Team

  • The Chair

    Donna-Yates-by-Antonia-Waltermann

    Donna Yates

    Prof. Donna Yates is a leading authority on crime related to cultural heritage, with expertise in cultural property crime, antiquities trafficking, art crime, and the exploitation of cultural goods markets for money laundering, white collar crime, and financial crime. Her research combines criminological theory with empirical investigation of how looted, stolen, and trafficked objects move through commercial spaces. Her current research focuses on new and emerging cultural heritage crimes.

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  • Affiliated Researchers

    Caterina D'Ubaldi

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    Caterina D'Ubaldi is a political scientist specializing in cultural heritage governance, heritage valorization, and illicit trafficking of cultural property. She is a PhD candidate at the IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, researching the relationship between mafia networks and cultural heritage crimes. 

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    Janine Heim

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    Dr. Janine B. Heim's work examines how trade networks, market structures, and governance dynamics shape legal and illegal markets. She is particularly interested in the organisation of niche trades in collectables, the actors and practices involved, and methodological approaches to studying these networks.

    Konstantin Jänicke

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    Konstantin Jänicke is a PhD Researcher at the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology within Maastricht University's Faculty of Law. He holds an interdisciplinary academic background in law, psychology, and criminology. His current research project explores the functioning of the luxury watch sector, with a particular focus on structural vulnerabilities for criminal exploitation.

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    Anna de Jong

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    Dr. Anna de Jong is an Assistant Professor in the Private Law Department at Maastricht University. She is a recognized legal expert in the areas of anti-money laundering, terrorism financing, and the Dutch/European art market. Her recent research has focused on the security narratives underpinning EU culture and heritage law.

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    Jiaqi Liang

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    Jiaqi Liang is a PhD researcher in History at Maastricht University. Her research examines how heritage sites related to traumatic and difficult pasts are remembered, experienced, and interpreted, with particular attention to how local communities live with and make sense of these pasts in everyday life. 

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    Irina Oļevska-Kairiša

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    Irina Oļevska-Kairiša is an attorney-at-law and PhD candidate at Maastricht University specializing in art and cultural heritage law. Her work examines archaeological heritage damage, victim recognition, and legal protection in Europe, combining comparative legal research, international publications, EU project experience, and active engagement in heritage networks.

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    Emily Peacock

    EmilyPeacock

    Emily Peacock is a PhD resarcher in the Faculty of Law at Maastricht University. Her background is in archaeology, and her research explores the shifting values attributed to cultural objects, including archaeological and paleontological materials, as they circulate through the transnational art market. 

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    Paul P. Stewens

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    Paul P. Stewens is a doctoral candidate with the Faculty of Law at Maastricht University. His dissertation focuses on the regulation of natural history objects such as fossils, amber, meteorites, and human remains and explores how their ambiguity challenges legal classification.

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    Iulia Vescan

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    Iulia Vescan is a PhD researcher at KU Leuven studying the policing of museum theft. Her work focuses on how museum staff and other museum-related professionals understand, prevent, and respond to theft and theft-related risks.

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    Tullio Viola

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    Tullio Viola is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Maastricht University. His research spans late modern philosophy, philosophy of the social sciences, and theories of culture. Within his broader focus on theories of memory and cultural transmission, he is currently investigating the nineteenth- and twentieth-century history of the concept of heritage.

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