The Researcher and the Princess: A Profile of Gertjan Plets 

By Koen Theunissen & Sophie Polm

Dr. Gertjan Plets has been Assistant Professor at Utrecht University’s Department of History since 2016. We sat down with Plets to reflect on his academic track record, interdisciplinary interests and future projects.

Studying for his Master’s and doctoral degrees at Ghent University’s Department of Archaeology (2008-2013), Plets became interested in Heritage and Memory Studies. While these multidisciplinary fields traditionally look at how the state shapes national ‘imagined communities’ through heritage, Plets’ research shows instead how non-state actors, such as multinational corporations, are involved in heritage policy. From his time at Ghent University onwards, Plets has been doing intensive field research on this topic in the Altai Republic, a federal subject of the Russian Federation located in Siberia. In this remote area bordered by Kazakhstan, China and Mongolia, the development of Altayan cultural identity has been promoted by Gazprom, the energy giant that has considerable strategic interest in the region. However, Gazprom’s methods of creating goodwill with the population, namely investing in heritage, counters governmental policy of cultural unity.

Plets first came to the Altai region in 2009 on an expedition organised by his thesis and PhD-supervisor, Prof. Dr. Jean Bourgeois. While working in the archeological field, Plets noticed that there was a discrepancy in the perception of cultural heritage between the Altayans, the visiting academics and the Russian government officials. He soon found an appealing case study to illustrate the ongoing conflict in the area: the political process surrounding the ‘Altai Princess’, a mummy excavated from ice in 1993. Until 2012, this mummy was kept at research facilities of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Novosibirsk. Due to the combined efforts of Altai political elites and Gazprom, this mummy, a symbol of the Altai nation, is now on display in the National Museum of the Altai Republic. The Ice Princess figures in several of Plets’ publications.

This multidisciplinary approach remained the theoretical framework in Plets’ further academic career. Next to Utrecht and Ghent, Plets has been affiliated with various European and American research universities. He was a visiting scholar at Monash University (2012-2013) and at the University of Helsinki (2015-2016). Before being appointed Assistant Professor at Utrecht University, he was a Postdoctoral Researcher at Stanford University’s Department of Anthropology (2014-2017). Plets has argued in his recent publications for using the concept of ‘heritage statecraft’, which involves a multidimensional approach to heritage, looking also at transnational and neoliberal interconnections that define the institutional climate of a certain state. Within this model, the nation-state is not excluded, but becomes just one of several players within a dynamic field of heritage policy. Plets currently investigates how this theory can be applied to cases in Western Europe.

Besides research, Plets lectures at Utrecht University. He teaches courses in the fields of cultural history, archeology, and heritage, using his own research to actively engage students and connect academia to the outside world. Broadening his scope, he is now looking into heritage in conflict zones, making his students part of the process.