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SUMMARY:Culture Wars: Heritage and Armed Conflict in the 21st century - Ab
 bas Alhussainy\, Michael Barry\, Reinhard Bernbeck\, Patrick Boylan et al
DTSTART:20081212T090000Z
DTEND:20081212T170000Z
UID:TALK15433@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:anna malinowska
DESCRIPTION:Warfare and civil strife of the sort recently witnessed in the
  Balkans and the Middle East become crucibles in which core convictions ab
 out identity are boiled down to their essential elements. As material mani
 festations of culture\, sites and monuments are at once metaphorical weapo
 ns and physical casualties of war.  Situations of intense conflict challen
 ge our assumptions about the role of institutions as ‘Keepers of Culture
 ’ and give rise to seemingly insoluble contradictions. Focusing on bound
 aries\, networks\, and cultural transmission\, this combined CRASSH\, Gett
 y Research Institute\, and Macdonald Institute conference offers a timely 
 opportunity to test ideas and responses to the acute circumstances created
  by civil and political conflict.\n\nControversies arise when heritage sit
 es are simultaneously viewed as cultural\, religious\, aesthetic\, and edu
 cational artifacts. At once ‘theirs’ and ‘ours’\, competing ideas 
 of heritage are mutually exclusive\, while fragile conceptual polarities s
 uch as local and universal tend to collapse. The fraught intersection of m
 aterial heritage\, local geopolitics\, and the universalist mission calls 
 for an urgent reevaluation of how we manage ‘Culture’ in a culturally 
 fragmented world. With growing frequency\, war is not confined to nation-s
 tates\, but involves ethnic\, sectarian\, and insurgent groups that cross 
 or contest political boundaries. The conference examines issues raised dur
 ing and after the Gulf\, Balkan\, and Afghanistan Wars\, with a focus on w
 hat (paradoxically) is known as ‘immovable’ heritage:  historical monu
 ments\, archaeological sites\, and cultural and human landscapes. It poses
  the following questions:\n\n\n•    How does the nature of 21st-century 
 conflict bear on immoveable heritage?\n•    Are international convention
 s appropriate to recent scenarios?\n•    Why are sites destroyed and to 
 what ends?\n•    Is intervention ethically justifiable?\n•    What are
  the appropriate uses of expertise?\n•    Does the intensity of the cont
 est over heritage open paths to reconciliation?\n•    What new approache
 s to knowledge sharing can help bridge divides?\n•    What is involved i
 n stewarding culture in a post-ownership world?\n\nResponding to a growing
  concern about on endangered sites in the Middle East and elsewhere\, the 
 conference will focus on the following main themes:\n\n\n•    Cult and C
 ulture: Iconoclasm and the Museum\n•    Iconoclasts And Idolators: the D
 estruction Of Cultural Heritage.\n•    The Laws of War and Cultural Poli
 cy: Transnational and Internal Disputes\n•    Contemporary Conflicts and
  the Ethics of Intervention\n•    Culture and Conciliation: Stewarding C
 ulture in a Post-Ownership World\n\n\nConfirmed speakers include:\n\nAbbas
  Alhussainy (Former Chair of the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heri
 tage)\nMichael Barry (Princeton University)\nReinhard Bernbeck (Binghamton
  University (SUNY))\nPatrick Boylan (City University\, London)\nHugo Clark
 e (Headquarters 3 (United Kingdom) Division)\nJohn Curtis (British Museum)
 \nSaad Eskander (Iraq National Library)\nJoanne Farchakh Bajjaly (Archaeol
 ogist - Journalist\, Al Akhbar newspaper)\nTatiana Flessas (LSE)\nDario Ga
 mboni (Université de Genève)\nJan Hladík (UNESCO)\nJonathan Lee (Resear
 cher and Cultural Advisor)\nJolyon Leslie (Aga Khan Foundation)\nMargaret 
 Miles (UC\, Irvine)\nDavid Myers (Getty Conservation Institute)\nAlistair 
 Northedge (Université de Paris I)\nRoger O’Keefe (Cambridge)\nAndrás R
 iedlmayer (Harvard University)\nMarie-Louise Sorensen (McDonald Institute)
 \nPeter Stone (Newcastle University)\nGeneral Barney White-Spunner (GOC 3 
 ( United Kingdom) Division)\nOliver Urquhart-Irvine (British Library)
LOCATION:Gonville &amp\; Caius\, Stephen Hawking Building
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