Amsterdam School for Heritage, Memory and Material Culture (AHM), UvA (External organisation)

Rob van der Laarse (Member)
James Symonds (Member)

Art and Culture, History, Antiquity

Activity: Membership › Academic

Description

Theme Leader Heritage & Conflict

Period	2016 → …
Held at	Amsterdam School for Heritage, Memory and Material Culture (AHM), UvA, Netherlands
Degree of Recognition	International

Documents & Links

Heritage & Conflict Theme Leaders: Prof. James Symonds & Prof. Rob van der Laarse This theme explores the heritage of conflicts and the memory boom in the present, as well as the activation of heritage and memory as means of conflict resolution. We study the heritage of conflicts through historical archaeology and musealisation of the contemporary past, the (re)presentation of war and concentration camps, testimonies, forensics and Holocaust research. This includes dissonant heritages and contested and multidirectional memory, social forgetting and silencing, spatial erasure and cultural othering, restitution, reparation, looting and the destruction of cultural heritage and property. The theme analyses the heritage of conflicts in the contemporary context of post-conflict and memory wars, the growing commodification and (digital) accessibility of heritage and the role of (dark-)tourism as well as post-conflict reconstruction, reconciliation and local socio-economic development for deeply wounded societies across the world.