In what ways must the concept of heritage be rethought when we acknowledge that we live in a world which has been predominately shaped by humans, and in which all parts of the planet’s ecological systems—even the very climate—constitute a form of cultural heritage? This talk reviews various recent projects which aim to critically engage with this question, whilst also collaborating with heritage professionals, institutions and their publics to reimagine heritage and collections in, of and after the Anthropocene.
The talk is open for all, but requires registration ahead of time. Please fill inn the meeting registration form.
Rodney Harrison is Professor of Heritage Studies at the UCL Institute of Archaeology. From 2017-2021 he was Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Heritage Priority Area Leadership Fellow, and from 2016-2020 he was Principal Investigator of the AHRC-funded Heritage Futures Research Programme. He is a joint Director of the UCL Centre for Critical Heritage Studies and the founding editor of the Journal of Contemporary Archaeology. He is the (co)author or (co)editor of around 20 books and guest edited journal volumes and almost 100 peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters, some of which have been translated into Chinese, Italian, Polish and Portuguese language versions. In addition to the AHRC his research has been funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund, British Academy, Wenner-Gren Foundation, Australian Research Council, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies and the European Commission. He is currently co-lead, with Colin Sterling, on Reimagining Museums for Climate Action, a research project and exhibition for COP26 inspiring radical change in museums to address the climate emergency. His most recent book is Deterritorialising the Future: Heritage in, of and after the Anthropocene (Open Humanities Press, 2020).