Prof. Rodney Harrison: Rethinking heritage and museums in the Anthropocene

How can heritage and museums contribute to a green transition?

This lecture explores the role of heritage and museums in the Anthropocene from a Critical Heritage Studies perspective. In the context of the climate crisis, museums and heritage sites are not only spaces of preservation but also potential agents of change through curatorial work, collecting, education, public programmes, and new institutional strategies. At the same time, museums and heritage are part of the historical processes that have contributed to the climate crisis and are therefore increasingly subject to critical scrutiny. The lecture argues that the climate crisis is also a cultural and imaginative crisis and discusses what new narratives, practices, and transdisciplinary collaborations are needed for museums and heritage to actively shape societal transformation. At its core is the question of how museums and the heritage sector more generally must reposition itself structurally, intellectually, and socially in order to become a meaningful actor in a green transition.

Rodney Harrison is Professor of Heritage Studies at University College London. He is the author and editor of more than 20 books as well as over 120 articles and book chapters, with many of his publications translated into several languages. His internationally funded research has taken him to a wide range of regions, where he has worked across archaeological, anthropological and archival contexts. His current research focuses on the role of the heritage and museum sector in supporting climate action and green energy transitions.

 

Wie können Museen zu einer Green Transition beitragen? Der Vortrag beleuchtet die Rolle von Museen im Anthropozän und fragt, wie sie als Orte des Wissens, der Imagination und der gesellschaftlichen Aushandlung zu Klimaschutz und nachhaltigen Transformationsprozessen beitragen können. Aus Perspektive der Critical Heritage Studies wird diskutiert, wie sich Museen und Kulturerbe im Kontext der Klimakrise neu positionieren.

Die Veranstaltung findet in englischer Sprache statt.