Maximilian Felix Chami

Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Host Academic: Prof. Dr. Regina Bendix
Length of Stay: September-December 2024
Funder: DAAD

Biography

Maximilian Felix Chami is a Lecturer of Cultural Heritage Studies in the Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies at the University of Dar es Salaam since December 2022. Previously, he worked at the National Museum of Tanzania as a Senior Research Officer and a Secretary of the Restitution and Research Committee from March 2021 to November 2022. Also, he worked at the UNESCO National Commission of the United Republic of Tanzania under the Ministry of Education as a Culture and World Heritage Officer from November 2015 to February 2021.
Maximilian has a PhD in Heritage Studies from the Brandenburgische Technische Universität Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU) Germany (2019) under the sponsorship of Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD). Also, he has a MA in Heritage Management from the University of Dar es Salaam (2015) and a BA in Tourism and Cultural Heritage from the University of Dodoma (2012). He is a former Sensitive Provenance Research Fellow at the University of Göttingen in 2022 and a former researcher at the Open Restitution Africa seeking to open up access to information on the restitution of African material culture and human ancestors in 2023.

Research Interests

• Cultural Heritage Management and Planning
  
• Colonial Heritage and History
  
• Public Archaeology
  
• Restitution and Repatriation of Cultural Properties
  
• Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage
  
• Tourism
  

Planned activities whilst at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology/European Ethnology, University of Göttingen

While in Göttingen, Maximilian will be looking at the different perspectives between the stakeholders in Tanzania regarding the management and conservation of the colonial heritage buildings/monuments with more emphasis on the German colonial building “BOMAS”.