School of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon (Portugal),
July 5 - 08, 2016
Deadline: Mar 31, 2016

Call for Sessions

Preserving Transcultural Heritage: Your way or my way?

ABOUT THE CONGRESS

At a time of generalized globalization, which generates more and more
miscegenation at almost every level of our existence, cultural
frontiers also tend to fade substantially. This has motivated a growing
reaction to defend several unique cultural heritages, considered
exceptional, identifying elements with irreplaceable value from
societies and collectivities that created them. However, this same
globalization that began centuries ago with trade, technology, culture,
politics and military exchanges between different people, increasing
progressively its intensity until the present, became itself originator
of a heritage created exactly in the meeting of cultures. This new
transcultural heritage (or hybrid heritage) presents a whole range of
different complexities that could make the safeguarding and
preservation for the coming generations complicated.

Among the vast cultural heritage resulting from fusions and
re-appropriations between different cultures, architectural heritage
stands out as one of the most visible and tangible signs of any
culture: cities, temples, fortifications, public works or merely common
houses, among many other built structures. Many times in history this
“crossbred heritage” was deliberately abandoned or destroyed because of
negative symbolisms associated to it, but also obliterated or distorted
because of functional or ideological reasons, or simply by ignorance
from whoever tried to protect it.

Whatever are the causes, the fact is that transcultural architectural
heritage, created in the conjugation of cultures, still is endangered
nowadays, and problems concerning on its patrimonial preservation
continue to be more relevant than ever. This is also due to
globalization, which imposes new conditionings and contextualization,
demanding new ways to deal with them.

As a matter of fact, questions concerning the safeguarding of this kind
of heritage involve a vast set of themes: the intense polemic about the
preservation of architectural structures, the memory of which can
allude symbolically to cultures considered as oppressors; the debate on
authenticity, generated by confrontations between patrimonial values
coming from cultures involved in the creation of each particular
transcultural heritage – which could differ substantially, and
therefore should be taken into consideration in the moment it is
decided how to act to preserve that heritage –; the problematic related
to migratory fluxes; the ideological instrumentalisation of
architectural heritage; the touristic commercialization of cultural
monuments; and several other related themes demanding further debate on
them.

There is an ambition to encourage the dialogue about this matter, which
assumed particular relevance for the world heritage panorama. It aims
to stimulate the knowledge of paradigmatic cases, the interchange of
experiences, the exposure of problems and solutions, and the increase
of potential collaborations that can be helpful instruments for the
safeguarding of unique transcultural heritages, many times ignobly
vandalized, unwisely neglected, irretrievably adulterated or harmfully
over-exploited.

Hence, all the concerned community is invited to participate in the
International Congress Preserving transcultural heritage: your way or
my way?, opened to academic scholars and specialist technicians, to
policy makers and to all of society. The congress will take place in
Lisbon, between 05 and 08 July 2017, with the organisation of the ARTIS
– Institute of History of Art | School of Arts and Humanities of the
University of Lisbon and the ICOMOS Portugal. All the researchers,
specialists and other stakeholders are invited to participate in this
event.

The ARTIS – Institute of History of Art, School of Arts and Humanities
of the University of Lisbon and the ICOMOS Portugal are pleased to
invite all the researchers, specialists and other stakeholders to
participate in the International Congress Preserving transcultural
heritage: your way or my way?, which will take place in Lisbon, between
05 and 08 July 2017.

The organisation encourages multidisciplinary and international
research on the safeguarding of transcultural heritage (architecture,
urbanism, archaeology, landscapes and decorative arts in built
heritage). Therefore, the organisation will give priority to sessions
co-organised by scholars from different universities and countries,
especially those belonging to cultures that created specific
transcultural heritages (each session should have at least two
organisers).

Major thematic headlines:

1. Questions on authenticity between different cultures, when focusing
the safeguarding of transcultural architectural heritage
- The debate on the confrontation between image value, historicity
value, technological value and other values, when focusing the
safeguarding of transcultural architectural heritage (for instance:
prevalence of the image in Eastern cultures versus prevalence of the
material in Western cultures versusprevalence of ancestral built
technologies in developing countries, and what is the prevalent value
when acting in transcultural built structures)
- Idiosyncrasies in patrimonial actions performed in architectural
structures inside transcultural contexts (for instance: in
Portuguese-Chinese heritage, in Indian-British heritage, in
French-Maghreb heritage, etc.)

