Yudhishthir Raj Isar

Yudhishthir Raj Isar is currently an independent cultural advisor and public speaker, after a thirty-year career in international cultural cooperation.  Professor of Cultural Policy Studies at The American University of Paris (where he was a Jean Monnet Professor, 2003-2008), Maître de Conférence at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques (Sciences Po) and visiting professor at other universities in Europe and the United States, he is also the founding co-editor of the Cultures and Globalization Series published by SAGE. President of the international association Culture Action Europe, 2004-2008.

Acting Chair of the Institute of International Visual Arts (Iniva), London; board member of or advisor to several other cultural organizations in Europe, North America and Asia.  He has been a consultant to the European Commission, the Organization of American States (OAS) and the European Cultural Foundation. Member of the International Council of Museums and the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH). Earlier, at UNESCO, he was notably Director of Cultural Policies and of the International Fund for the Promotion of Culture; Executive Secretary of the World Commission on Culture and Development. In 1986-87, he was Executive Director of the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard University and MIT.