Public Roundtable

For descendants of the creators of museum collections, restitution is never simply about the return of material culture. Cultural belongings remain deeply entangled with histories of colonial dispossession, struggles for land and sovereignty, questions of belonging, and the right to narrate one’s own histories on one’s own terms. This roundtable brings together heritage studies scholars from the Universities of Cologne and Bonn to explore restitution as a relational and more-than-human process of repair.

Drawing on research across diverse regional and institutional contexts, the speakers examine how restitution intersects with broader frameworks of justice and responsibility. Rather than treating restitution solely as the transfer of material property, the discussion foregrounds concepts that emerge from different contexts of origin — including sovereignty in North America, territoriality in South America, and belonging and epistemic justice in African contexts.

By approaching restitution through its cultural, political, ecological, and ethical dimensions, the roundtable seeks to challenge Eurocentric understandings of heritage and ownership. Instead, it highlights the perspectives, practices, and futures envisioned by the communities most directly affected. In doing so, the discussion asks what forms of repair become possible when restitution is understood not as an endpoint, but as part of ongoing relationships between people, histories, lands, and more-than-human worlds.

With Prof. Dr. Carla Jaimes Betancourt, Jun.-Prof. Dr. Julia Binter, Dr. Anna Brus, Prof. Dr. Mirjam Brusius, Jun.-Prof. Dr. Lucy Wasensteiner, Prof. Dr. Martin Zillinger.

Register here.