2. The evolution of the patrimonial conscience inside different
cultures concerning the transcultural architectural heritage
- Theories of restoration and conservation and its implications and
applications in the safeguarding of the architectural heritage
originated in the fusion of cultures.
- Architects, restorers, safeguarding policies and paradigmatic case
studies of actions on the transcultural architectural heritage

3. Controversies on the relevance of conserving transcultural
architectural heritage associated to dominant foreign cultures
- Polemics about the preservation of undesirable memories from cultures
considered invaders/oppressors (for instance: European colonial
heritage in Asia and Africa, Ottoman heritage in Maghreb and Middle
East, Muslim heritage in Iberian Peninsula, Japanese heritage in China,
Nazi heritage in Central Europe, Soviet heritage in countries of
Eastern Europe, etc.)
- Safeguarding of architectural heritage belonging to ethnic and
religious minorities inside countries with dominant cultures (for
instance: Christian heritage in the Middle East, pré-Colombian heritage
in America, aborigine heritage in Australia, Jewish heritage in Europe,
etc.)
- The ideological instrumentalization of transcultural architectural
heritage as nacionalist or regional claims, and the politicized
(re)construction of the Past (for instance: Portuguese colonial
heritage in Africa, Roman heritage in Romania, Hellenic heritage in
Asia, Hindustani heritage restored under British rule, etc.)

4. Globalization and its repercussions for the safeguarding of
transcultural architectural heritage
- The safeguarding of transcultural architectural heritage generated by
international and inter-regional migratory fluxes (for instance:
heritage with African origin in America and Europe, Muslim heritage in
European countries, Asian heritage in American countries, Indian
heritage outside India, etc.)
- Hesitations on the preservation of recent architectural heritage
(from Modernism to contemporaneity) of uncertain character: regional
circumscribed, international standardized or intercultural miscegenated
- The growing commercialization of transcultural architectural heritage
and the conflict between cultural tourism as creator of synergies for
its maintenance and as potential threat to its safeguarding

5. Other relevant themes

Session proposals are welcome until 31 March 2016. Please submit your
session by sending the proposal to congress.artis@letras.ulisboa.pt
(see the submission guidelines above).

The proposals will be selected by the Scientific Committee on the basis
of merit and the need to organize a well-balanced programme, according
to the following criteria: relevance, innovation, scientific quality
and organisation of the session. On 30 April chairs will be notified
regarding acceptance of their session and will receive further
instructions.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Download the submission template and fill it with the following data:
- Title of the session, with 15 words maximum;
- Description of the proposed session with 300-500 words, clearly
mentioning important key issues such as the leading subject, the
scientific significance of the session, the goals intended to be
achieved, and a list of possible themes that could fit in the debate
intended to be promoted in the proposed session.
- Three to five keywords;
- Personal data (name, professional affiliation, mail and email
addresses, and telephone contact of both session organisers);
- Short biography of the organisers, with no more than 300 words each.

The session organisers are responsible for:

- Selecting the proposed abstracts to integrate their session,
according to the scientific quality and thematic relevance, in
collaboration with the - Scientific Committee;
- Reviewing, in collaboration with the Scientific Committee, the papers
accepted in their session, in order to assist the authors to improve
their communications, and to prepare the papers to be published in the
book of proceeding of the congress;
- Informing the paper applicants about the acceptance or the
(justified) rejection of their proposal;
- Reminding the paper authors about their duties (deadlines for paper
submission, maximum length of their presentation, etc.) and
distributing the session abstracts among them;
- Chairing the session, including an introduction of the session theme
and aims, a short introduction of each author, the management of the
time schedule, a brief reflexion on the presented papers in the end,
and the lead of the final debate.
- Session organisers are not allowed to present papers in their own
session. If there are insufficient papers in a session, it may be
cancelled by the Scientific Committee after the deadline for abstract
submissions.

Session organisers are expected to have their own support to register,
for travel and for accommodation.
For further questions, please contact the organisation.

SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE

International Committee
Asghar Mohammad Moradi (Iran)
Francisco Lopez Morales (Mexico)
Giovanni Carbonara (Italy)
Henry Cleere (United Kingdom)
Javier Rivera Blanco (Spain)
Johannes Widodo (Singapure)
Khalid El Harrouni (Morocco)
Maria Lúcia Bressan Pinheiro (Brazil)
Nobuko Inaba (Japan)
Ramón Gutiérrez (Argentina)
Siegfried Enders (Germany)
Susan Jackson-Stepowski (Australia)
Tamás Fejérdy (Hungary)
Webber Ndoro (South Africa)

National Committee
Vítor Serrão (University of Lisbon) – President
Ana Paula Amendoeira (ICOMOS – Portugal)
Ana Tostões (University of Lisbon)
Hélder Carita (New University of Lisbon)
Jorge Correia (University of Minho)
José Aguiar (University of Lisbon)
José Delgado Rodrigues (National Laboratory of Civil Enginery)
José Manuel Fernandes (University of Lisbon)
Maria João Neto (University of Lisbon)
Paulo Peixoto (University of Coimbra)
Rosa Perez (ISCTE – University Institute of Lisbon)
Rui Fernandes Póvoas (University of Oporto)
Virgolino Jorge (University of Évora)

HONOR COMMITTEE
To be announced soon

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Joaquim Rodrigues dos Santos (University of Lisbon) – President
Inês Cristóvão (University of Lisbon)
Luís Urbano Afonso (University of Lisbon)
Maria de Magalhães Ramalho (ICOMOS – Portugal)

Contact Info:
Inês Cristóvão
Executive Committee
Email: ines.cristovao@campus.ul.pt