UNESCO

Chair on Heritage Futures

Hopp och kultur

2025-12-09

Idag 9 dec 2025 höll vi en paneldebatt till temat “Att skapa hopp med kulturvetenskap – bortom katastrofen” på Kulturhuset Strömmen inom ramen för Nobelveckan i Kalmar kommun. Med

  • Johan Höglund, professor i engelska litteratur
  • Felicia Stenberg, doktorand i engelska litteratur
  • Ulrika Söderström, forskningssamordnare, Kalmar läns museum
  • Gustav Wollentz, lektor i arkeologi
  • Cornelius Holtorf, professor i arkeologi

Det blev en bra debatt mellan panelen och med publiken. Också en tjuvstart för ett nytt gemensamt projekt 2026 om Hopemaking…

Foto: Mathias Lafolie

Sammanfattning: vi lever i en tid då framtiden ofta framställs som hotfull – klimatkris, krig, oro och kollaps präglar både nyheter och populärkultur. Samtidigt finns ett växande behov av att föreställa sig något annat: att tänka och känna bortom katastrofen.

Kulturvetenskapen kan här spela en avgörande roll. Genom att undersöka våra berättelser, bilder och idéer om framtiden kan den hjälpa oss att odla hopp och handlingskraft i krisernas tid. Det är utgångspunkten för eftermiddagens samtal.

The Atom & Cornelius

2025-01-27

Chairholder Cornelius Holtorf got interviewed by film-maker Vicki Lesley in her series entitled “The Atom & Us“. Vicki was the Director of The Atom: A Love Affair (2019).

She introduces the interview with Cornelius like this:

“Cornelius is a Professor of Archaeology, originally from Germany but now based in Sweden. But in an unusual twist, his work doesn’t focus on the past, but instead, on the future. And more particularly for our purposes, on the legacy of nuclear waste and what we in the present can leave behind to empower generations far in the future to manage this legacy safely.

“I’m fascinated by his work as these questions of nuclear knowledge and deep time have been a preoccupation of mine ever since I first got interested in nuclear issues back in the mid 2000s – and of course, they remain a live and pressing issue now, not just in the UK where I am, but in places across the globe who’ve experienced the footprints of nuclear activity, be they military or civilian.

“I find his perspective on this as an archaeologist insightful and stimulating. And on top of that, he also has a vivid tale to tell about his own personal relationship to the atom, shaped by the particular time and place he grew up in, as well as impactful encounters later in life.”

— (Cornelius writes:) I found the questions really stimulating and a good opportunity to tell about some sides of my interest in ‘the nuclear’ which I haven’t previously written about anywhere.

Wicked Problems for Archaeologists

2024-09-01

John Schofield’s new book Wicked Problems for Archaeologists. Heritage as Transformative Practice (OUP, 2024, 300pp.) was prompted by Shadreck Chirikure’s 2021 question: “Why is it that archaeology—a discipline that deals with human experience over the long term—is failing to achieve its potential in tackling global challenges?” (259). Schofield’s discussion and answer to this question reflects a view that is rather innovative, and it constitutes a watershed for archaeology.

Although, over the years, there have been quite a few book-length accounts of archaeology’s aims in society and how to reach them, Schofield takes leadership now and offers a new mission and direction for the entire team of Archaeologists. The take on archaeology advocated by Schofield, whose battle cry is “Archaeologists assemble!” (298), is not Marxist but it nevertheless is critical, in the sense that the discipline is meant to address some of the world’s most wicked problems such as climate change, environmental pollution, health and well-being, social justice, and conflict: archaeologists and heritage practitioners can help make the world a fairer, safer, and healthier place for everybody (299).

The volume presents a critical overview of where archaeology is positioned right now in relation to these wicked problems and how archaeologists could enhance their own contribution to solving them in the future. Schofield’s agenda is intellectual but in equal measure it is also about policy, leadership, social-planetary boundaries, and sustainable development goals (SDGs)… In his perspective, key terms that should guide archaeologists include transdisciplinary collaboration, the imagination, small wins, and policy entrepreneurship.

This is an agenda I like a lot, and it is close to my own approach to archaeology using labels such as ‘applied archaeology’ and ‘heritage futures’. As Schofield asks his student readers (302): how can archaeologists do more to persuade doubters that archaeology is central to helping understand and resolve many of the world’s greatest challenges? Is archaeology not about the past, but about the present and the future?

UCLA Talk

2024-02-22

My Wednesday Pizza Talk at the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology attracted an audience of cirka 40 undergraduate and graduate students, researchers and Faculty.

I discussed the connections between Archaeology, Heritage and the Future, using examples ranging from prehistoric futures to UNESCO World Heritage properties to contemporary long-term repositories for nuclear waste. I also discussed the concept of ‘heritage futures’ and how it matters in relation to sustainable development and to addressing challenges posed by climate change and violent human conflicts.

I concluded summarising what the Archaeology of the Future is all about and what it takes to become a Future Archaeologist oneself – with inspiration from Disneyland.

An Archaeology of Growth and Regeneration

2023-02-23

What can it mean to excavate remains of the past when one is interested in the future?

One part of the excavation report for Gamla Skogsby 2021 describes the main outcomes of the intellectual and empirical work on growth and regeneration, led by Cornelius Holtorf and in collaboration with the other members of the excavation team.

The associated fieldwork was an attempt to find ways of creatively applying futures thinking to an archaeological field project. 

Read the report of this experimental excavation project here:

Holtorf, Cornelius (2022) An Archaeology of Growth and Regeneration. In: L. Papmehl-Dufay (ed.) Under storkökets golv. Arkeologisk undersökning i Gamla Skogsby september och oktober 2022, pp. 85-123 (Appendix 1). Kalmar Studies in Archaeology XIV. Kalmar/Växjö: Linnaeus University.

See also the full report here to which my text is an appendix.

Chilean Futures

2022-12-18

Cornelius Holtorf visited colleagues at the Instituto de Investigaciones Arqueológicas y Museo at the Universidad Católica del Norte in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile.

Together with a group of indigenous community members interested in utilising their natural resources and supporting crucial land claims, we went into the field to survey precolonial (Inca) remains of irrigated terraces at more than 4,000m altitude. Water supply is still of great importance for any kind of agriculture in this desert, one of the driest places on Earth (although a little cloudy on the day of our visit!).

Inca irrigated terraces for agriculture

As a ‘future archaeologist’ I am interested, on the one hand, in applying archaeology to improve people’s lives in the near (short) future. This can mean strengthening claims to land entitlements after 2024 when the current terms will expire.


Modern water channel

On the other hand, the specific circumstances also evoke a more distant (long) future: indigenous communities have been negotiating considerable and long-lasting monetary compensation from mining companies operating on their land or nearby and affecting their water supply and living conditions. The lithium being mined, in turn, is essential for the current green transition to carbon-neutral and sustainable technologies (such es electric cars) elsewhere in the world.

Mining in northern Chile


In such complex situations, what we need to make the best decisions is enhanced futures literacy: how can we escape presentism and imagine a wide range of future possibilities while making the best decisions for living people and their descendants, especially when they are poor and marginalised?