Professor Dr. Amareswar Galla
An alumnus of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and the Australian National University, Canberra, Amar is currently Pro-Chancellor, Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences University (KISS) and Distinguished Professor of Indigeneity and Inclusive Museum & Heritage Studies, KISS, and Kalinga Institute for Industrial Technology University (KIIT), Bhubaneshwar, India; Emeritus Faculty, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia; Founding Executive Director, International Institute for the Inclusive Museum, Australia/India/USA; Member, UNITWIN-UNESCO Network – Tourism, Culture and Development, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris; and a Salzburg Global Fellow, 2019 & 2025. He was the UNESCO Chair on Inclusive Museums & Sustainable Heritage Development, ANU, India (2021 – April 2025); former Vice President, Executive Board and Chairperson, Cross Cultural Task Force, International Council of Museums, (ICOM) Paris, and Former President, Asia Pacific Alliance, ICOM, Paris. He was the founder of the National Affirmative Action Programme for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in Museum Studies and Cultural Heritage Management at the University of Canberra in the 1980s & 1990s; former full Professor of World Heritage and Sustainable Development at the University of Split located in the World Heritage City of Split; first full Professor of Museum Studies in Australia at the University of Queensland, Brisbane; and prior to that full Professor and Director of Sustainable Heritage Development Programs, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, Canberra.
Amar lived and worked as the Chief Curator in Amaravathi Heritage Town and its Amaravathi Heritage Centre and Museum (2014-2020). He held prestigious visitorships at several institutions in the past including the Smithsonian Institution and as the Honorary Professor at the Global Change Institute, the University of Queensland. In the past he was also a regular visitor at the National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden, working on the implementation of Museums and Cultural Diversity Promotion in the Netherlands; Guest Curator of International Projects with the Vietnam National Department of Cultural Heritage; and Founding Convener of the Pacific Asia Observatory for Cultural Diversity in Sustainable Heritage Development in partnership with several bodies including UNESCO. It is now subsumed into the International Institute for the Inclusive Museum.
A Trustee of the Pacific Islands Museums Association, Amar is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of the Inclusive Museum (2008-cont.) (https://onmuseums.com/journal); Founding Editor International Journal on Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability (2005- Oct 2015); Co-founder and former Editor-in-Chief of International Journal on Intangible Heritage (2005-2009) ; and Founding Editor of the International Journal of Tourism and Leisure Studies (2016-2021). His extensive publication record includes World Heritage: Benefits Beyond Borders, Cambridge University Press and UNESCO Press, 2012 (French and Korean translations 2013) and Heritage Curricula and Cultural Diversity, Prime Minister & Cabinet, Australia AGPS, 1993.
