Report from the 2nd International Conference of the Association of Critical Heritage Studies (ACHS)

Abstract

This report discusses highlights from the 2nd International Conference of the Association of Critical Heritage Studies (ACHS), which was held at the Australian National University in Canberra from December 2nd – 4th, 2014. The 3-­‐day conference consisted of roughly 250 participants, and was diverse in scope and geographical focus. Sessions explored themes, such as heritage and human rights, memorialization and commemoration practices, heritage and ‘authenticity,’ heritage and multiculturalism, digital heritage, virtual mapping technologies, and critiques of heritage studies curricula, to name only a few. While each day comprised several concurrent sessions, I will focus on two burgeoning areas of the critical heritage discourse that were well represented: critical examinations of the intangible cultural heritage (hereafter ICH) framework, shaped by the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and explorations of the connections between heritage and emotion.