CONTESTED CULTURAL HERITAGE IN A GLOBAL WORLD

Thursday and Friday, April 24-25, 2008
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Program

Abstracts and Bios of the Speakers

Spurlock Museum and the Collaborative for Cultural Heritage and Museum Practices (CHAMP) have organized a major conference on "Contested Cultural Heritage" to be held at the Museum on Friday, April 25, 2008. Dr. Donny George Youkhanna, former Director of the Iraq National Museum and now Visiting Professor at the State University of New York-Stony Brook, will deliver the keynote address of the conference ("Mayhem in Mesopotamia" on April 24).

The conference brings together an international group of scholars to discuss how forces of religion and nationalism may act to heighten inter-group tension around heritage claims, even to the point of causing the destruction of ancient and historic sites. Among the cases to be considered are the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan; Christian and Muslim conflict resolution at a major mosque in Cordoba, Spain; different views and practices toward the indigenous past among Native Americans and the archaeologists who study their ancestors; the Parthenon/Elgin Marbles debate; Egypt's demand for the return of the Bust of Nefertiti; heritage frictions implicated in the recent Balkans War; Peru's attempt to repatriate the Machu Picchu collections from Yale University; and the aggressive marking of Protestant and Catholic identities in Belfast, Northern Ireland through wall art. A roundtable discussion at the end of the conference seeks to chart new directions for implementing policies that lessen the negative dimensions of cultural heritage and further awareness of its value for a larger public, thereby promoting site preservation as well as social/political harmony.

CHAMP appreciates the support received from Spurlock Museum, Provost's Office and the Center for Advanced Study/Miller Committee along with the following co-sponsors: Ancient Technologies and Archeological Materials (ATAM), Anthropology, Architecture, Art History, Center for Global Studies, Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, College of Law, Geography, Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities/Museums Writ Large Reading Group, History, International Programs and Studies, Krannert Art Museum, Landscape Architecture, Program for the Study of Religion, Russian, Eastern European and Eurasian Center (REEEC), Sociology, and Urban and Regional Planning.

Pre-registration for this conference is recommended so that we know how many people will join us. Just email slirish@uiuc.edu if you plan to come. Pre-registration continues until the conference starts. Please come even if you haven't pre-registered. There will be blank nametags at the door.

If you would like to join the conference speakers for lunch on April 25, the cost is $15 for a box lunch. Please fill out the form indicating lunch choice and send the form and your check (made out to University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) to:

CHAMP
Department of Landscape Architecture
101 Temple Hoyne Buell Hall
611 Taft Drive
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Champaign, IL 61820

The deadline to sign up for lunch is April 11, 2008.

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