Critical Conversations in Critical Cultural Heritage

Jon Gelvin
Anthropology
UC Santa Cruz

Amy Lonetree
History
UC Santa Cruz

Appeals to “heritage” have become increasingly common and visible in recent decades. Whether within the realms of the promotion and re-creation of history, claims to sovereignty, protection of landscapes and climate, or economic development, connection to the past is often utilized as a demonstration of legitimacy and authority. Making sense of these diverse appeals to heritage and the many ways that the past becomes meaningfully constituted in the present is a challenge. This is due both to the complexity of the issues as well as the fact that heritage scholars tend to be widely scattered between departments and disciplines. To address these challenges we held a conference at the University of California, Santa Cruz that brought together an interdisciplinary community of scholars to discuss current research and evaluate future directions for this rapidly growing, yet still decentralized, field of study.