EKATERINI MALEA

Ekaterini Malea has been trained as a professional Conservator, at the Department Conservation of Antiquities and Works of Art at the Technological Educational Institute of Athens where she received the BSc in the Conservation of Antiquities and Works of Art (1992) and in 2000 she was awarded the MPhil in Conservation from Cardiff University (UK). She is a Lecturer in the Department of Conservation of Antiquities & Works of Art at the University of West Attica, lecturer in the Interinstitutional MSc “Museum Studies” (co-organised by the Departments: Conservation of Antiquities & Works of Art of the UNIWA, the Department of Archaeology – History & History of Art and the Department of Geology & Geo-environment of the Kapodistrian University of Athens since 2003) and in the MSc “Conservation of Cultural Heritage” (of the Department of Conservation of Antiquities & Works of Art of the UNIWA since 2018). Her professional experience spans from ethical issues in Conservation, to research, and conservation of organic materials, excavated finds, ethnographic collections and natural history collections. She has worked at the Leather Conservation Centre (Northampton, U.K.), in various Ephorates of the Greek Ministry of Culture as well as in Foreign Archaeological Schools at Athens. She has participated as main researcher on 27 national and international research programmes and she has published her scientific work in peer review journals and conferences proceedings. Since 2001 she has been appointed expert representative at the European Committee for Standardization (CEN TC 346 Conservation of Cultural Property). Since 2005 she has been member of the Greek Technical Committee for Standardisation (ELOT): TC96 “Conservation of Cultural Heritage” which is the mirror Committee of CEN TC/346. She is also member of International Organizations (ICOM-CC, ICCROM, ICOMOS, Archaeological Leather Group (ALG), Hellenic Archaeometry Society) and reviewer of international scientific journals.

Indicative Research Title for PhD:

Investigating the effects of the Museum and Library environment on parchment artefacts

Short Summary of the Proposed Research:

The problems that have arisen from global climate change are among the most critical issues that concern humanity, as they are crucially affecting the integrity of museum and archival collections, particularly those that include materials of organic origin, such as parchment. The proposed PhD Thesis focuses on parchment, which is not only one of the most vulnerable materials, affected by both abiotic and biotic environments, but also one of the least protected and studied internationally. Therefore, the investigation of the deterioration mechanisms during its display and/or storage is emerging as one of the research priorities internationally, in order to enable a Preventive Conservation planning of museum and archival collections.

Physico-chemical diagnostic techniques at macro, micro, molecular and nano levels (Ts, pH, FTIR and Raman spectroscopic analysis, SEM coupled with EDAX) will be used to examine mock up samples of parchment that have undergone artificial (in simulations of environmental factors such as humidity, temperature and air pollutants) and natural ageing (in real environmental conditions of museums and libraries). The results will be elaborated by statistical analysis (chemometrics) to determine the critical environmental factors that can cause irreversible decay of the parchment artefacts.

Based on the above, a best practice guide for the preventive conservation of parchments in museums and archives can be develop.