6 November 2025
Masaryk University Brno, Czechia
Deadline: 11 April 2025

What happens when those living alongside historical monuments—churchgoers, farmers, workers, custodians, local officials, non-human entities—see these sites as theirs? Through what sources and scholarly approaches can we recover their voices and their role in the state-led activities of restoration and preservation of architectural monuments?

This conference explores the debates, conflicts and role of local communities in the heritage politics starting from the mid-19th century and focusing especially but not exclusively on Central and Eastern Europe. It also seeks to understand the role of non-human actors, such as plants, animals, natural formations, weather and the different, more-than-human perspectives, they bring to the process of heritage making. The conference is based on the premise that local communities played an unrecognized role in official heritage policies, through resistance, negotiations, adaptations, and the use of traditions and knowledge. Architects and commissions frequently relied on the knowledge and testimonies of these communities, acted in accordance with their desires and employed them on works of restoration or preservation. At the same time there was often a sense of struggle over the heritage. For example, communities opposed the modifications to their monuments while architects and state institutions had to also prevent transformations, replacements or demolition by the locals.

Further information: https://arthistory.phil.muni.cz/news/call-for-papers-who-owns-heritage

Call for papers: Call for papers_Who-Owns-Heritage