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Staff Profile

Dr Antonio Gonzalez

Reader in Heritage

  • Email: antonio.gonzalez@ncl.ac.uk
  • Address: 2.89
    Media, Culture, Heritage
    Armstrong Building,
    Newcastle University,
    Newcastle upon Tyne
    NE1 7RU
Background

Background

I was born in Puebla (Mexico) where I studied in a German school for 15 years before taking some time off and then studying a BA in Communication Sciences and a certificate in Literature at the University of the Americas-Puebla, Mexico. After working in hospitality and retail, I worked as an editor for a film production company. I also contributed to the making of documentaries about urban cultures in Mexico City, the Afro-Mexican population of Tierra Caliente in the state of Guerrero, Mexico, the production of sugar cane in southern Mexico and a video of a kosher abattoir in Mexico. I also briefly held a position as a film critic for a local newspaper in Puebla. In 2007, I travelled to Melbourne, Australia, where I studied a Master of Arts in Cinema Management at the University of Melbourne. Through my experience as editor, I also worked at the National Gallery of Victoria - the largest gallery in Australia - as a multimedia designer. This experience led me to start a PhD in Art History at the University of Melbourne on the destruction of Indigenous rock art in Western Australia. I completed my PhD thanks to a generous scholarship offered by the Mexican National Council of Science and Technology and the University of Melbourne. After finishing my PhD, I worked as research assistant in two projects at the University of Melbourne, one on Digital Humanities and the other on the deaccession of artworks in museums. I also worked as a freelance translator and interpreter, as well as a curator of art and heritage exhibitions in Melbourne. In 2015, I was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Birmingham and later I undertook postdoctoral work at Deakin University, in Australia. In 2018 and 2019 I was a British Academy Visiting Fellow working with members of Forensic Architecture in a series of projects on heritage destruction. In 2020, I was awarded a fellowship as an Associate Scholar at the Italian Academy (Columbia University). After teaching at the University of Melbourne in 2022 and 2023, I joined Newcastle University in 2023.


Qualifications

PhD (Art History, Archaeology and Heritage Studies), University of Melbourne, 2009-14

MA (Cinema Management), University of Melbourne, 2007-8.

BA (Honours) Communication Sciences, University of the Americas-Puebla, 2000-05.


Google Scholar profile

Research

Research Interests

My research is about the destruction of heritage and iconoclasm (the destruction of images for political and religious reasons).

I am interested in the intersection between art, heritage and media and how can we understand them in terms of questions of power, identity and aesthetics. I have published widely on heritage destruction and iconoclasm in Australia, Iraq, Syria, Myanmar, Mexico, videogames and Google. By analysing and interpreting heritage destruction, I firmly believe that we can uncover how heritage is really managed on the ground as opposed to what official discourses affirm. In doing so, I am interested in using heritage destruction as an analytical tool that can assist in the management of cultural heritage. I am also interested in the connection between contemporary art and heritage destruction whereby contemporary artists are using the discourse of heritage destruction to create contemporary works of art.


Research projects

  • I was part of a research project funded by the Australian Department of Defence that measured the destruction of heritage in Iraq and Syria (2015-2018) at Deakin University, Australia.
  • As a British Academy Visiting Fellow, I contributed to the exhibition "Maps of Defiance" (UK entry to the 2018 London Design Biennale) curated by the V&A and produced by Forensic Architecture (Goldsmiths University). The exhibition showed the extent of the destruction of Yezidi heritage perpetrated by the so-called Islamic State.
  • Likewise, I was also part of the research team that investigated the destruction of the landscape in Vaca Muerta, Argentina, by gas companies, carried out by Forensic Architecture.


Esteem Indicators

  • I am a co-editor of the first handbook of heritage destruction published by Routledge in 2023.


Teaching

I am the module leader of:


MCH8612 Heritage Lives, Media, Messages and Form (Semester 1).

MCH8552 Heritage Processes, Global Perspectives, Practices and Politics (Semester 2).

Publications

  • Articles

    • Gonzalez Zarandona, JA, Albarran Torres, C, Isakhan, B. Digitally Mediated Iconoclasm: the Islamic State and the war on cultural heritage. International Journal of Heritage Studies 2018, 24, 649-671. In Preparation.
    • Isakhan, B, Gonzalez Zarandona, JA. Layers of religious and political iconoclasm under the Islamic State: symbolic sectarianism and pre-monotheistic iconoclasm. International Journal of Heritage Studies 2017, 24, 1-16.
    • Gonzalez Zarandona, JA, Albarran, C. The red landscapes of Murujuga. Science Illustrated 2011, (14). Submitted.

