Colin Sterling is Assistant Professor in Memory and Museums at the University of Amsterdam. 

Trained in the broad field of cultural heritage studies (PhD University College London, 2015), Colin's research focuses on critical-creative approaches to heritage, memory and museums. He is particularly interested in how artists, writers, architects, designers and other creative practitioners engage with heritage and museums as spaces of critical enquiry. Within the Faculty of Humanities he teaches across various programmes in heritage studies, curating, art history and museum studies. 

Prior to joining UvA Colin was a Post-Doctoral Research Associate and AHRC Early Career Leadership Fellow at UCL Institute of Archaeology. He worked alongside Rodney Harrison on the AHRC Heritage Priority Area project, and was Principal Investigator on the AHRC-funded New Trajectories in Curatorial Experience Design project, which asked how new approaches to immersive and experiential design might contribute towards critical thinking and practice in heritage and museums. 

Emerging from both these research strands, Colin is currently Project Co-Lead on Reimagining Museums for Climate Action - an international design competition and exhibition that aims to inspire radical change in heritage and museums to address the climate crisis. This public-facing project builds on theoretical research into the implications of posthumanism and the Anthropocene for the heritage field. An open-access edited volume on this subject was published in 2020 with Open Humanities Press. 

Colin's research and teaching builds on wide-ranging experience in the cultural sector. He has worked as a heritage consultant internationally, specialising in curatorial planning and interpretation. From 2016-2017 he was a Project Curator at the Royal Institute of British Architects. He continues to collaborate on sector-facing research across the field of heritage and museums. 

Further information can be found on his personal website: www.colinsterling.com