Jeremy Sabloff, SFI external professor and a past SFI president, has been appointed as the next Chair of the Cultural Property Advisory Committee. Appointed by the president, the Committee is administered by the Department of State which is delegated the president’s authority to determine the U.S. response to foreign government requests for assistance in reducing the incentive for pillage of and trafficking in archaeological and ethnological cultural objects. The Committee was created by statute to support the United States’ role as a State Party to the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Cultural Property.
Sabloff’s research in archaeology has ranged from ancient Maya civilization and pre-industrial urbanism to the relevance of archaeology in the modern world. He has written several books and more than 130 articles, book chapters and reviews. Sabloff has taught at numerous universities including Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania and was Director of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology for 10 years. He was also President of the Society for American Archaeology and currently serves on committees for the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and the National Geographic Society.