Heritage Week
University of Bonn, 19 – 23 May 2025
Co-organised by the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS), Department of Anthropology of the Americas, Global Heritage Lab (GHL)-Transdisciplinary Research Area (TRA) 5: Present Pasts, and the Center for Development Research (ZEF).
Photo: Yohannes Mulat Mekonnen
We are pleased to invite you to the first Heritage Week at the University of Bonn, which will take place from 19 to 23 May. During this week, different institutes of the University of Bonn invite scholars to open up conversations and critical reflections on various approaches to heritage in a global context. The proposed agenda includes discussions on nature-culture and sustainability, indigenous heritage and cultural landscapes in the Americas and Africa, as well as on the coloniality of statues and monuments.
Join us as we journey through the past while looking towards alternative and sustainable futures together. We look forward to welcoming you for an inspiring Heritage Week!
For more information, please see the programme below or download it here
Public Events
Hybrid and open event
Monday, 19 May 2025, 3:00 – 5:00 pm
Kick-off Panel: “Re-thinking Heritage Studies: Lessons from the Global South”
Panellists: Asrat Gella, Carla Jaimes Betancourt and Julia Binter
Moderator: Alejandro Mora Motta
Venue: Global Heritage Lab at P26, Poststraße 26, 53111 Bonn
Online registration: Zoom
Find the event page here
Hybrid and open event
Wednesday, 21 May 2025, 4:00 – 6:00 pm
Fellows Seminar: “From Streets to Front Pages: The Media Stories of Contested Statues of enslavers and colonial figures since 2020”
Presenter: Sophia Labadi
Discussant: Julia Binter
Venue: Global Heritage Lab
Seminar Room, 1st floor, Poststr. 26, 53111 Bon
Online registration: Zoom
Find the event page here
Hybrid and open event
Thursday, 22 May 2025, 1:30 – 3:00 pm
ZEF Public Lecture: “Re-thinking Cultural Landscapes as Heritage Sites: Lessons from cultural landscapes from Ethiopia and Kenya”
Panellists: Asrat Gella, Abiyot Tura & Eric Kioko
Venue: Center for Development Research (ZEF)
Conference Room, Ground Floor, Genscherallee 3, 53113 Bonn
Online registration: Zoom
On-site and open event
Friday, 23 May 2025, 3:00 – 3:40 pm
Guided Tour at the Global Heritage Lab Exhibition Space
Venue: Global Heritage Lab
Exhibition Space, 1st floor, Poststr. 26, 53111 Bonn
Find the event page here
Hybrid and open event
Friday, 23 May 2025, Book promotion: 3:40 – 4:00 pm, Presentation and discussion: 4:00 – 6:00 pm
“Crumbling is not an Instant’s Act”: thoughts on monumentality, endurance, and public memory
Book Launch of the book ‘Every Monument Will Fall: a story of remembering and forgetting’
Presenter: Dan Hicks
Discussants: Julia Binter and Sophia Labadi
Venue: Global Heritage Lab
Seminar Room, 1st floor, Poststr. 26, 53111 Bonn
Online registration: Zoom
Find the event page here
Scholars at the Conference
Abiyot Legesse Tura – Associate Professor of Geography and Environmental Studies, Dilla University, Ethiopia
Alejandro Mora Motta – Postdoctoral Researcher, Global Heritage Lab, University of Bonn
Asrat Gella – Senior Researcher, Center for Development Research, University of Bonn
Carla Jaimes Betancourt – Professor of Cultural Heritage, Department of Anthropology of the Americas, University of Bonn
Dan Hicks – Professor of Contemporary Archaeology, University of Oxford
Eric Kioko – Senior Lecturer, Department of Geography, University of Bonn, and Lecturer, Kenyatta University, Kenya
Julia Binter – Argleander Professor for Critical Museums and Heritage Studies, Global Heritage Lab, University of Bonn
Karoline Noack – Professor of Anthropology of the Americas, Department of Anthropology of the Americas, University of Bonn
Sophia Labadi – Professor of Heritage, University of Kent, and a Senior Fellow on Dependency, Cultural Heritage, and Sustainability, Global Heritage Lab / Transdisciplinary Research Area Present Pasts and the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies, University of Bonn
Walther Maradiegue – Sustainable Development Goals Fellow, University of Bonn
Co-organised by the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS), Department of Anthropology of the Americas, Global Heritage Lab (GHL)-Transdisciplinary Research Area (TRA) 5: Present Pasts, and the Center for Development Research (ZEF)
