Biographical Information:
Trinidad Rico is Associate Professor and Director of Cultural Heritage and Preservation Studies at Rutgers University. Her research explores the rise and circulation of heritage industries in post-colonial contexts in Indonesia and Qatar, examining the politicization of risk and vulnerability, secularism, and transparency in the making of heritage value. Her most recent project seeks to investigate the emergence of the Atomic Age in Argentina as an anti-heritage force.
Selected Publications:
Books:
Rico, T. The Heritage State: Religion and Preservation in Contemporary Qatar (Cornell University Press, 2025)
Rico, T. Global Heritage, Religion, and Secularism (Cambridge University Press, 2021)
Rico, T. Constructing Destruction: Heritage Narratives in the Tsunami City. UCL Institute of Archaeology Critical Cultural Heritage Series (Routledge, 2016)
Book chapters:
Rico, T. and King, R. Introduction: Epistemic Journeys, in Methods and Methodologies in Heritage Studies, edited by King, R. and T. Rico, 1-13 (University College London Press, 2024)
Rico, T. Practices and Performances, in Methods and Methodologies in Heritage Studies, edited by King, R. and T. Rico, 137-150 (University College London Press, 2024)
Rico. T. Modernism in Qatar: Survival through Reuse, in Urban Modernity in the Contemporary Gulf: Obsolescence and Opportunities, edited by Fabbri, R and Al-Qassemi, S. S., 234–253 (Routledge, 2021)
Rico. T. Is There an “Islamic” Practice for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage? in The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Archaeology, edited by Walker, B., Insoll,T. and Fenwick, C., 689–705 (Oxford University Press, 2020)
Articles:
Rico. T. Authenticating ‘locality’: a postcolonial history of heritage and preservation in Qatar, Change Over Time: An international journal of conservation and the built environment, (Special Issue Radical Hope: Stories from the Arab Region, TBD)
Brusius, M. and Rico. T. Counter-Archives as Heritage Justice: Photography, Invisible Labor, and the People inside Ruins. Journal of Visual Culture 22(1) 2023: 64-92.
Rico, T. Muslim Heritage Preservation Stewardship under UNESCO, Change Over Time: An international journal of conservation and the built environment, 11(2): 182-199 (Special Issue ‘UNESCO World Heritage at 50: What Future for the Past?’, 2022)
Rico, T. Heritage preservation in religious landscapes: disciplinary challenges for the Middle East and North Africa, Archaeological Dialogues 28(2) 2021: 111-120.
Rico. T. “The restricted heritage significance of historic mosques in Qatar,” International Journal of Heritage Studies, 26 (9): 874-884 (2020, Special issue ‘(In)significance: values and valuing in heritage’)
Rico, T. Islam, heritage, and preservation: an untidy tradition, Material Religion: The Journal of Objects, Art and Belief, 15(2): 148-163 (June 2019, Special Issue Heritage, Islam and the Vernacular)
Edited volumes:
King, R. and Rico, T. Methods and Methodologies in Heritage Studies (University College London Press, 2024)
Rico. T. The Making of Islamic Heritage: Muslim Pasts and Heritage Presents (Palgrave Pivot, 2017)
Lafrenz-Samuels, K. and Rico. T. Heritage Keywords: Rhetoric and Redescription in Cultural Heritage (University Press of Colorado, 2015).
Exell, K. and Rico. T. Cultural Heritage in the Arabian Peninsula: Debates, Discourses and Practices. (Ashgate, 2014).
Special issues:
2024, Special Issue co-editor “Advancing Critical Heritage Studies: the Next 10 Years”, International Journal of Heritage Studies 30(12).
2019, Special Issue co-editor ‘Heritage, Islam and the Vernacular,’ Material Religion: The Journal of Objects, Art and Belief, 15(2)
2017, Special Issue co-editor “Biodiversity and Cultural Heritage under Global Climate Change” Culture, Agriculture, Food and Environment 39 (2)
2014, Special Issue co-editor, "Perspectives from the Arabian Peninsula" Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites 16(2)
Other publications:
Rico. T. Bridging Art History and Critical Heritage Studies: a conversation with Ömür Harmanşah. Rutgers Art Review 40(2024): 126-132.
Rico. T. Heritage Studies After Said. Public Books ‘Ghost in the Study,' 7.23.2021, https://www.publicbooks.org/heritage-studies-after-said/
Selected fellowships, awards and distinctions:
International Diversity Guest Professorship, Centre for Heritage Conservation Studies and Technologies, Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg, Germany (December 2023)
MillerComm Lecture, Center for Advanced Study, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne (2023)
Burkhardt Residential Fellowship for Recently Tenured Scholars, American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS, 2020)
Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS), Stanford University, USA (2020)
Senior Visiting Fellowship, University College London Qatar (2019)
Selected professional activities:
Honorary Associate Professor, Institute of Archaeology, University College London (UK)
Consulting Scholar, Penn Cultural Heritage Center, University of Pennsylvania.
Associate Graduate Faculty in the Departments of Anthropology, Landscape Architecture, History,
Geography, and the E.J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers University.