  • Authored Books

    • Gonzalez Zarandona, A. Murujuga—Rock Art, Heritage and Landscape Iconoclasm. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020.
    • Gonzalez Zarandona, JA. Breve historia del cine experimental. Saarbrücken: Spanish Academic Editorial, 2012.

  • Book Chapters

    • Gonzalez A. Between heritage and the readymade—the imminent aesthetic of Ai Weiwei. In: Gonzalez, A; Cunliffe, E; Saldin, M, ed. The Routledge Handbook of Heritage Destruction. New York and London: Routledge, 2023, pp.174-184. In Preparation.
    • Gonzalez A, Cunliffe E, Saldin M. A path well worn? Approaches for the old problem of heritage destruction. In: Gonzalez, A; Cunliffe, E; Saldin, M, ed. The Routledge Handbook of Heritage Destruction. New York and London: Routledge, 2023, pp.1-33. In Preparation.
    • Rufian Fernandez F, Sabrine I, Gonzalez A. The role of civil society in the application of international law for heritage protection in countries in conflict in the MENA region. In: Niglio, O; Yong Joong Lee, E, ed. Transcultural Diplomacy and International Law in Heritage Conservation. A Dialogue between Ethics, Law, and Culture. Springer, 2021, pp.409-426. In Preparation.
    • Gonzalez Zarandona, JA, Isakhan, B, Jamal, T. Cultural Cleansing and Iconoclasm under the ‘Islamic State’: Human/Heritage Attacks on Yezidis and Christians Humans/Heritage. In: F. Oruc, ed. Sites of Pluralism: Community Politics in the Middle East. Hurst/Oxford University Press, 2019.
    • Gonzalez Zarandona, JA. Heritage as a cultural measure in a postcolonial setting. In: M. Badham, L. MacDowall, E. Blomkamp and K. Dunphy, ed. Making Culture Count: the politics of cultural measurement. Palgrave McMillan, 2015. In Preparation.

  • Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstracts)

    • Gonzalez Zarandona, JA. Destruction of images; images of destruction: critical stances of contemporary heritage. In: Motion: Transformation 35th CIHA Congress Proceedings. 2021, Florence: Bononia University Press.
    • Gonzalez Zarandona, JA. Between death and taboo: heritage destruction in the digital turn. In: Heritage in Conflict: Proceedings of two meetings: ‘Heritage in Conflict: A Review of the Situation in Syria and Iraq’ Workshop held at the 63rd Rencontres Assyriologiques Internationales, Marburg, Germany, 24–25 July 2017 and ‘Syria: Ancient History – Modern Conflict’ Symposium held at the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, University of Melbourne, Australia, 11–13 August 2017. 2021, Melbourne: Peeters Press.
    • Gonzalez Zarandona, JA, Ruffian Fernandez, F, Fernandez Diaz, M, Sabrine, I, Ibañez, J, Claramunt-Lopez, B, Escobar, A. The documentation and protection of cultural heritage during emergencies. In: International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing and International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences. 2020.
    • Gonzalez Zarandona, JA. From rock to digital: Art Historical Scholarship in Prehistoric Art. In: Terms, 34th CIHA Congress Proceedings. 2019, Beijing: Commercial Press.
    • Gonzalez Zarandona, JA. Landscape destruction and heritage mismanagement in Murujuga (Western Australia). In: Quality Management of Cultural Heritage. Problems and best practices. Proceedings of the XVII UISPP World Congress. 2016, Burgos: British Archaeological Reports.
    • Gonzalez Zarandona, JA. Why do humans create art?. In: What caused the creation of art? A Round Table at the 25th Valcamonica Symposium. 2013, Atelier.
    • Gonzalez Zarandona, JA. Iconoclash and Prehistoric Art. In: Art as a source of history. 25th Valcamonica Symposium 2013. 2013, Centro Camuno di Studi Preistorici. In Preparation.
    • Gonzalez Zarandona, JA. Destruction of heritage or secular iconoclasm? The case of Dampier Archipelago rock art. In: The Challenge of the Object/Die Herausforderung des Objekts, 33th CIHA Congress Proceedings. 2013, Nuremberg: Germanisches Nationalmuseum.

