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This past May, I traveled to Serbia and Croatia with my colleague Stephanie Ortiz. She's overseeing WMF's Jewish Heritage Program, and together we went to meet with stakeholders and survey potential locations for exhibitions at two synagogues.

In Zanzibar, the legacy of slavery has not gone away. The slave trade was abolished in Zanzibar in 1873. Ownership of slaves finally became illegal in colonial East Africa in 1922, still within living memory. Although now largely hidden, the legacy of slavery continues to affect society. It is a wound that has not yet healed.

The mausoleum I’timad-ud-Daulah is located in the Mughal Gardens in Agra, a WMF 50th Anniversary Priority Site. Constructed between 1622 and 1628, it represents a transition from the first phase of monumental Mughal Architecture, built primarily from red sandstone, to the subsequent phase that used pietra-dura on white marble. I’timad-ud-Daulah is thus a building representative of a paradigm shift in construction styles. Over the decades, several attempts have been made at conserving I’timad-ud-daulah and the building has seen many interventions.

For almost 20 years I have worked on the conservation and restoration of Angkor monuments, and I have learned many things from the construction techniques of these Khmer monuments. Construction materials used for almost all the Khmer temples are basically the same, including sandstone, laterite, and bricks.