Invitation to doctoral / third cycle course

This doctoral / third cycle course is open to doctoral students within the broad field of heritage studies and will be held in conjunction with an international conference hosted by University of Gothenburg, Inaugural Conference for the Association of Critical Heritage Studies, Gothenburg, June 5-8, 2012. The main core of the course will be a session during this conference, in which doctoral students present papers. These papers, based on the students’ own research projects, will focus on the theme of the course and relate to the course literature.

Thematically, the course draws attention to the fact that when something is included in the category of "heritage", other phenomena are simultaneously excluded. Focusing on the dynamics which underpin such processes of categorization and selection, the session asks how inclusion and exclusion is played out and can be theorized. The session welcomes papers from doctoral students from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds relating to fields such as cultural studies, heritage studies, museum studies, tourism studies (and many more). Papers should focus on how heritage processes come to include and/or exclude different conceptions of the past (voices, experiences, interpretations, narratives), actors (individuals, groups, communities, nations) and materialities (objects, buildings, landscapes, localities). Contributions can be theoretical and/or empirical. A point of departure for the session is that heritage can be seen as negotiated and unstable processes involving a series of interfaces between perspectives, levels, actors and materialities. At each interface, competing meanings, interests, forms of knowledge and truth claims are negotiated and relations of power and differentiated access to resources – economic, political, cultural – come into play.

Course organisation
The course (5 higher education credits), will be open to maximum 20 (minimum 5) PhD students, and will be given in English. It has two main objectives: firstly, to develop and deepen a discussion within the theme outlined above, and secondly, to provide an opportunity for participants to practice the procedures of research conferences, and to reflect upon the learning opportunities and outcomes that are specific to the scientific conference format.


The course begins June 4 (one day before the conference) and ends on June 9, 2012 (one day after the conference). Applicants for the course are asked to submit their abstracts directly to the course committee (see e-mail address below) which will make a selection among the proposed abstracts. Deadline for abstracts: February 29, 2012. Titles for course literature will be provided upon admittance to the course. Participants are expected to submit full papers by May 7 and these will be circulated among the course participants. Each PhD candidate will present his/her paper and give comments on a fellow student’s paper. In addition, especially invited external discussants will present comments on the papers/presentations. After the conference, the course participants will be expected to submit a pm in which they reflect on how participating in the conference has affected their learning process within the given field.

The course will be financed by "Tema kulturvård" at the Faculty of Science, University of Gothenburg. Accommodation and meals will be provided for.

Please send abstracts to:
anna.bohlin@globalstudies.gu.se

For questions regarding practical matters, please email:
Annelie.sjolander-lindqvist@globalstudies.gu.se