Nuclear Cultural Heritage in Peace and War

How can we make sense of the nuclear past and present through heritage? What is the role of cultural heritage in the management of the radioactive legacies of the twentieth century? How has Russia’s invasion of Ukrainian nuclear sites and the threat to deploy nuclear weapons changed our understanding of the technological risk of nuclear power and its future? Exploring these questions, this event reflects on the insights gathered during four years of the research networking project “Nuclear Cultural Heritage: From Knowledge to Action,” funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AH/S001301/1, 2018-2022) and led by Eglė Rindzevičiūtė (Kingston University). The final report, which will be launched at this event, discusses the critical aspects of collecting, interpreting and governing nuclear cultural heritage in an international context, presenting suggestions for heritage and cultural policy practitioners engaged in this new and fast-evolving area. The roundtable speakers will link the issues discussed in the report with current developments in the UK, Russia and Ukraine, where the documentation and preservation of the nuclear past is under pressure.

Attendance is free but the number of available places is limited.

SPEAKERS

Jon Agar, Professor of Science and Technology Studies, University College London

Sergii Mirnyi, Founder and Director of Chornobyl University, Ukraine

Eglė Rindzevičiūtė, Associate Professor of Criminology and Sociology, Kingston University London

Marina Sakharov-Liberman, Vice President of the Andrei Sakharov Foundation, USA

CHAIR

Irina Petrova, Lecturer in the Politics of Eurasia, UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies

The event is hosted by the UCL Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS) and supported by FRINGE: UCL's Centre for the Study of Social and Cultural Complexity, the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies, Kingston University London and the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Image credit: Agne Gintalaite

Useful links

Project website: https://nuclearculturalheritage.wordpress.com/

Andrei Sakharov Foundation: http://www.sakharovfoundation.org/

Chornobyl University and Tour Agency: https://www.chernobyl-tour.com/chornobyl_university_ru.html