In April 2025, our Chairholder, Prof. Hanna Schreiber, took part in the forum organized in Kraków in the framework of the Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union. Her contribution emphasized a key idea that continues to guide our work: there is no heritage without people for whom it matters, and safeguarding intangible cultural heritage is also relevant to questions of security and resilience.

In May 2025, our Chair contributed to an international webinar devoted to the ICOMOS International Charter and Guidance on Sites with Intangible Cultural Heritage. This event reflected our continuing interest in how legal, policy and governance frameworks can better respond to living heritage. Webinar was organized by Working Group of Legal and Policy Development of the ICH NGO Forum.

In June 2025, our Chairholder took part in the second edition of the Naples Conference on Cultural Heritage in the 21st Century. The event created space for interdisciplinary discussion on heritage, governance and contemporary social challenges, and offered an important opportunity to connect our Chair’s work with broader international debates.

From 27–29 August 2025, our UNESCO Chair team and the University of Warsaw welcomed scholars from across Central and Eastern Europe to the Second Conference of the Association of Critical Heritage Studies – CEE Chapter.

Our Chairholder participated from 28 September to 1 October in the World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development (MONDIACULT) in Barcelona. This was the third global conference in history entirely devoted to the crucial role of culture in international relations, cultural policies and sustainable development.

Members of our UNESCO Chair on Intangible Cultural Heritage in Public and Global Governance took an active part in the 3rd Congress of the Polish International Studies Association, held in Białystok on 6–7 November 2025.

On 3rd December 2025, the UNESCO Chair on Intangible Cultural Heritage in Public and Global Governance was honoured to host Prof. Alexandra Xanthaki, United Nations Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, at the Faculty of Political Science and International Studies, University of Warsaw.

In December 2025, our Chair was represented at the 20th session of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in New Delhi, India. This participation strengthened our direct connection with ongoing international policy discussions around the 2003 Convention and current UNESCO processes.

The first months of 2026 brought further engagement with urban and community-centered approaches to heritage. In January, Prof. Hanna Schreiber participated in the debate “Among Varsavians’ in the Warsaw Way: the City’s Intangible Cultural Heritage,” and took part in the Living Heritage Journeys transnational meeting in Kraków. These activities demonstrated our continued interest in urban heritage, local communities and municipal-level governance.

In September 2025, we shared our involvement in the InThrace project, devoted to safeguarding intangible cultural heritage in the context of European integration. The project includes the development of a handbook, e-learning platform and digital library, and connects our Chair with a broader international consortium working on heritage policy and practice.

Prof. Hanna Schreiber joined the Advisory Board of the Horizon Europe project REVIVE, devoted to endangered European languages and intangible heritage. This role further embedded our Chair in European research networks working at the intersection of heritage, rights and digital innovation.

In September 2025, Prof. Hanna Schreiber contributed to the EU’s PROCULTHER training in Caserta, Italy, supporting representatives of EU member states in strengthening capacities for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage in emergencies and crisis situations.

On December 3, 2025, we organised workshop for students of the Cultural Policy and Cultural Management programme at the University of Warsaw, led by Prof. Alexandra Xanthaki, United Nations Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights.

The workshop explored cultural policy through the lens of cultural rights, with a focus on participation, diversity and the role of communities in shaping cultural life. Students reflected on the distinction between protecting culture as a state-led project and protecting people’s cultural rights, including the right to actively participate in cultural processes.

On December 2, 2025, our Chairholder, Prof. Hanna Schreiber, delivered a public lecture titled Who Speaks In the Name of Tradition? at the State Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw. The lecture explored intangible cultural heritage as a social and political phenomenon — one that can both unite and divide, strengthen communities, and at times reproduce inequalities. The event was open to a broad audience and contributed to our ongoing efforts to connect academic research with public debate and wider societal engagement.

In January 2026, members of our Chair joined a study trip organized for students of the Cultural Policy and Cultural Management programme at the University of Warsaw. The visit to Supraśl and Kruszyniany provided an opportunity to connect academic reflection with direct experience of cultural diversity, minority heritage and lived heritage practices.

At the beginning of 2026, we were pleased to share a new article by Julia Krzesicka-Haberko and Hanna Schreiber, published online in the International Journal of Heritage Studies: Where is “democracy” in “the most democratic heritage treaty”? An investigation of the 2003 UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Convention. The article reflects one of the core research lines developed within our Chair.

In November 2025, we announced the publication of Heritage – Between and Beyond Nature, Culture and Agency (V&R unipress / Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2025), co-edited by UNESCO Chair member Monika Stobiecka, further contributing to critical and interdisciplinary heritage debates.

We also shared that Krytyczne studia nad dziedzictwem. Pojęcia, metody, teorie i perspektywy, edited by UNESCO Chair member Monika Stobiecka, became available in open access, helping us make important heritage scholarship more widely accessible.

In February 2026, Prof. Hanna Schreiber was featured in STOLICA, where she discussed urban intangible cultural heritage. She appeared in a dual capacity — as Chairholder of the UNESCO Chair and President of the Warsaw Intangible Cultural Heritage Team, bringing these perspectives to a broader public audience.

On the occasion of the International Day for Cultural Diversity, we are co-organising an international seminar together with the Centre for Research and Practice in Cultural Continuity at the University of Warsaw, directed by prof. Justyna Olko.

The seminar will focus on the role of language as a key carrier of intangible cultural heritage, bringing together researchers and practitioners working on minority languages, cultural diversity and new technologies.

The event will take place in a hybrid format (in person with recording) and will also connect with a public cultural event in Warsaw dedicated to local musical heritage.

In close cooperation with the City of Warsaw and the Warsaw Intangible Cultural Heritage Team, we are actively involved in the development of the concept for the House of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Warsaw.

This important and ongoing initiative brings together municipal institutions, experts and practitioners working on living heritage at the local level. Prof. Hanna Schreiber is engaged in this process both as the Chairholder of the UNESCO Chair on Intangible Cultural Heritage in Public and Global Governance and, since 2020, as the President of the Warsaw Intangible Cultural Heritage Team.

The House is planned to begin its activities in 2027 and is envisioned as a dedicated space for safeguarding, presenting and co-creating intangible cultural heritage in Warsaw, with a strong focus on community engagement and urban heritage practices.

In 2026, members of our Chair will participate in key meetings at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, including the General Assembly of the States Parties to the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, as well as the coordination meeting of UNESCO Chairs and UNITWIN Networks active in this field.

These meetings provide an important platform for exchange between academic networks, UNESCO structures and policy-makers, contributing to the implementation and further development of the 2003 Convention and strengthening international cooperation in the field of living heritage.

In summer 2026, our Chairholder, Prof. Hanna Schreiber, will deliver a keynote lecture opening the ICH Academy during the Kaustinen Folk Music Festival in Finland.

This event represents an important opportunity to engage with one of the most significant European festivals dedicated to living heritage, as well as with international experts and practitioners.

Importantly, the visit will also include students from the University of Warsaw, creating a unique link between academic education and direct experience of living heritage in practice.