Topic: Prologue

Bio: Brent Lane is a professor of Heritage Economics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he served as Director of the Center for Competitive Economies (2007-2017) at the Kenan-Flagler Business School. In his pioneering heritage economics research Lane applies economic analysis techniques to the design of development plans that sustainably balance the conservation and utilization of unique heritage assets.

Lane has worked extensively with U.S. and international collaborators in the research and design of groundbreaking heritage economics strategies. As an Expert Member of the United Nations International Commission on Monuments and Sites, he provides guidance in the designation and management of World Heritage Sites. As a Global Research Institute Fellow, he draws on the Institute’s role as a nexus of UNC’s multidisciplinary expertise to engage University faculty, researcher, and student expertise in applied scholarship at the forefront of the emerging development field of Heritage Economics.

He stimulates research by asking the right questions. He it was who looked at the John White/Thomas Harriot Virginea Pars map, and simply said, “What’s under that patch?” The answer led to research, more questions, and more research—some of the latest of which will be revealed during this symposium.