Dr Tiffany Jenkins is a sociologist and cultural commentator, the author of Contesting Human Remains in Museums: The Crisis of Cultural Authority, a Visiting Fellow at The London School of Economics and Director of the Arts and Society Programme at The Institute of Ideas.
Her academic research explores contested authority in the cultural sector, concepts of cultural value, cultural policy, and cultural property issues such as repatriation. These interests are underpinned by a study of authority and how today it has to continually justify itself and is constantly questioned and contested. Her research also examines the symbolic meanings and strategic use of human remains, and how the body becomes a locale for so many cultural, political, and ethical debates. Tiffany is interested in memorialisation, commemoration and cultural reflections on death.
As director of the arts and society programme at the Institute of Ideas and a Committee Member of the Battle of Ideas, Tiffany organises public debates and private seminars on the arts, cultural policy, and current affairs, bringing together artists, authors, academics, journalists, scientists, and the public, to discuss interesting and difficult ideas, at a high, but accessible, level.
