Professor Rodney Harrison

Academic position: Professor of Heritage Studies/AHRC Heritage Priority Area Leadership Fellow

Department: Institute of Archaeology

Biography:

I am Professor of Heritage Studies at the UCL Institute of Archaeology; AHRC Heritage Priority Area Leadership Fellow; Principal Investigator of the AHRC-funded Heritage Futures Research Programme, and lead the Work Package on “Theorizing heritage futures in Europe: heritage scenarios” in the Doctoral Training Network CHEurope: Critical Heritage Studies and the Future of Europe. I am the founding editor of the Journal of Contemporary Archaeology, and joint Director of the UCL-University of Gothenburg Centre for Critical Heritage Studies. My current research interests relate to the role of different forms of natural and cultural heritage conservation as future-making practices in the Anthropocene, and the future role of heritage and museums in the context of the extinction crisis and climate emergency. I have particular interests in international biobanking initiatives and other forms of biological and cultural collections in relation to these issues, and how these interface with issues of colonial and postcolonial governmentality.

Research Projects

Rethinking Museums for Climate Action

Heritage Futures

AHRC Heritage Priority Area

Publications

Harrison, Rodney and Colin Sterling (eds) (2020). Deterritorializing the Future: Heritage in, of and after the Anthropocene. London: Open Humanities Press.

Breithoff, Esther and Rodney Harrison (2020). Making Futures in End Times: Nature Conservation in the Anthropocene. In R. Harrison & C. Sterling (eds) Deterritorializing the Future: Heritage in, of and after the Anthropocene. Open Humanities Press, London.

Rodney Harrison, Caitlin DeSilvey, Cornelius Holtorf, Sharon Macdonald, Nadia Bartolini, Esther Breithoff, Harald Fredheim, Antony Lyons, Sarah May, Jennie Morgan, and Sefryn Penrose 2020. Heritage Futures: Comparative Approaches to Natural and Cultural Heritage Practices. London: UCL Press.

DeSilvey, Caitlin and Rodney Harrison (2020). Anticipating Loss: Rethinking Endangerment in Heritage Futures. International Journal of Heritage Studies 26(1): 1-7.

Harrison, Rodney, Staffan Appelgren and Anna Bohlin (2018). Belonging and Belongings: On Migrant and Nomadic Heritages in and for the Anthropocene. In Y. Hamilakis (Ed.), The New Nomadic Age: Archaeologies of Forced and Undocumented Migration. Sheffield, UK: Equinox.

Harrison, Rodney (2017). Freezing seeds and making futures: Endangerment, hope, security, and time in agrobiodiversity conservation practices. Culture, Agriculture, Food and Environment, 39(2): 80-89.

Harrison, Rodney (2015). Beyond “Natural” and “Cultural” Heritage: Toward an Ontological Politics of Heritage in the Age of Anthropocene. Heritage & Society, 8 (1), 24-42.

Teaching:

I am currently the academic lead on the development of a new interdisciplinary BA in Heritage Futures which will be part of the UCL East Culture Lab.