Annual Conference Online Registration open

The conference will address some of the urgent questions that surround heritage as a political and cultural issue at a historical juncture when the idea of culture is being drawn into a field of intense contestation. While in certain intellectual circles and scholarly discussions culture is slowly but steadily uncoupled from the nation, these impulses are at the same time countered by moves to reinforce – even reinvent – national identities as culturally homogenous. As societies confront their transcultural pasts, the concept of a monolithic, integrative heritage is not only becoming increasingly untenable, it is turning into a site of conflict. Ruptures induced by the spatial and cultural displacements that come with modernity and contemporary globalization have in turn meant a return to notions of an ancient, untainted civilizational identity in many regions of the world. The conference opens with a keynote lecture by Professor David Freedberg from the Warburg Institute in London at the Great Hall of the Old University on October 12. The second keynote speech will be given by Sinan Antoon from New York University following the panels on October 13. Four morning panels will be plenary sessions devoted to broader themes of the conference. Ten parallel afternoon panels in different formats will be designed to foster an intensive dialogic exchange between scholars across disciplines in the field of heritage and curating. The panels will be held at the Karl-Jaspers-Centre and at Bergheimerstr. 20, Room 045. A concluding discussion in plenum will take place in the afternoon of October 14. The online registration is open until October 7, 2016. Please see more information on the registration website. The Annual Conference 2016 is a collaborative enterprise of the Cluster of Excellence “Asia and Europe in a Global Context” at Heidelberg University, the Forum Transregionale Studien, the Max Weber Stiftung - Deutsche Geisteswissenschaftliche Institute im Ausland, and the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin. It is organised by Prof. Dr. Monica Juneja,Dr. Michael Falser and Dr. Philipp Stockhammer on behalf of Research Area D "Historicities and Heritage". Please visit the conference website for the detailed programme and further information. Picture Credits
1) Statue photographed in 1963.©UNESCO/A. Lezine via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7069348)
2) Reconstuction efforts after the Buddhas were demolished by the Taliban in 2001. ©Carl Montgomery (www.carlmontgomery.com)
3) Replica at Arkady Fiedler Museum in Puszczykowo. ©Jsporysz via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26106699)