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Dr. Alicia V. Stevens

Postdoctoral member, Cambridge Heritage Research Centre
Co-coordinator (with Dr. Dacia Viejo-Rose) of heritage pillar for the MIT Comparative Global Humanities Initiative

Biography

I completed my Cambridge MPhil (2017) and PhD (2024) as a Gates Cambridge Scholar. At the intersection of heritage studies and political anthropology, my PhD interrogated the heritage of colonial and military oppression in Myanmnar as well as the often creative responses such regimes inspire from their publics.
 
I am currently writing my monograph, Heritage, Politics, and Liminality: From British Burma to Myanmar’s Military State under contract with Routledge/Taylor & Francis, due in late 2025. In it, I argue for transferring the contemporary interpretation of the theory of liminality from political anthropology into heritage studies, which lacks an interpretive frame for understanding what happens to heritage amid the uncertainty of transition — or liminal crisis. It offers the idea of a liminal heritage, articulations of heritage that take on characteristics of their transitional-liminal contexts, such as ambiguity, deception, violence, imitation, humour, and creativity. It further asserts that for victims and perpetrators of atrocity, the experience of visiting a site of traumatic history may constitute a sacred rite of passage — a transformational ritual of healing or further harm.
 
Prior to Cambridge, I spent two decades in the museum sector running global programs for the Smithsonian Institution and American Museum of Natural History. My professional work took me to 130+ countries, and I am a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society (London) and Explorers Club (New York City). I also have an MSc. from Columbia University and BA from the University of Michigan.
 

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

 

Publications

Key publications: 

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 Supervisions

Teaching: 

G31: Management of Archaeological Heritage, session: Conducting fieldwork in a politically uncertain context: post-junta Myanmar (2019).

Research supervision: 

Supervisor(s): Dr. Dacia Viejo-Rose

Advisor(s): Dr. Mark Elliott

Postdoctoral member, Cambridge Heritage Research Centre
Co-coordinator (with Dr. Dacia Viejo-Rose) of heritage pillar for the MIT Comparative Global Humanities Initiative
Not available for consultancy

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