12th Cambridge Heritage Seminar
15-16 April 2011
The Heritage of Memorials and Commemorations
The process of memorializing and commemorating people and events has come under scrutiny in recent years. Controversies have been sparked by memorials. Some commemorative events have become stage settings for occasionally violent confrontations between different memorial narratives, and the relationship between history and memory is being put through a ‘stress test’ of sorts. Though memorial processes have a long history, this new scrutiny has given rise to important questions about their social function, the intentionality behind commemorative gestures and their impact: Do memorials help us forget? Are they reconciliatory? Who do commemorative events exclude? What purpose to they serve? Do they help us not repeat the mistakes of the past? Why do people use memorials? Who uses them? How and when are ‘forgotten’ memorials reinvigorated by communities? With these questions new terms are also emerging: ‘spontaneous shrines’ (Santino 1992), ‘memorial mania’ (Doss 2008), ‘grassroots memorials’ (Sánchez-Carretero and Margy 2010).
This 12th edition of the Cambridge Heritage Seminar seeks to bring together researchers and practitioners from a wide array of disciplines and communities of practice to explore what and how we choose to commemorate and the impact that this has on our own memories and identities, and thus on heritage.
How to take part: There are three ways of taking part in this seminar: presenting a paper, providing a poster, being a participating audience member.
Paper proposals should clearly outline the questions that will be addressed and the empirical evidence or case study that will be drawn on. The proposals should not exceed 500 words and should be accompanied by a short (150 word) biographical note about the author.
Posters proposals should illustrate one particular instance of commemoration or make a concrete theoretical point.
Paper and poster proposals should be sent to Liz Cohen at esc35[at]cam.ac.uk no later than 15 February 2011. Papers will be selected by 1 March.
To register to participate in the event as an audience member please write to Dominic Walker at dw374[at]cam.ac.uk by 1st April 2011 – numbers will be limited so please register as early as possible to avoid disappointment.
Heritage Research Group
Department of Archaeology
Downing Street, Cambridge, UK. Email: esc35 at cam.ac.uk
Send comments and questions to H-Net
Webstaff. H-Net reproduces announcements that have been submitted to us as a
free service to the academic community. If you are interested in an announcement
listed here, please contact the organizers or patrons directly. Though we strive
to provide accurate information, H-Net cannot accept responsibility for the text of
announcements appearing in this service. (Administration)