Paul Stewens
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p-stewens.bsky.social
Paul Stewens
@p-stewens.bsky.social
250 followers 390 following 52 posts
Law & Palaeontology researcher | PhD candidate (Maastricht University) | Master in Int‘l Law (Geneva Graduate Institute) | social dancer
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p-stewens.bsky.social
Found out that my new #OA paper "A classification unearthed: the history of palaeontological objects as cultural property in international law" is currently the most read piece in the London Review of International Law! If you're curious what the hype is all about: doi.org/10.1093/lril...
Screenshot of the 'Most Read'articles section from the London Review of International Law, published by Oxford Academic. The list includes articles on palaeontological objects as cultural property, international law and Gaza, transitional justice and decolonisation, the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885, and the global attack on academic freedom.
November 8, 2025 at 1:34 PM
p-stewens.bsky.social
The heart of the collection are the skullcap, femur and molar of a Homo erectus ("Java Man") which local workers, directed by Dutch anatomist Eugène #Dubois discovered in the 1890s. I've seen the exhibit @naturalis.bsky.social and it brilliantly integrates the fossils with a live reconstruction. /3
Glass cases with a live reconstruction of homo erectus on the Java Man fossils side by side.
September 26, 2025 at 12:29 PM
p-stewens.bsky.social
I'm going back to #Geneva! As the 2024 Lalive Merryman Fellow, I'll be working on the legal classification of #hominin fossils as #humanremains between 22/09 and 17/10. If you're in GVA during that time and/or curious about my research project, please (re-)connect!

paul-stewens.com/news/fellows...
Selfie of Paul Stewens in a green suit in front of the UN HQ in Geneva (Switzerland)
September 9, 2025 at 11:44 AM
p-stewens.bsky.social
Happening today at 1.00 pm (CET), title slide for a teaser!
Title slide of a presentation titled "Distinction Without a Difference? Natural vs. Cultural Heritage in the Spotlight of Restitution Claims", showing a picture of a dinosaur skeleton at a museum and a Benin bronze.
March 12, 2025 at 9:03 AM
p-stewens.bsky.social
Event announcement! Next Wednesday (12 March), I'll tell you why it's not productive to think of natural history and cultural property as two separate worlds. The talk will be online at 1.00 pm (CET), so feel free to join me over lunch!

For all relevant information: paul-stewens.com/news/talk-na...
The Giraffatitan brancai skeleton on display at the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin.
March 6, 2025 at 11:13 AM
p-stewens.bsky.social
Another day, another case of questionable practices in #palaeontology. In the news today: Xenodens calminechari, a mosasaurid with "unique" dentition that was described from Moroccan #fossil material in 2021. Let's talk fossil trafficking, forgery, and accessibility of specimens, shall we? Thread /1
Left maxilla of Xenodens calminechari, MHNM.KH.331: compilation of photographs from different angles and with different Zoom levels and annotations
January 14, 2025 at 3:02 PM
p-stewens.bsky.social
I’ve been asking myself that question at every single academic conference I’ve been to…decent public speaking skills among academics are far rarer than they should be. #AcademicChatter

From: A. C. Doyle (1912), The Lost World - Wordsworth Classics edition (2010), p. 33
Image of underlined text in a book: “Why on earth people who have something to say which is worth hearing should not take the slight trouble to learn how to make it heard is one of the strange mysteries of modern life.”
November 27, 2024 at 6:27 PM
p-stewens.bsky.social
Joining the #introduction round here on #academicsky: I'm Paul, a soon-to-be #PhD researcher in #law at Maastricht University. My field is Law and Palaeontology, or all legal questions concerning fossils: excavation, trafficking, restitution, you name it.
#dinosaurlaw
@phdvoice.bsky.social
A young man in smart casual attire sitting behind a table behind a sign saying "Paul Stewens," gesturing while giving a presentation. A young man standing in front of a museum showcase with an archaeopteryx fossil in a stone slab. He's pointing at his t-shirt which shows a drawing of the same fossil.
November 26, 2024 at 5:30 PM