Sites of transformations?

Inn i fortida – ut i verden – i museet!

13.-14.10.2011, NTNU, Trondheim.

Paper “Verdensarv til metodisk besvær” at the session of “Med arkeologien ut i verden”.

European Association of Archaeologist 17th Annual Meeting

14.-18.09.2011, Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo, Oslo

Organising a session with Hege S. Gjerde on Indigenous archaeology and heritage management.

Conceptualizing the World

13.-16.09.2011, KULTRANS, University of Oslo

Paper “From a world of heritage experiences to a Woorld Heritage experience?” at the session on World Heritage.

The Significance of World Heritage: Origins, Management, Consequences

08.-10.12.2010, Dalarna University.

World Heritage tourism: tourism with a particular transformative purpose?

Heritage sites have for long been regarded as sites which has the possibility to transform. Most commonly it is the transformations of the local context which are highlighted. From an overly positive notion of the transformative character of these sites, newer research has highlighted the contentedness of heritage designation. Few, however, have explored the possible impact the sites have on the visitors. This paper will address questions regarding dissemination of cultural knowledge in national parks in Australia and New Zealand (inscribed as mixed and natural World Heritage Sites); from a ‘Western’ point of view these parks come across as large natural landscapes, but for local Indigenous communities they are cultural landscapes. To what extent is local knowledge disseminated and does it affect the visitors’ understanding and activities in the parks? Do the sites become glocal meeting points for dialogue between local communities and globetrotters? Essentially, to what extent do the sites contribute to rising awareness of UNESCO’s own goals of the appreciation of and respect for cultural diversity?

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Writing a PhD on Identities and Cultures: Methodologies in the 21st Century and Challenges in a Global Research Landscape

19-21.05.2010, University of Copenhagen.

Poster presentation.

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A day of cultural history

04.05.2010 Room 301 Harriet Holters hus, University of Oslo.

Presentation of the PhD project ‘Sites of transformations? Glocal perspectives on UNESCO’s mixed World Heritage Sites’.

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Culture, Civilization and the World – the Semantics of Globalization

25.-27.01.2010. University of Oslo, Norway.

Conceptual turnover for the past: UNESCO and ‘World Heritage’

The concept of heritage is a fairly recent addition to the vocabulary concerning the past in general and the relationship between the past and the present in particular. However, before the concept of heritage became mainstream, within either academic or everyday vocabulary, it was connected to the concept of the world by UNESCO. With UNESCO’s World Heritage a new conceptual framework for classifying both the past and world geography was created. In a sense one can argue that the roots of a new type of landscape were formed – a global and transnational heritage-scape. This paper examines how such concepts have the possibility to create new landscapes and questions whether they can move beyond being about idealised landscapes to experienced ones.

 

Historic town of Sukhothai, Thailand. Inscribed in 1991. Photo: Hege Vatnaland.