ACHS 2020: FUTURES, the fifth biennial conference of the Association of Critical Heritage Studies took place as a fully virtual conference during the COVID-19 pandemic across August and September 2020, featuring virtual On-Demand presentations and live Q&A/discussion sessions. This was one of the first fully online international conferences hosted within our academic field, having to switch from an in person to online conference very rapidly as the pandemic developed. The conference was chaired by Professor Rodney Harrison of the UCL Institute of Archaeology in association with the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Heritage Priority Area.
On-Demand content was available from 12 August until 8 September 2020. Live sessions took place from 26 to 30 August 2020. Live session recordings were available until 8 September 2020.
Key facts:
Presentations grouped across 14 sub-themes
822 presentations included in the final programme
747 titles accompanied by an uploaded video presentation or additional file
138 oral sessions
19 panel discussions
6 plenary sessions
4 poster sessions
1130 participants
Page loads from 74 countries-54 Global North; 20 Global South
Top five for number of plays by region-UK (5978); Australia (1498); Germany (987); Sweden (706); Italy (646).
The conference’s theme – Futures – aimed 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.
Papers and sessions explored 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.
For further information, access the book of abstracts here
Local Organising Committee
Rodney Harrison (UCL Institute of Archaeology/AHRC Heritage Priority Area Leadership Fellow), Conference Chair
Chiara Bonacchi, University of Stirling
Colin Sterling, University College London
Esther Breithoff, Birbeck, University of London
Hana Morel, University College London
Jennie Morgan, University of Stirling
Jonathan Gardner, University College London
Nadia Bartolini, University of Exeter
Tina Paphitis, University of Hertfordshire
Hannah Williams, University College London, Conference Organiser
Susan Sandford Smith, University College London, Conference Organiser
Scientific Committee
Ahmed Skounti, National Institute of Archaeology and Heritage Sciences (INSAP, Rabat, Morocco)
Alexandra Bounia, University of the Aegean and UCL Qatar
Ali Mozaffari, Deakin University
Alice Stevenson, UCL Institute of Archaeology
Amy Clarke, University of the Sunshine Coast
Anca Claudia Prodan, Institute Heritage Studies, Internationale Akademie Berlin (INA)
Andrea Witcomb, Deakin University
Andrew Flinn, University College London
Anna Bohlin, University of Gothenburg
Anna Källén, Stockholm University
Anna Karlström, Upsalla University
Anna Storm, Linkoping University
Astrid Swenson, Bath Spa University
Bryony Onciul, University of Exeter
Caitlin DeSilvey, University of Exeter
Celmara Pocock, University of Southern Queensland Toowoomba
Chaozhi Zhang, Sun Yat-sen University
Charlotte Joy, Goldsmiths, University of London
Chiara Bonacchi, University of Stirling
Chiara De Cesari, University of Amsterdam
Chiara Zuanni, University of Graz
Chris Whitehead, Newcastle University
Christina Fredengren, Stockholm University
Christoph Brumann, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology
Ciraj Rassool, University of Western Cape
Colin Sterling, University College London
Cristina Sánchez-Carretero, Spanish National Research Council
Cyril Isnart, French National Institute for Scientific Research (CNRS)
Darko Babic, University of Zagreb
David Harvey, Aarhus University
Dean Sully, UCL Institute of Archaeology
Denis Byrne, Western Sydney University
Elizabeth Brabec, University of Massachusetts
Elizabeth Crooke, Ulster University
Emma Waterton, Western Sydney University
Fiona Cameron, Western Sydney University
Hana Morel, University College London
Helen Graham, University of Leeds
Huimei Liu, Zhejiang University
Ingrid Martins Holmberg, University of Gothenburg
Janet Black, Shahid Beheshti University
Jennie Morgan, University of Stirling
Jennifer Baird, Birkbeck, University of London
John Giblin, National Museums Scotland
Jonathan Gardner, University College London
Jorge Otero-Pailos, Columbia University
Kristin Kuutma, University of Tartu
Laura McAtackney, Aarhus University
Laurajane Smith, Australian National University
Liesbeth Huybrechts, University of Hasselt
Lucas Lixinski, Unversity of New South Wales
Marc Jacobs, University Antwerp
Maria Gravari-Barbas, Université de Paris 1-Panthéon Sorbonne
Marie-Theres Albert, Institute Heritage Studies, Internationale Akademie Berlin (INA)
Mathieu Dormaels, Université du Québec à Montréal
Melissa F. Baird, Michigan Tech University
Michael Herzfeld, Harvard University
Mirjam Brusius, German Historical Institute London
Nadia Bartolini, University of Exeter
Natsuko Akagawa, The University of Queensland
Nélia Dias, University of Lisbon
Rachel Engmann, Hampshire College
Rhiannon Mason, Newcastle University
Rodney Harrison, UCL Institute of Archaeology/AHRC Heritage Priority Leadership Fellow
Sandra Uskokovic, University of Dubrovnik
Sarah Lloyd, University of Hertfordshire
Shabnam Inanloo Dailoo, Athabasca University
Sidney Cheung, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Sophia Labadi, University of Kent
Staffan Appelgren, University of Gothenburg
Susan Ashley, Northumbria University
Suzie E. Thomas, University of Helsinki
Theano Moussouri, UCL Institute of Archaeology
Tim Winter, University of Western Australia
Tina Paphitis, University of Exeter
Tracy Ireland, University of Canberra
Trinidad Rico, Rutgers University
Valdimar Tryggvi Hafstein, University of Iceland
Yiping Dong 董一平, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University
Yujie Zhu, Australian National University