Description
Abstract:When I was asked to respond to this Workshop’s premise and statement – to reflect on the fuzziness of boundaries or productive synergies of History, Heritage, Memory and Beyond – two things in particular caught my attention. First, as someone who comes from a background in geography, I was struck by how many ‘geographical’ words and phrases were explicitly used or implied within the statement, without the word ‘geography’ ever appearing! An imperative to locate boundaries between fields, in a disciplinary terrain; to make comment on the proximity and connectivity within this research landscape, and to speculate about notions of distance. The other thing that leapt out when I first glanced through the statement was how the disciplines mentioned – of Memory Studies, (Critical) Heritage Studies, Public History, Contemporary History – were all capitalised. The invitation is to make comment on a series of perceived disciplinary dualisms where even the headline question (are there fuzzy boundaries or productive synergies) is stated in either/or fashion. It is certainly a good and worthwhile question, however, and I have been thinking about how it is possible to focus on the “and Beyond” bit of the Workshop’s title by taking away the capital letters and reflecting more deeply on the ‘geographical co-ordinates’ of this inter- (or should that be ‘trans-’, or even ‘multi-’!?) disciplinary terrain.
| Period | 18 Apr 2023 |
|---|---|
| Event title | History, Heritage, Memory and Beyond: Fuzzy boundaries or productive synergies? |
| Event type | Workshop |
| Location | Newcastle, United KingdomShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | International |