Session: #563

Content:

The session focuses on the craft of archaeological knowledge in collaboration and tension with its contemporary socio-political circumstances. We are interested in delving into the intermediate spaces of interaction and politics that gravitate around sites of memory and contention, either enlisted or not in authorised heritage categories. Recurrent calls to democratise and decolonise knowledge about the past propitiated community engagement and collaborative methodologies, bringing to the fore the importance of co-creation of heritage interpretations and narratives in partnership with historically excluded or marginalised communities and stakeholders. Sparking reflection and reflexivity on the values, practices and modes of representation of archaeology also raises the question of epistemic authority at a time of surging populism and nationalism in Europe and beyond. This session invites papers discussing experiences, challenges and lessons learned on what concepts and tools can be mobilised to tackle the uses of archaeological evidence and heritage politics for the sake of exclusionary political agendas, extractive-based research and contested development projects affecting local histories and territories.
Reinstating the political role of archaeological and heritage practice in the present, we encourage contributions dealing with all geographies and temporalities of analysis, and oriented toward a diverse array of topics, such as but not limited to:

- Misappropriation and misrecognition in public archaeology
- Multivocal, inclusive and decolonised formats of archaeological knowledge production, sharing and communication
- Decolonising archives and data governance in community-based practices
- Community-driven and values-led practices in archaeology and heritage
- Indigenous cosmologies, territories and political ontologies of heritage studies

Session: #563

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