AMEC student accepted into Italian Art Crime Summer Program

STARKVILLE, Miss.— A graduate student in Mississippi State University’s Department of Anthropology and Middle Eastern Cultures (AMEC) will spend this summer in Italy studying art crime and cultural heritage protection.

Mary Catherine “Catie” Mann was accepted into the Association for Research into Crimes against Art (ARCA), and will be learning about subjects such as law, criminal justice, security, museum studies, art history, archaeology and cultural resource management, all while visiting various parts of the country.

“These courses allow us to have a fast paced and intense look at this world while also developing our own scholarly interests in junction with what we are learning,” said Mann, a native of Birmingham, AL. For more information on ARCA, visit https://www.artcrimeresearch.org/our-work/.

Mann received her undergraduate degree in International Studies from Belhaven University in 2020. She will graduate MSU in 2023 with a Master of Arts degree in Applied Cultural Anthropology, and plans to work in a field that connects artifacts, art and people.

Hsain Ilahiane, professor and head of AMEC, said Mann is a good selection for this program because of her current thesis focusing on the Native American Graveside Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), as well as her passion for artifact-culture rights and desire to improve policies in museum-culture group communications.

“Not only will this program allow Catie to explore the complexities of art crime and cultural heritage properties, but it will also expose her to various cross-cultural and international policies, standards, and laws on art crimes and the protection of artifacts,” said Ilahiane, noting it also will give her a competitive edge in the job market.

AMEC’s mission is teaching holistic research concerning past and present human artifactual, biological, cultural and historical diversity and to train students in anthropology and Middle Eastern studies. The department is committed to educating and serving the people of Mississippi through advancement of the science and application of anthropology.

Part of MSU’s College of Arts and Sciences, learn more about the Department of Anthropology and Middle Eastern Cultures at www.amec.msstate.edu. MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.