Remainings of Berlin Wall at Niederkirchnerstrasse, Berlin. Photo: H. Zell. Wikimedia Commons
Rest av Berlinmuren på Niederkirchnerstrasse, Berlin. Foto: H. Zell. Wikimedia Commons

Gränser är ett högaktuellt tema i världspolitiken. Det talas om nya murar, om gränsskydd och utökade gränskontroller, samtidigt som betydelsen av gränsöverskridande kulturella rörelser tycks öka. Hur vi väljer att uppfatta och definiera gränser är av avgörande betydelse för kulturarvsforskning, i Sverige och övriga världen.

Symposiet, som arrangeras i samarbete mellan Kungl. Vitterhetsakademien och Institutionen för kultur och estetik, samlar framstående forskare från olika discipliner och olika delar av världen till ett samtal om hur det politiska intresset för gränser som vi nu upplever kan komma att påverka vår förståelse av kulturarv. Första dagens föreläsningar är öppna och riktar sig till forskare, studenter, personer verksamma inom kulturarvsfältet, och andra med intresse för kulturarvsfrågor i dagens samhälle.  

Om symposiet på engelska

Heritage and borders are inextricably connected. Ever since the passing of the first national heritage laws in the 17th century, and with the establishment of museums for the collection of artefacts and public communication of national history in the 19th century, heritage has been defined – legally and in common sense – by national borders.

As an alternative to the traditional understanding of borders as enclosing and definitely defining stable national identities, critical theorists like Homi K. Bhabha and Trinh T. Minh-ha have offered a different perspective on the border. In their writings, the border is a productive zone where identities are articulated, meanings negotiated, and the border itself is upheld by means of cultural practice.

We see now, in many parts of the world, an intense political interest in borders. There are calls for protection of borders, intensified border controls, and new walls to be built. At the same time there are political, capitalist and academic movements talking of global connections in terms of networks and transnational flows, that appear to make political borders redundant.

The research field of Critical Heritage Studies – which sets out to enquire, analyse and understand how the past is appropriated, valued and used in the present – is now faced with an important challenge. How shall we, as heritage researchers and heritage officials, navigate in this border-focused political terrain? Is there need for radical reinvention of our traditional connections between heritage and borders? What can we learn from historical and contemporary examples of the interplay between heritage and borders? How do we bring important theoretical concepts into practical use, in critical research and in practical heritage work? 

The international and interdisciplinary symposium Heritage and Borders is organized by the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities, in collaboration with the section of Critical Heritage Studies at the Department of Culture and Aesthetics, at Stockholm University.

Trinh T. Minh-ha.
Trinh T. Minh-ha.

Keynote Lecturer Trinh T. Minh-ha

Trinh T. Minh-ha is a filmmaker, writer, composer and Professor of Gender & Women’s Studies and of Rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley. Her work includes numerous books, such as: Lovecidal. Walking with The Disappeared; D-Passage. The Digital Way; Elsewhere, Within Here. Immigration, Refugeeism and the Boundary Event; Framer Framed; and Woman, Native, Other; as well as eight feature-length films (including most recently, Forgetting Vietnam), which have been honored in numerous retrospectives around the world. She was the recipient of many awards, more recently the Wild Dreamer Lifetime Achievement Award at the Subversive Festival, Zagreb, Croatia; the Lifetime Achievement Award from Women's Caucus for Art; the Critics Choice Book Award of the American Educational Studies Association (AESA); and the Trailblazers Award at MIPDoc in Cannes, France.

Program, torsdag 21 september, kl. 9.45-17.00

Plats: Auditoriet, Humanistvillan, Frescativägen 24E, Stockholms Universitet. Klicka på länken för karta.

9.45–10.00

Välkomstord: Peter Gillgren

10.00–11.00

Keynoteanförande: Trinh T. Minh-ha, UC Berkeley: Boundary Events – Resistance and the Creative Everyday

  Kaffe
11.15–12.00 Dacia Viejo-Rose, Heritage Studies, Cambridge University: The Porous Boundaries and Edge Effects of Heritage
  Lunch
13.15–14.00 Cecilia Parsberg, Fri Konst, Lunds universitet: We are Losers and You have to Learn from Us
14.00–14.45

Mikael Baaz, Juridik, Göteborgs universitet: The Preah Vihear Temple Conflict: Heritage, Borders and Peace-Building Resistance  

  Kaffe

​15.15–16.00

Elisabeth Niklasson, Archaeology, Stanford University: ‘Fortress Europe’ and the Future of the Past in EU Cultural Policy

16.00–16.45

Péter Balogh, Regional Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences: The Border Site as Heritage: A Resource or a Curse?

16.45–17.00 Avslutningsord: Anna Källén


Kontakt

Symposiet är öppet och kräver ingen föranmälan. Kaffe serveras vid lokalen, medan lunch får ordnas av deltagarna själva. Frågor besvaras av Anna Källén: anna.kallen@su.se.