Part of Salzburg Global Seminar's "Designs on the Future" initiative, this special webinar on "Who Owns the Past?" will take place on 25 February 2021 at 17:00 - 18:30 (Central European Time). It marks a major collaboration between the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation, the International Bar Association and Salzburg Global Seminar and a landmark publication, "Contested Histories in Public Spaces: Principles, Process, Best Practices".
Contested monuments and memorials have hit headlines around the world in recent years. These pillars of the public landscape can reinforce historical legacies and trauma, and are increasingly disputed by people working to end oppression and build just and equitable societies. Yet campaigns in public spaces have split opinion and created an easy target for politicization and media frenzy.
Is rescripting the commemorative landscape essential to tackle underlying structural and historical injustices or could it divert attention from today’s inequities if seen as an end in itself? How can responsible leaders advance memory, healing and reconciliation in deeply-divided societies? Whose voices need to be heard, and what can we learn by sharing experience and innovation across borders?
Speakers will include Alissandra Cummins (Director, Barbados Museum & Historical Society); Marie-Louise Jansen (Director, Contested Histories, Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation); Timothy Ryback (Director, Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation); Shahid Vawda (Professor, Archie Mafeje Chair, Faculty of Humanities, University of Cape Town); and Daqing Yang (Associate Professor, History and International Affairs, George Washington University).
Price: Free registration at this link
Twitter: #DesignsOnTheFuture