UNESCO

Chair on Heritage Futures

New book: Cultural Heritage, Ethics and Contemporary Migrations

2018-11-05

Cultural Heritage, Ethics and Contemporary Migration. Edited by Cornelius Holtorf, Andreas Pantazatos, Geoffrey Scarre.

Routledge 2018, 256 pages, paperback available. More details here.

This book breaks new ground in our understanding of the challenges faced by heritage practitioners and researchers in the contemporary world of mass migration, where people encounter new cultural heritage and relocate their own. It focuses particularly on issues affecting archaeological heritage sites and artefacts, which help determine and maintain social identity, a role problematised when populations are in flux. This diverse collection brings together international specialists to discuss socio-political and ethical implications for the management of archaeological heritage in global society.

Getting ready for risk preparedness

2018-10-16

Cornelius Holtorf has been accepted as an Associative Member of ICORP, the ICOMOS International Scientific Committee of Risk Preparedness.

The goals of the Committee are to enhance the state of preparedness within the heritage institutions and professions in relation to disasters of natural or human origin, and to promote better integration of the protection of heritage structures, sites or areas into national, local as well as international disaster management, including mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery activities.

The transformation and loss of heritage…

2018-10-06

Cornelius Holtorf, Anders Högberg and Sarah May attended an extended Knowledge Exchange Workshop with the Heritage Futures Project in Orford Ness, Sussex, UK, 1-4 October 2018. The workshop covered issues to do with transformation and loss of heritage over time, bringing together some 40 participants from various universities and heritage agencies in the UK and beyond.

Exploring the 20th century heritage of Orford Ness

As part of the event, Holtorf chaired a discussion on “Managing heritage: averting loss vs embracing change”, whereas May chaired a discussion on “More heritage: coping with profusion”.

Various activities July – September 2018

2018-10-01

Cornelius Holtorf chaired a public panel discussion related to the celebrations of 20 Years World Heritage designation of the Naval City of Karlskrona, “Adressing hope in heritage planning”, Karlskrona, Sweden (5 July 2018)

Cornelius Holtorf ran a half-day Future Workshop “The Future Game” during World Heritage Week on Öland (16 July 2018)

Cornelius Holtorf presented a talk on “Anticipating Periodization of the Future” at the 3rd International Network for Theory of History Conference on the topic of Place and Displacement: The Spacing of History, Stockholm, Sweden (22 August 2018)

Cornelius Holtorf presented the work of the UNESCO Chair for the Department of Cultural Science Kick-off meeting, Öland (24 August 2018)

Cornelius Holtorf co-organsied and co-chaired a half-day Future Workshop for the Pedagogy Department of Kalmar Country Museum (28 August 2018)

Anders Högberg presented a poster on the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures in the session “Disaster-led archaeology: anticipations and responses to heritage-impacting catastrophes” at the European Association of Archaeologists Conference in Barcelona, Spain (5-8 September 2018).

Sarah May presented a paper on “Nuclear/Culture: Reaching Criticality and Generating Energy by Fusing Two Realms”  for an audience of circa 30 international heritage experts at the 4th Biannual Conference of the Association of Critical Heritage Studies, Hangzhou, China (3 September 2018)

Cornelius Holtorf and Sarah May co-presented a paper on “Enduring Change. Managing the Uncertainties of Cultural Heritage, Nuclear Waste, Space Messages and Long-Term Storage” for an audience of circa 50 international heritage experts at the 4th Biannual Conference of the Association of Critical Heritage Studies, Hangzhou, China (4 September 2018)

Cornelius Holtorf presented a paper on “Transgressing Boundaries in Research and Practice –Why it is Critical to Apply Cultural Heritage Left, Right, and Centre” for an audience of circa 40 international heritage experts at the 4th Biannual Conference of the Association of Critical Heritage Studies, Hangzhou, China (5 September 2018)

Ulrika Söderström presented a paper on “Excavating a Sustainable Future: Archaeology and Social Sustainability in the Målerås Glassworks Project” for an audience of circa 40 international heritage experts at the 4th Biannual Conference of the Association of Critical Heritage Studies, Hangzhou, China (5 September 2018)

Cornelius Holtorf presented a paper on Cultural heritage, preservation and the future (“Kulturarv, bevarande och framtiden”) for an audience of circa 20 museum directors and curators in West Sweden discussing Museums in the future – a mission impossible? (14 September 2018)

Cornelius Holtorf ran a 2-hour session “Managing Heritage Futures” at the 5th Herma Conference on Heritage Management in Athens, Greece, 21-23 September 2018. The session first explored some results of our major international research programme on “Heritage Futures” followed by an interactive discussion considering how the members of the audience impact the future through their work. (22 September 2018)

Published in Switzerland: An Archaeology of the Future

2018-09-28

New paper published in Switzerland (in German):

Holtorf C. (2018) “Was hat Archäologie mit mir zu tun? Eine Archäologie der Zukunft.” Archäologie Schweiz 41 (3), 24-29.

Welche Rolle spielt das Kulturerbe in unserer Gesellschaft und wie kann Archäologie zur Bewältigung aktueller und künftiger gesellschaftlicher Herausforderungen beitragen? Wie muss sie sich verändern, um zukunftsfähig und gesellschaftlich relevant zu bleiben? Mit diesen Fragen beschäftigt sich Cornelius Holtorf an der Linnéuniversität (Kalmar/Växjö, Schweden).

The paper will be made available in open access on 1 Jan 2019.

How best to plan for disaster…

2018-09-25

“How best to plan for disaster….” — 13 Theses for further discussion first presented as part of the session on Disaster-led Archaeology: Anticipations and Responses to Heritage-Impacting Catastrophes, held at the Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists, Barcelona, Spain, September 2018.

The theses are based on the following paper:

Holtorf, C. (2018) Embracing change: how cultural resilience is increased through cultural heritage. World Archaeology 50 (4), Open access: https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2018.1510340

Embracing change

2018-09-20

“Cultural resilience, risk preparedness, post-disaster recovery and mutual understanding between people will be best enhanced by an increased ability to accept loss and transformation.”

New article by Cornelius Holtorf about heritage and resilience, available in open access.

Holtorf, C. (2018) Embracing change: how cultural resilience is increased through cultural heritage. World Archaeology50 (4), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2018.1510340