  • Edited Book

  • Online Publications

    • Gonzalez Zarandona, JA. The history of Indigenous Australia is not written in books but it is engraved on the rocks in the landscape; that is why Indigenous heritage is obliterated in Australia. 2020. Available at: https://adi.deakin.edu.au/news/the-history-of-indigenous-australia-is-not-written-in-books-but-it-is-engraved-on-the-rocks-in-the-landscape. In Preparation.
    • Gonzalez Zarandona, JA, Garduño, C. Why are we so moved by the plight of the Notre Dame?. The Conversation, 2019. Available at: https://theconversation.com/why-are-we-so-moved-by-the-plight-of-the-notre-dame-115555.
    • Gonzalez Zarandona, JA. Viñetas de la destrucción: Los Budas de Bamiyán (2001). ECOS. Blog de la División de Historia del CIDE, 2019. Available at: http://ecos.cide.edu/vinetas-de-la-destruccion-los-budas-de-bamiyan-2001/. In Preparation.
    • Gonzalez Zarandona, JA, Albarran, C. From Charlottesville to Nazi Germany – Sometimes monuments have to fall. The Conversation, 2017. Available at: https://theconversation.com/from-charlottesville-to-nazi-germany-sometimes-monuments-have-to-fall-82643. In Preparation.
    • Gonzalez Zarandona, JA, Isakhan, B. Erasing history: why Islamic State is blowing up ancient artefacts. The Conversation, 2017. Available at: https://theconversation.com/erasing-history-why-islamic-state-is-blowing-up-ancient-artefacts-78667.
    • Gonzalez Zarandona, JA, Isakhan, B. Destroying Mosul’s Great Mosque: Islamic State’s symbolic war to the end. The Conversation, 2017. Available at: https://theconversation.com/destroying-mosuls-great-mosque-islamic-states-symbolic-war-to-the-end-80002. In Preparation.
    • Gonzalez Zarandona, JA. Against ISIS’ Destruction of Heritage, and for Curators as the Cure of Souls. The Conversation, 2015. Available at: https://theconversation.com/against-isis-destruction-of-heritage-and-for-curators-as-the-cure-of-souls-46601.
    • Gonzalez Zarandona, JA. On the meaning of the destruction of works of art. Cuadrivio. Hic et Ubique, 2011. Available at: https://cuadrivio.net/artes/del-significado-de-la-destruccion-de-obras-de-arte/. In Preparation.
    • Gonzalez Zarandona, JA. Alfonso Cuarón. Senses of Cinema, 2009. Available at: https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2009/great-directors/alfonso-cuaron/.

  • Reports

    • Gonzalez Zarandona, JA, Isakhan, B. Funding the ‘Islamic State’: Looting Antiquities and the international black market (Edition 2). Department of Defense, Australian Government, 2024. Submitted.
    • Gonzalez Zarandona, JA, Isakhan, B. Trends in heritage destruction in North-East Syria. Department of Defence, Australian Government, 2017. Submitted.
    • Gonzalez Zarandona, JA, Isakhan, B. Trends in heritage destruction in Iraq and Syria (2011-2016). Department of Defense, Australian Government, 2017. Submitted.
    • Gonzalez Zarandona, JA, Isakhan, B. Heritage destruction and inciting violence under the ‘Islamic State’. Department of Defense, Australian Government, 2015. Submitted.
    • Gonzalez Zarandona, JA, Isakhan, B. Funding the ‘Islamic State’: Looting antiquities and the international black market. Department of Defence, Australian Government, 2015. Submitted.
    • Gonzalez Zarandona, JA. Heritage as a cultural measure in a postcolonial setting. Australian Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, 2012. Australian Heritage Strategy. Submitted.

  • Reviews

    • Gonzalez Zarandona, JA. Art for Coexistence: Unlearning the Way We See Migration (Christine Ross). Art History 2024, 47(3), 621-624.
    • Gonzalez Zarandona, JA. Lo que la cueva nos dejó: reseña de The Cave of Forgotten Dreams (Werner Herzog). ISTOR 2011, (47), 143-147. Submitted.
    • Gonzalez Zarandona, JA. Australia and its debt with the Aboriginal people: review of the film The Castle (Rob Stitch). Letras Libres 2011.