O'Grady: Legitimizing the Past

Legitimizing the Past: Conservation, Expertise and the Power of Transformation
Speaker: Caitlin O’Grady, Institute of Archaeology, University College London
ARF Brownbag | November 30
Sponsor: Archaeological Research Facility
Abstract: The power of conservation to legitimize claims about the past through preservation is an important facet of the discipline in the twenty-first century. The process of transforming cultural heritage into accepted narratives has been an integral part of conservation practice with its origins in the development of nationalism as a political and ideological tool in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Efforts to acknowledge, re-examine, and critically understand the pervasive and continued impact of colonialism and marginalisation of the “other” in favour of Western ideologies is a crucial part of ongoing and necessary discussions by the profession. Further, the process of decolonizing how cultural heritage is used by institutions and experts requires significant reassessment of the impact of conservation practice, as well as related curricula and pedagogy on how we understand the past.