Course Overview

The program of CLAIMS_2023 consists of seven thematic workshops . These are embedded in a series of complementary events which aim at promoting exchange between the participants and allowing them to strengthen their research proposals. Additionally, the events encompassing CLAIMS_2023 have the goal of creating a friendly and open environment. All the courses and activities held as part of the program CLAIMS_2023 will be carried out in English.

[TL1] Presentation and discussion of the participants’ research projects, Jun.-Prof. Dr. Rosa Lehmann & Dr. Maria Trombini.

Short presentations of the participant’s research projects followed by an extensive round of discussion.

[AP1] Introductory public lecture (in English): Dealing academically with heritage – former developments and recent perspectives, Prof. Dr. Thomas Schmitt, Heidelberg Center for Cultural Heritage

The field of Heritage Studies brings together scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds. The reception of critical approaches has had a constitutive character for Heritage Studies. The lecture aims to explore, within other topics, which opportunities, but also which difficulties arise from the encounter of different approaches in the examination of “heritage”.

[AP2] Decolonizing Museums and University Collections: Perspectives from Sociocultural Anthropology and Critical Heritage Studies, PD Dr. Carsten Wergin, Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies (HCTS); ONLINE

This talk focuses on repatriations of artefacts and human remains from Germany to Australia. It examines how the challenges triggered by repatriation processes can assist in the decolonisation of heritage. The presentation will highlight new participatory approaches that involve both museums and Indigenous communities, as well as further means to translate these shared engagements into non-academic contexts.

[AP3] Implementing Artificial Intelligence and other computational methods for the study of colonial historical sources: the case of the Geographic Reports of New Spain, 1575-1588, Prof. Dr. Patricia Murrieta Flores, University of Lancaster

This talk will walk you through the latest technological developments in computer science and how these are being applied in the field of historical archaeology. Looking to develop new datasets, techniques, and software that allow the study of Latin American colonial sources at a large scale, the talk will introduce the work of the Digital Humanities projects “Digging into Early Colonial Mexico” and “Unlocking the Colonial Archive”, showcasing how these approaches can revolutionize historical research. The creation of computational methods, however, is not neutral. Artificial Intelligence techniques and commonly used software introduces particular ways of thinking and visions of the world that researchers need to be actively and constantly aware about. Hence, the paper offers also a deconstruction of the technologies used and a decolonial critique to the ways in which AI technologies and other methods are currently developed.

[TL2] Academic lecture and Presentation and discussion of the participants’ research projects

Title of Lecture: Claims and counterclaims to heritage: objects, texts, archives in motion in nineteenth-century Latin-America and the Pacific, Christian Stenz & Dr. Susann Liebich , ZEGK Heidelberg University

Looking at the history of the so-called Tikal-lintels and a collection of personal writings of Scottish migrants now at Waipū Museum (NZ) we ask how the meaning of these objects has changed from the 19th century onwards, turning them from every-day objects to cultural heritage items of (inter-)national significance.

[AP4] Sustainability/sustainable development: contested concepts and current debates, Jun.-Prof. Dr. Rosa Lehman, Heidelberg University

Sustainability/sustainable development is an integral part of debates on climate change mitigation, environmental protection, and biodiversity conservation; in (inter)national strategies related to energy transition, a bioeconomy, and conservation; and a concept as well as a vision for transitioning into a low-carbon future. Yet, the pathways and practices for achieving sustainability are highly controversial and include a much larger range of knowledges and practices that could support the decarbonization of the economy and the inclusion of social groups as well as the resilience of communities in light of climate change and environmental degradation. The workshop will assess the concept of sustainability/sustainable development and discuss it in light of debates on knowledge, living heritage, ‘traditional’ and agricultural healing systems, resilience and adaptation, and social innovations.