HERITAGEarchive
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Heritage can be a manipulative tool to serve ad hoc social, economic and political goals which can undermine social inclusion and diversity. In this webinar, (held on March 03, 07:00-09:00 UTC) we will critically question how some policies and practices damage the connection between past and present for certain groups, societies or erase particular histories. To do this, specific cases will be discussed to demonstrate effects and alternative ways in which communities reclaim their heritage.
We interrogate the ways in which colonial legacies of gender and sexuality are often brought about in cultural heritage institutions, spaces and dialogues. In light of this, the webinar will raise questions around what strategies may be used to disrupt heteronormativity when we engage with cultural heritage.
This webinar will explore resistance and activism around historic sites and forms of intangible heritage, as well as how these movements could be recognised and supported at different local, national, and international levels.
This webinar will explore resistance and activism around historic sites and forms of intangible heritage, as well as how these movements could be recognised and supported at different local, national, and international levels.
A conversation about institutional inequalities and unequal power relations.
CONFERENCE ON DIVERSITIES AND GENDERS
The conference will address how World Heritage is being contextualized in relation to Gender & Diversities and the SDGs. How can research, frameworks and working tools either theoretically or on site address marginalisation and valuation within this sector? The aim of the conference is to address various mechanisms that exclude diversity at World Heritage sites. They include: structural inequalities within World Heritage discourses that marginalise communities; domination of the majority culture over heritage policies; multiple and shifting forms of identities that can better represent official narratives on World Heritage; actions taken by stakeholders that either collectively or deliberately marginalise communities. The conference will also explore innovative ways to address issues affecting gender and diversities at World Heritage particularly relating to SDGs.
SESSION I – MONUMENTS OF OPPRESSION
This session aims to discuss how monuments reproduce structural inequalities located at the intersections of race, gender, and class to become monuments of oppression. Monuments around the world are used to support official historical narratives that often exclude the individuals and communities who interact with them. Statues, buildings, and natural monuments are given official narratives which define and commemorate an event, person, or group; these are usually imposed from a place of power. This can create a situation where those that hold power in societies impose their discourse, worldviews, and experiences onto places and spaces, an act which denies the histories, heritages, and experiences of marginalised individuals and communities.
To aid this discussion, this session examines monuments that have been elevated to the World Heritage stage alongside the oppressive narratives that support them and vice versa. We will explore mechanisms of domination, discrimination, exclusion, and erasure to highlight contemporary issues within World Heritage and its links with oppression. We will also (re)consider processes and practices that can transform monuments of oppression into inclusive spaces and places for those they have previously dominated.
Session Moderator:
Alize Utteryn (French Guiana, United Nations Journalist)
Opening Remarks by University of Nova Gorica
Opening Ancestoral Prayers by Ade Williams
SPEAKERS
Adaku Ezeudo (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Consultant, Ireland)
Shahid Vawda (Archie Mafeje Chair, Critical and Decolonial Humanities; Professor, University of Cape Town, South Africa)
Elena Settimini (Heritage and Museum Consultant, Italy)
Speaker from Common Ground (Common Ground is a movement that sets out to examine Oxford’s colonial past in the context of its present-day inequalities)
Speaker from Rhodes Must Fall (A movement to decolonise the space, curriculum and the institutional memory at, and to fight intersectional oppression within Oxford)
Virtual Tour by Uncomfortable Oxford, an academic-led social enterprise in the city of Oxford, which runs lectures, digital events, and creates resources highlighting stories of inequality, imperialism, race, class, and gender discrimination, as well as the debates surrounding historical memory. Founded in 2018, the organisation’s goal is to raise awareness and generate uncomfortable yet meaningful discussions about these issues in the public sphere, using in particular the built environment to bring up contested histories and their present legacies.
Civil Society Theme Showcase
This session looks at how marginalised groups are affected by the constant reminder of what historical monuments represent. The power of how their struggles came about, glorified in a monument.
This session seeks to focus on the value and place of intangible heritage and sustainability.
