Meg Lambert was a PhD student in the College of Social Sciences at the University of Glasgow.
Her PhD research focuses on the illicit market in West African cultural objects. Specifically, how regulatory action, such as the Memorandum of Understanding between the US and Mali, and museum and academic responses, such as major museum exhibitions and the Oxford University Research Laboratory’s discontinuation of thermoluminescence dating on unprovenanced artefacts, have affected the illicit market. Her goal for this study is to provide insight into a neglected region within the global illicit antiquities trade, with a focus on how to better regulate the market and prevent white collar criminal activity within educational institutions.
She received her BA in Anthropology and Art History at Bennington College in Bennington, Vermont, where her undergraduate dissertation focused on the events surrounding the commercial salvaging, sale, and exhibition of the Belitung Shipwreck. Her MRes in Criminology from the University of Glasgow explored how museum professionals in the US approach and conceptualize the rights and risks involved in the acquisition and repatriation of West African cultural objects in light of recent scandals and altering museum ethics.
