ‘Making Sense of Our Political Uncertainty: Review of the The Elgar Encyclopedia of Political Anthropology', Voegelin View, 25 January 2026.
Available here: https://voegelinview.com/making-sense-of-our-political-uncertainty/
Also published in Hypermodernity Substack, 17 February 2026. Available here: https://hypermodernity.substack.com/p/making-sense-of-our-political-uncertainty
Stevens, A.V. (2025) Heritage, Politics, and Liminality: From British Burma to Myanmar’s Military State, Monograph under contract with Routledge/Taylor & Francis, upcoming fall 2025.
Stevens, A.V. (2024) ‘Political uses of sacred heritage at the Shwedagon in British Burma’ in Kim, C. and Zoh, M. (2024) Asia’s heritage trend: Examining Asia’s present through its past. Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY: Routledge.
Stevens, A.V. (2023) ‘Wicked heritage problems: Rethinking critical heritage theory with contemporary liminality’, Global Perspectives, 4(1). doi:10.1525/gp.2023.82128.
Stevens, A.V. (2021) ’The story behind the Boogaloo: How a hate movement co-opted cultural heritage’, The Scholar (Journal of Gates Cambridge Programme), 7(1), https://www.thescholar2021.com/post/story-behind-the-boogaloo
Stevens, A.V. (2016) ‘Building successful international collaborations’, in Seth, M. and Reed, C.A. (2016) Issues in Indian Museum Education: National Perspectives, international trends. Delhi: Agam Kala Prakashan, Fulbright Commision Delhi/ ISBN, 8173201293.
Teaching and supervision
G31: Management of Archaeological Heritage, session: Conducting fieldwork in a politically uncertain context: post-junta Myanmar (2019).