This webinar aims to lay the foundation for a new research program exploring the complex intersections of heritage and polarization. In the past decades, the world has seen a rise in divisions along social and political lines, both within and between societies. These processes have reactivated old rifts and generated new ones, between left and right, poor and rich, native and foreign. Wrapped up in these divisions we find cultural heritage. To understand the relationship between the phenomena of heritage and polarization we believe it is necessary to look beyond the toppling of statues; to conceptual roots; other points in time; and a broader range of geopolitical settings. The webinar will therefore revolve around concepts and concrete manifestations of the two phenomena in different historical and cultural contexts.

Link to Zoom 

https://stockholmuniversity.zoom.us/s/61405100046

Programme

14:00

Welcome address  

Anna Källén

14:20

Concepts

Victoria Fareld, Jennifer McCoy, Hans Ruin

15:20

Break

15:30

Controversies

Elisabeth Niklasson, Eneken Laanes, Avi Astor

16:20

Break

16:30

Contexts

Adam Hjorthén, Robert J. Cook, Dan Slater

17:20

Break

17:30

Concluding discussion

Polarized Pasts: Concepts, Controversies and Contexts

18:00

End of webinar

Webinar leaders

  • Anna Källén (PI), Cultural Heritage, Stockholm University
  • Victoria Fareld (CO-I), Intellectual history, Stockholm University
  • Adam Hjorthén (CO-I), History, Freie Universität Berlin & Stockholm University
  • Elisabeth Niklasson (CO-I), Cultural Heritage, University of Aberdeen
  • Ida Hughes Tidlund (CO-I), Ethnology, Stockholm University

Panelists

  • Avi Astor, Sociology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
  • Robert J. Cook, American History, University of Sussex
  • Rodney Harrison, Heritage Studies, University College London
  • Thomas Hylland Eriksen, Social Anthropology, University of Oslo
  • Eneken Laanes, Comparative Literature & Cultural Analysis, Tallinn University
  • Jennifer McCoy, Political Science, Georgia State University
  • Jens Rydgren, Sociology, Stockholm University
  • Hans Ruin, Philosophy, Södertörn University Dan Slater, Political Science, University of Michigan