Arturo Rey da Silva

University of Edinburgh

Themes of special interest – Management and protection of cultural heritage

Arturo Rey da Silva is an international expert in management and protection of cultural heritage specialized in Maritime and Underwater Archeology at the University of Southampton (United Kingdom). Between 2011 and 2018 -after working at the ARQUA National Museum of Underwater Archeology (Spain), in several preventive archaeology projects and undertaking research stay in Egypt- he was part of the UNESCO Secretariat team for the 2001 Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage. At UNESCO he worked giving technical assistance to the Member States in the protection of the underwater cultural heritage and in the fight against its commercial exploitation and illicit trafficking, as well as he coordinated the capacity-building activities of the Secretariat.

With more than 10 years of experience in archaeology and cultural heritage management, A. Rey da Silva has contributed significantly to the development of the underwater archaeology discipline in several regions of the world. Also, A. Rey da Silva is a guest lecturer in several University programmes in the Arab Region, Europe or Latin America, and is involved as an expert in several international projects notably focusing on the importance of maritime and underwater cultural heritage in the establishment of sustainable development policies and regional capacity development processes. Currently, he combines this teaching and technical assistance work, with doctoral research at the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne (France), carrying out a research fellowship at the Spanish School for History and Archaeology in Rome (Italy).