Anthropogenic environmental change is increasingly regarded as a central challenge of our times, demanding new research formations that combine the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities (Chakrabarty 2009, Giddens 2009, Hastrup 2013, Rose et al. 2012). The project on Heritage and the Anthropocene (HATA) brings together two conversations and areas of investigation in which AU already has significant research capacity: a conversation in Heritage Studies, and a conversation around the notion of the Anthropocene. One conversation is about the past and present, and the other is about the present and future. However, they share significant concerns and points of overlap, including a concern with deep time, an interest in mapping the human career over the longue durée, and core questions of meaning and value.

The hypothesis behind HATA is that bringing these conversations together in a structured way will be mutually enriching, and will illuminate key questions and debates in both areas of investigation.

The convergence between Heritage Studies and the Anthropocene is a burgeoning research agenda (notable examples include the Heritage Futures project at UCL’s Institute of Archaeology and the Unruly Heritage project at Tromsø). It has also been the subject of significant recent scholarly attention (Harrison 2015, Harvey and Perry 2015, Solli et al. 2011). HATA brings this emergent research direction to AU, establishing a new research group, and positioning this group for a major grant application in 3 years.

HATA adds four significant, new dimensions to the conjunction between Heritage Studies and the Anthropocene:
1. A comparative global north/ global south perspective.
2. The involvement of scholars, curators, creative artists and activists, as a way of feeding into policy and debates in the public sphere.
3. The use of walking as an embodied research methodology, and the use of the walking seminar as a device to achieve new insights and foster research collaboration (for example, see Bates and Rhuys-Taylor 2017, Ingold 2010, Shepherd 2015, Shepherd and Ernsten 2015, Solnit 2001).
4. A decolonial perspective that situates debates in Heritage Studies and the Anthropocene in the entangled histories of colonial modernity (Mignolo 2011).