International Conference Decolonising Cultural Heritage

Call for papers: International Conference “Decolonising Cultural Heritage”, Siena, May 5-6, 2025. 
Deadline for abstract submission: January 31, 2025 
Notification of acceptance: March 15, 2025

Following the launch of the new curriculum entitled “Geografie della Decolonizzazione: sostenibilità, paesaggi e patrimoni culturali” -“Geographies of decolonisation: sustainability, cultural landscapes and heritage”, the University for Foreigners of Siena welcomes the conference “Decolonising Cultural Heritage: State of the Art, Methodologies, and Practices”. It aims at being an opportunity for sharing reflections, case studies and future directions, and possibly at creating new collaborative working networks on such an urgent and complex issue. 
The main disciplines involved in the debate will be Archaeology, Art History, Cultural Anthropology, and Geography, but a cross-disciplinary perspective will guide the discussion.
The conference addresses the topic of decolonising cultural heritage especially in the fields of research and teaching of the disciplines involved, questioning approaches and perspectives, and analysing methodologies, categories, and theoretical principles.
We look forward to research works, case studies and projects that focus on decoloniality, especially concerning the heritage, including the presentation of university curricula and teaching courses already existing or being experimented with. We hope that the debate at the conference will show how to articulate and translate the concept of decoloniality into good practices.

These are some sub-topics we would like to deal with:
- Dealing with the cultural heritage of the “others”
- Cultural Heritage and Identity
- Colonial history, international repatriation and the return of cultural objects
- Relationships between collections and the communities
- Cultural heritage in memory politics
- Practices of heritage diplomacy and power relations
- Intangible cultural heritage and people-centred approaches
- Heritage narratives and the right to heritage self-determination
-Decolonising heritage and gender studies
-Decolonising the Academy and Cultural Heritage curricula 
-Silenced heritage, muted memories
-Decolonial and/vs postcolonial approaches
-Decoloniality and the Mediterranean
-Decolonising Urban Space and Public Memory
-Participatory approaches to Cultural Heritage
-Critical Geography of Tourism 


The conference is organised as follows: the first day will be dedicated to methodological aspects with interdisciplinary sessions; the second day comprises four specific sessions according to the disciplines involved and will be dedicated to specific case studies presented and discussed for each discipline. An interdisciplinary roundtable will close the conference.
Proposals should be in English or Italian and include a title, five keywords, authors' names and affiliations, and an abstract of a maximum of 200 words; the language of the presentation should be specified. To facilitate the organisation of the programme, we appreciate if the speakers would state the focus of their presentation on methodological aspects or case studies.

Please send the abstract to decoloniality@unistrasi.it

SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE:
Tomaso Montanari (University for Foreigners of Siena)
Alberica Bazzoni (University for Foreigners of Siena)
Sandra Ferracuti (University of Basilicata)
Agnese Fusaro (University for Foreigners of Siena)
Francesca Gallo (Sapienza University of Rome)
Camilla Giantomasso (Roma Tre University)
Özgün Eylül İşcen (Technische Universität Dresden)
Valentina Lusini (University for Foreigners of Siena)
Luca Maria Olivieri (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice)
Andrea Simone (CNR IRCrES)
Jacopo Tabolli (University for Foreigners of Siena)
Massimiliano Tabusi (University for Foreigners of Siena)
Caterina Toschi (University for Foreigners of Siena)

For further information, please contact decoloniality@unistrasi.it

Call for papers PDF