UCL History of Art to Host Upcoming Conference: 'Heritage, Participation, Performativity, Care'

Urgent questions need to be asked of conservation: Is there a place to contest long-accepted boundaries between official and non-official heritage? How do cultures of neglect relate to the cultures of care, and what are the effects of official conservation policies on what may be considered as living heritage? And, more importantly, what roles does conservation play in the structures of power around heritage?

Heritage, Participation, Performativity, Care aims to create possibilities for a constructive and compassionate exchange—one that is purposefully about communicating and creating affective (not necessarily productive) relations. We want to encourage new forms of discourse to counter institutional hegemony in relation to forms of performativity, living heritage, and participation. The event is situated online, not simply in mitigation of the global pandemic, but in acknowledgement of the need to have a geographically and culturally diverse exchange, and in recognition of the possibilities this format offers to people who want to participate and might not have the same possibilities to do so if the event was to happen in-person.

Confirmed speakers include Shadreck Chirikure (Oxford University), Farideh Fekrsanati (Museum am Rothenbaum, Kulturen und Künste der Welt), Tracy Ireland (University of Canberra), Shose Kessi (University of Cape Town), Sally Labern (the drawing shed and University of East London), Genner Ortiz (Leiden University), Ioannis Poulios (Hellenic Open University), Jen Shannon (University of Colorado) and Dr. Joseph "Woody" Aguilar (Deputy Tribal Historic Preservation Officer at San Ildefonso). The event will encompass presentations of projects, visions, perspectives, and moments of discussion. When you register, you will be automatically assigned a break-out room for the dedicated discussion session: a time for more informal, open and generative exchange, welcoming diverse voices to discuss what makes the heritage we ought to conserve and who is called to participate in creating and caring for those heritage practices. We hope you will join us.

This event is a joint initiative of the Department of History of Art (Dr Helia Marcal and Dr Rebecca Gordon) and the Institute of Archaeology (Dr Renata Peters) and is supported by the Centre of Critical Heritage Studies (UCL).

The event is free. Click here to visit the event page and register.