Cultural Heritage and Human Rights

An international workshop at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Sponsored by Collaborative for Cultural Heritage and Museum Practices
March 10-11, 2006

The workshop addresses a deeply political aspect of heritage preservation and management: human rights and social justice. Human rights advocates assert that heritage is necessary to the articulation and preservation of cultural identity. The display of heritage monuments and performance can be a strategy for asserting minority identity in the face of majority pressure, and it can be a tool for resistance and the expression of difference. Conversely, the erasure of cultural expressions—such as buildings, monuments, language, religion, and social practices—is a powerful tool in warfare and political regulation. In the assault on human lives and political autonomy, the cultural history and values of a community are also attacked, destroying not only individuals but the very fabric of society.

Is there a universal right to the free expression and preservation of cultural heritage, and if so, where is that right articulated and can it be protected? Is cultural heritage a concept that serves to enforce group conformity or can it be a way to maintain and display difference? How is the notion of “heritage” used variously to unite and divide communities? Who defines cultural heritage and who should control stewardship and the benefits of cultural heritage? What is the impact on human lives and social groups of heritage preservation policies and designations? Are international heritage trusts or grassroots organizations more successful at promoting local welfare?

Keynote Address: CAS/MillerComm Lecture

Friday, March 10
Plym Auditorium (Rm. 134), Temple Hoyne Buell Hall, 611 Lorado Taft Dr., Champaign

4:00 p.m.

William Logan (Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia) Closing Pandora's Box: Human Rights Conundrums in Cultural Heritage Protection

Workshop

Saturday, March 11
IPRH Building, 805 W. Pennsylvania Avenue, Urbana

	8:30am	COFFEE
	8:45	Helaine Silverman and D. Fairchild Ruggles (University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign—UIUC) Welcoming Remarks and Introduction
	9:00	Hugo Benavides (Fordham University) Historical Disruptions: Reproducing an Indian Past in Latin America
	9:45	Larry Zimmerman (Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis) Indigenous People and Resistance to Public Heritage Commemoration of Their Pasts
	10:30	Jan French (Duke University) Buried Alive: Imagining Africa in the Brazilian Northeast
		BREAK
	11:30	Charles Orser (Illinois State University) Transnational Diasporas and Heritage: Who Has Rights to What Where
	12:15 p.m.	K. Anne Pyburn (Indiana University) Wagging the Dog: Archaeology as a Positive Political Force in Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia
	1:00-2:00	LUNCH BREAK
	2:00	Laurajane Smith (University of York, England) Intersections of Archaeological Management Practice on Areas of Public Policy and the Cultural Politics of Identity
	2:45	Elazar Barkan (Claremont Graduate University) Burkas and Genes: Predicaments of Human Rights and Cultural Property
	3:30	Chris Silver (UIUC) Cultural Heritage and Human Rights in Indonesia: The Challenges of an Emerging Democratic Society
	4:15	James Wescoat (UIUC) The Indo-Islamic Garden: Conflict, Conservation and Conciliation in Gujarat, India
		BREAK
	5:15	William Logan (Deakin University, Australia) ROUNDTABLE: Key Issues and Case Studies in Cultural Heritage and Human Rights
	6:00	Karan Grover (Baroda Heritage Trust, India) Presentation and Exhibition of the Baroda Heritage Trust's work in Champaner-Pavagadh (India)—workshop moves to Plym Auditorium in Temple Buell Hall
	6:40	DINNER RECEPTION in the atrium of Temple Buell Hall

The workshop is free and open to the public.

CHAMP thanks its collaborators: Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities, Human Dimensions of Environmental Systems, Center for Advanced Studies, Center for Global Studies, Department of Anthropology, Department of Landscape Architecture, and the Baroda Heritage Trust