UNESCO

Cornelius Holtorf took part in an international planning meeting of the working group on “New Heritage Approaches” within the global project “Our World Heritage” and presented some of his own ideas on heritage futures, the World Heritage Convention, and future challenges to be addressed by the global heritage sector (1 April 2021).

Cornelius Holtorf attended two seminars dedicated to ‘Addressing the Climate Crisis Through Culture‘, organised by the Italian Presidency of the G20 group of nations and opened by Dario Franceschini, the Italian Minister of Culture. The seminars were addressing “The Impact of Climate Change on Cultural Heritage and Cultural Diversity” and “Culture-Based Solutions Driving Climate Action” respectively. Among the speakers was Debra Roberts, Co-chair of the Working Group II (AR6) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), who emphasised a changing focus of the work of the IPCC from initially identifying hazards via a phase of understanding impacts to the present concern with solutions. These discussions mark the first time that culture and climate change have been featured at the G20 (12 April 2021).

Cornelius Holtorf presented his work on cultural heritage and some ideas on the future of the World Heritage Convention to the employees of the Swedish UNESCO Commission at the Swedish Government Offices (14 April 2021).

Cornelius Holtorf and Anders Högberg introduced and led a discussion with all partners in our project Post-Pandemic Tourism Development on “Forms and Goals of Collaboration,” focusing specifically on the future development of the local visitor economy (15 April 2021).

Cornelius Holtorf actively participated in a round table on “The archaeological now: future world building,” held digitally as part of Stanford TAG Conference from the U.S. (2 May 2021).

Cornelius Holtorf was in conversation with Nicole Deufel discussing Future Archaeology at Volkshochschule Aalen (3 May 2021). The digital event, which was attended by ca 175 participants, was part of a Studium Generale Lecture Series on Cultural Heritage and organised in collaboration with Hochschule Aalen.

Cornelius Holtorf lectured on “The Swedish Model” for nuclear waste disposal for a group of 23 students taking courses in Architecture and Applied Ethics at the University Coburg, Germany (4 May 2021).

Cornelius Holtorf presented on “A future archaeologist’s ideas about anticipatory governance” for an international project group working on a joint application, led by Roberto Poli, UNESCO Chair in Anticipatory Systems, University of Trento, Italy (6 May 2021).

Cornelius Holtorf attended a session on “Globalt samarbete i en förändrad värld” during the conference Globalt samarbete för Agenda 2030 organised by Formas (18 May 2021). Among the speakers were Per Olsson Fridh, Swedish Minister for international development; Carin Jämtin, Director General, Sida; Åsa Regnér, Assistent Director General, UN Women; and Jens Henriksson, CEO, Swedbank. I got to ask Jämtin about the significance of culture for overcoming nationalistic politics and bringing about more global solidarity. She confirmed that culture is important for the work of Sida, too.

Cornelius Holtorf gave a lecture on “Future archaeology” for a joint event of five museums in the Region Västra Götaland, broadcast simultaneously on Facebook, Vimeo and various museum homepages (21 May 2021).

Cornelius Holtorf participated in a briefing on “Culture and COP26” held as part of the run-up of the Climate Heritage Network to the 2021 UN Climate Conference (COP 26). The UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures is a member of this network (8 June 2021).

Cornelius Holtorf presented a lecture on “Cultural heritage and memory: from the past to the future” for a digital audience of 130+ at the Centre for Comparative Studies of Cultural Heritage in China and Abroad at Hangzhou Normal University, China (11 June 2021).

Cornelius Holtorf participated in the third meeting of a working group of 16 European experts writing a White Paper on “Cultural Heritage and Climate Change: New challenges and perspectives for research” in a joint initiative of JPI Cultural Heritage and JPI Climate (15 June 2021).

Cornelius Holtorf presented a lecture on “Embracing Change” for an audience of 14 researchers and research students at the Future Urban Legacy Lab, Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy (17 June 2021).

Cornelius Holtorf presented on “Towards a People-Centred Approach to Selecting World Heritage Sites” and took part in a Plenary Roundtable on “Linking Archaeological Heritage to the Sustainable Development Goals” for a global audience of almost 50 colleagues attending the first day of the Annual Meeting of the ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on Archaeological Heritage Management dedicated to the theme Towards a People-centered Approach (21 June 2021).

Cornelius Holtorf participated in the first Responsible Futures Workshop, led by Ted Fuller, UNESCO Chair on Responsible Foresight for Sustainable Development, UK, and Fabrice Roubelat, UNESCO Chair in Foresight and International Strategic Intelligence, France (23 June 2021).

Cornelius Holtorf participated actively and chaired one group discussion in the kick-off of the horizon scan study of the ICCROM foresight initiative (29 June 2021).