Andy Noland Receives Hella Mears Fellowship

Congratulations to Andy Noland, a third-year political science graduate student studying international relations and comparative politics, on receiving the Hella Mears Fellowship from the Center for German & European Studies. The Hella Mears Fellowship is awarded to outstanding graduate students in the humanities and social sciences for dissertation projects that advance our understanding of Europe.

Cultural Heritage and Global Politics

Andy primarily studies how issues of cultural heritage affect global politics. His dissertation is set up to be a critical genealogy of repatriation, investigating how questions over the belonging of objects stolen during colonialism produce possibilities for reconciliation or continued hostility between people around the world.

"For a long time, museums in the West justified holding on to colonial looted objects by claiming the artifacts would be kept safe and used to educate visitors on the 'history of mankind.' But there's been a shift in those moral attitudes," Andy explains. With activists, international organizations, journalists, and states demanding that museums apologize and return objects to their rightful countries of origin, there is much to unpack.

In his research, Andy hopes to answer questions such as: Why are objects being returned to the country and maybe not the individuals and their descendants? What happens to the objects after their return? What and whose narratives are the objects serving?

"After return, it's not 'happily ever after' for either the objects or the people who were robbed," says Andy. He hopes to uncover how repatriation has evolved over time to carry a morally-charged meaning and the consequences of that power in global politics.

Andy's interest in repatriation began in the fall of 2022. He was in the second year of his Master's program at Villanova University, and desperately needed a topic for a final paper. He wanted to find a way to connect what he had learned in his international law course with his newfound passion for memory and heritage politics. The answer came from procrastination: John Oliver's Last Week Tonight had done a story on museums and repatriation. "I became fascinated by the ways that museums tried to weasel their way out of 'doing the right thing,'" Andy reflects.

At first, the issue seemed straightforward: these objects were stolen and their fate should be decided by the victims of the theft. However, as he explored the scholarly literature, Andy says, "I realized how much countries and museums — whether in the Global North or South — were always speaking on behalf of someone else. The victims, the real people, are often long-gone or spoken for rather than getting to speak for themselves."

This observation inspired Andy's dissertation as well as other ongoing projects for him.

Uncovering the Stories

As a result of his research, Andy hopes that we think critically about who is asking for repatriation and honestly discuss the purpose the artifacts are serving after their return.

"In political science, we are taught that countries are strategic actors that seek the power to influence the world," he explains. "I highly doubt countries seek repatriation of cultural heritage objects out of the kindness of their hearts."

Furthermore, he wants to truly center the people whose belongings and histories are stolen from them. Their stories should not be fuel for a political agenda; repatriation should be a wide array of justices that will serve the people who had their pasts taken from them.

To answer his research questions, Andy plans to dive into the archives, visit museums around the world, and interview United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) bureaucrats and museum officials. He will also speak with individuals and groups who have or are bidding for the return of their cultural heritage. This summer, Andy will use the Hella Mears award funds to travel to UNESCO's headquarters in Paris and several museums where colonial looted objects are still housed and displayed. "I will be spending much of the next three years reading documents and asking questions," he says. "I thank the Hella Mears Fellowship for kickstarting this endeavor."

Additionally, Andy is thankful to Deniz Kaptan and Baruch Malewich, who are other political science PhD students who have received this fellowship, and his partner for encouraging him to apply for the fellowship. He is also grateful to the members of his committee, Tanisha Fazal, Ron Krebs, Helen Kinsella, and Jelena Subotic, for supervising and encouraging him to pursue this version of his project.