The Fifth Biennial Conference of the Association of Critical Heritage Studies (ACHS) will be held at University College London in the Summer of 2020. The conference’s theme – Futures – aims to engage seriously and critically with the often stated aims of heritage to address the concerns of future generations, whilst also asking participants to think expansively and creatively about the future of critical heritage studies as an emergent field of focus across a range of academic disciplines.

Sessions, discussion panels, papers, posters and films will explore a range of issues, including (but not limited to): the future of critical heritage studies; newly emerging concepts, themes and methods for the study of heritage; the future of heritage management, governance and diplomacy; evolving and nascent forms of heritage, and how they might be recognised; heritage as future-making; the “time” of heritage and its relationship with the past, present and future; future impacts of climatological, ecological, economic, political and social change on heritage; future relations of natural and cultural heritage in the light of the recognition of the Anthropocene; and the future of heritage itself.

Please see the conference website to learn more about the sub-themes and to submit your abstract.

This scholarship at the University of Western Australia is part of a research initiative on the use of history and heritage to advance 21st Century Silk Roads trade and diplomatic ties across Eurasia and the Indian Ocean Region.

Launched in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) aims to ‘revive’ the overland and maritime trading routes, commonly known as the Silk Roads, for the 21st century. Driven by a highly ambitious language of regional connectivity, BRI seeks to build infrastructure, energy, foreign policy and people-people ties across Asia, Europe and East Africa.

The scholarship focuses on the cultural components of BRI. There is flexibility in terms of its focus, with possible themes including a critical analysis of ‘shared heritage’, or the intersections between heritage and development or international relations. Candidates with fieldwork experience in Asia are encouraged to apply.

Appropriate research and mentoring support will be provided, with excellent travelling opportunities in Asia and/or the Indian Ocean Region as well as to relevant conferences in Australia and Overseas.

Deadline: 05 April 2019

View more details and apply online

This article engages with the Association for Critical Heritage Studies Manifesto which argues that heritage studies is in need of a complete renovation. We do so by looking back to two earlier moments. The first when museum studies also called for a renovation, drawing on those experiences as potentially instructive for the immediate future of heritage studies. The second a debate within cultural studies on the value of engagement with the world outside of academia to achieve the discipline’s political aims. Thus, while agreeing with the questions posed by the Manifesto, we argue that rather than casting the terms of the debate in a way that positions the professional field as needing renovation from without, we might do better by fostering a more ‘organic’ sense of intellectual work, one that values engagement and collaboration rather than critique for its own sake. Our conclusion points to the importance of the teaching of heritage studies as a potential site for such a practice as well as more collaborative models of research practice.