Hosted by the Cambridge Heritage Research Centre, Prof. Rodney Harrison of the UCL Institute of Archaeology delivered the fifth annual heritage lecture at the University of Cambridge on 24 February, 2022.
Abstract:
The last few decades have witnessed the declaration of a series of interlinked ecological and cultural crises-of climate, history, race, and biological and cultural diversity-which have had and continue to have a fundamental impact on the planet and its human and non-human occupants alike. Accordingly, this talk draws on a number of recent international collaborative research projects which aim to address the role of heritage and heritage studies in the Anthropocene. These projects have been characterised by collaborative partnerships with heritage sector organisations and other actors which have sought to intervene not only critically, but also practically in the role of natural and cultural heritage preservation within the climate, extinction and race crises. They have done so by engaging organisations and publics as co-researchers in the research process and in aiming to rethink the conscious practical role of heritage in building distinctive future worlds.