Start neue Ringvorlesung im Fachgebiet "Interkulturalität"

Heritage, Conflict and Belonging

What is heritage or, more precisely, what is understood and defined as heritage within postcolonial and transnational power structures? Which practices and artefacts are considered as historically significant and memorable? Who and which powerful (individual and collective) actors can speak about and for heritage, while marginalizing and silencing others?

A cultural and social sciences approach to heritage scrutinizes the powerful social, political and technological practices through which the field of heritage is construed (Smith 2006). Within this lens heritage is not a given, but rather done and continually negotiated by different actors. Conflicts about cultural and social values and meanings of heritage are embedded in these regulations, as well as in several processes of boundary drawing. So, heritage can be considered as a field where the centrality of culture and its relation to identity are permanently fought out (Hall 1999). Boundaries like ‘the past’ and ‘the present’ or ‘us’ and ‘them’ are connected to different self-conceptions and ways of belonging as well as to processes of othering and exclusion.

In the lecture series, we look critically at how the perceptions of heritage are being negotiated in the context of the most recent the conflicts around heritage and belonging. Focussing on intersectional approaches, we understand belonging as a dynamic process that is located between multiple boundaries/axes of difference like class, race, gender or sexuality (Yuval-Davis 2006).  Through different interdisciplinary approaches, fields and topics of research such as museum studies, postcolonial studies, gender and sexuality studies, media studies, the negotiation of heritage in conflict zones, and politics and activist struggle for appropriation, we give innovative insights to a contested field.

Dates of lectures (18.00 – 20.00): 08.11.17, 22.11.17, 29.11.17, 13.12.17, 17.01.18, 31.01.18

Location: Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg, Platz der Deutschen Einheit 1, Room: ZHG, Lecture Room 2