Cultural Heritage and Community Engagement Research group (CHCE)

Description

The Cultural Heritage and Community Engagement research group (CHCE) provides a forum for research and meaningful engagement with tangible and intangible heritages – from Scotland to the wider world.

Heritage is very much in the public eye at the moment. Yet with all its dimensions, it can be difficult to define. How can it be studied, protected and promoted? In this group, staff and students from across Edinburgh University with a research interest in the human past, meet with key stakeholders and interested members of the public to think forward – about the future of heritage studies, heritage management and engagement, and the changing relationships with the things of the past.

Within the School of History, Classics and Archaeology, and based on their experience in cultural heritage management and public outreach, members want to enable and foster debate and reflect critically on heritage practices and heritage values of this time. In close cooperation with like-minded individuals from the academic, institutional, professional, and volunteer sector, the group aims to make heritage mainstream, accessible, and engaging, and wants to contribute its research and outreach to the protection of the past.

The key themes in the Group’s work are:

• Future Heritage / Heritage Future(s) - Creating new heritages now; protecting heritage for the future; future-proofing heritage – and the heritage profession.
• Intangible Heritage - Spoken, performed, hidden, and metamorphosing.
• Inclusive Heritage - Common, diverse, contested, emerging, with changing identities and values.
• Heritage Frontiers - Crossing borders into other disciplines, specifically entangling heritages with art, the natural sciences and nature conservation.

To start conversations and grow contacts and connections from which to build collaborations, staff organised a day workshop on Monday 18 June 2018. With more than 50 participants, from PhD students to professors, heritage professionals to heritage activists, members discussed key topics for today and the future – and how to build collaborations in research and practice across different sectors, backgrounds, and objectives.

Each year the group runs a series of events under one topic. In 2018/19, this focused on “Community Engagement and Co-production”. In November 2018, members celebrated the European Year of Cultural Heritage jointly with colleagues at Heriot Watt University to explore sustainable approaches to community heritages. In the academic year 2018/19, it was held a series of workshops, round table discussions, and short training exercises to highlight individual projects from Shetland to Egypt and to share experiences and encounters.

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No, this infrastructure does not provide funding.

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University of Edinburgh
Edinburgh