Projects
Tidally United Summit 2025
Date: July 31, 2025
Time: 9:00 AM EDT
Location: Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center, 35 Quay Rd, Key West, FL 33040
Rising sea levels and other environmental changes have shaped our past and will continue to impact our future.
Tidally United is a biennial summit, designed to be an informational think-tank dedicated to raising awareness and exploring future-ready solutions to protect historical sites and other significant cultural resources from climate-related threats.
The 2025 Tidally United Summit will be on July 31st, 2025, at the Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center in Key West!
REGISTRATION
General registration to the 2025 Tidally United Summit is $50 and student registration is $15. The registration button below allows you to register to the meeting, submit an abstract, and order lunch all in one! For the events included in your registration, we ask that you please let us know on the registration form which you plan to attend to help us with event planning. Please register by July 1st to have lunch included.
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
We are excited to announce that our keynote speakers for Tidally this year will be Dr. Vibeke Vandrup Martens and Alison Higgins.
Photo by Vibeke Vandrup Martens.
Bios
Dr. Vibeke Vandrup Martens is an archaeologist and a researcher (Forsker II) and has worked at NIKU since 2006.
Her research focuses on preservation conditions for archaeological deposits, geoarchaeology and in situ preservation. She has a PhD in geoarchaeology from the VU University of Amsterdam, and she has worked in the research projects ”Archaeological Deposits in a Changing Climate. In Situ Preservation of Farm Mounds in Northern Norway” (InSituFarms) and “In Situ Site Preservation of Archaeological Remains in the Unsaturated Zone” (In Situ SIS). Martens carries out environmental monitoring projects both within and outside the urban areas and conducts archaeological excavations in the medieval towns.
Her present work focus is the impact of climate change on preservation conditions for cultural heritage, leading the interdisciplinary research project CULTCOAST (financed by the MILJØFORSK environmental research programme at the Research Council of Norway).
Martens has published papers on deposit monitoring, rural medieval settlements and on medieval pottery. She is an active participant at international archaeological conferences, and she holds a position in the editorial board of Collegium Medievale.
Martens holds master’s degrees in medieval archaeology from the University of Lund (Sweden) and Aarhus University (Denmark). Her work experience as an archaeologist, curator and researcher comes from the Museum of Cultural History in Lund, the Copenhagen City Museum, the Government of Åland, the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo and Vestfold County Archeology.
Alison Higgins has served as the Resiliency Manager for the City of Key West for 13 years, dedicated to reducing the carbon footprint of residents, businesses and agencies islandwide. From biodiesel to bikes, community gardens to greywater, solar water heaters to stormwater infrastructure, and adapting Key West to rising sea levels, Alison gets to cover it all. Alison received her M.A. in Environment and Community from Antioch University-Seattle while working full-time in the Florida Keys. Her enthusiasm for her studies became the underpinnings to her success as volunteer Executive Director of GLEE (Green Living & Energy Education) and her climate change work with her previous employer of 14 years, The Nature Conservancy. Alison has personally been responsible in directly obtaining over $5.7M in grant awards. Dedicated to forging partnerships, Alison traveled to Washington D.C. to receive a Power of Partnership Award from the US Fish & Wildlife Service Secretary in 2006. In her off hours, Alison also overcommits her time babysitting pets, brewing beer, and winning awards for awesome parade creations!