Heritage Pasts and Futures

Within the sector plan theme Cultural Heritage and Identity: Material and Intangible Heritage, our team concentrates on the past and future of heritage. Cultural heritage - material, intangible, natural, spatial, virtual, digital - forms an integral part of identity formation, past and present. Understanding this link requires paying attention to the historical development of the concept of heritage and its diverse meanings in local and global settings, as well as to the production processes and sustainable curation of different forms of cultural heritage. The increased digitization of heritage also requires new approaches and considerations, as does the engagement with contested heritage in a polarized world. This is also very much part of our agenda.

Our objective is to strengthen existing and shape new directions in the area of cultural heritage and identity, thereby connecting to historical changes, contemporary societal debates, technological developments, critical reflection, and ethics. We take a holistic perspective to heritage, including minority and migrant heritage, non-western approaches to heritage concepts, and cross disciplinary insights into cultural heritage, both from a global perspective and also from the local context of the Northern Netherlands.