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Heritage & Memory Theory Seminar

Dates and time :

  • 4 April 2016 (15-18 / Rob van der Laarse)
  • 11 April (15-18 / Ihab Saloul)
  • 18 April (15-18 /Rob van der Laarse)
  • 25 April (15-18 / Ihab Saloul)
  • 9 May (13-18 / Rob van der Laarse & Ihab Saloul)

Venue: University of Amsterdam, Bungehuis room 3.37. Spuistraat 210, Amsterdam
Open to: PhD Candidates and RMa Students, who are a member of a Dutch Graduate Research School (onderzoekschool). PhD Candidates and RMa Students who are members of the Huizinga Institute will have first access.
Fee (non-members): € 250
Credits: 5 ECTS (available upon request)
Coordination: Dr. Ihab Saloul & Prof. Rob van der Laarse
Registration: Maximum participants in this event: 15
Register before: January 2016
Register here
The Seminar is fully booked, please send us an e-mail with your name, university and research school. We will put you on our waiting list.

Description, Themes & Objectives

The analytical study of heritage and memory studies poses particular problems of method for all, from beginners to very experienced scholars. Due to its fundamental interdisciplinary, transnational and comparative nature, this seminar devises a specific format that explicitly addresses the methodological ins and outs of heritage and memory studies. We will critically examine the dynamics of the past from the perspective of tangible and intangible remnants, spaces and traces as well as the politics of forgetting and heritage appropriations, significations, musealizations and mediatization in the present. How key sites of heritage and memory in Europe and beyond are presented, interpreted, and renegotiated? And how do memory discourses operate as vehicles of local, national, continental and global identity building? Key topics will address the multidirectionality of heritage and memory as well as the theoretical implications identity and trauma, mourning and reconciliation, nationalism and ethnicity, diaspora and intergenerational memories, landscapes and mass violence, heritage preservation and commemorations, experience and authenticity, (dark) tourism, diaspora and postcolonial memory, and performative reenactments and the art of absence and forgetting. The objectives are to:

  • Introduce researchers to central concepts in the field of heritage and memory studies
  • Provide training with samples from advanced theoretical texts (reading, understanding, discussing and integrating literature in the researchers’ own projects)
Organization & Programme

The intellectual engagement with heritage and memory concepts and the ideas they develop is both necessary and often, quite problematic. In this 5-day seminar the collective effort to deal with this issue is as important as the acquisition of knowledge. The conceptual premise underlying this analytical approach is that interdisciplinary lacks the traditional paradigms that used to provide obvious methodological tools. Concepts offer a substitute; a methodology that is flexible, yet responsible and accountable. The aim is to open up an academic space where a common ground can be found without sacrificing specific and precious disciplinary knowledge.

The program will be announced in advance but the general format is a 3-hour seminar session with an introductory lecture, presentations and a class discussion. In preparation students will be given some theoretical texts to read; a full list of literature will be provided in advance. All participants are expected to:

  • Attend all sessions and read the texts seriously
  • During each session teams of two or three participants will present an object/case study of their own choice on which they bring to bear the texts and concepts
  • Write a 2000-word report with a special focus on a theme of choice.
Credits & Certificate

Certificates of participation and credits are available upon request after the event. Event coordinators will decide whether the participant has fulfilled all requirements for the ECTS. Please direct your request to Huizinga-fgw@uav.nl and include the postal address you want the certificate send to. Note: the certificate itself is not valid as ECTS, you need to validate it yourself at your local Graduate School.