Reinwardt Memorial Lecture. 'Critical Heritage Studies and museums - an emerging synthesis' by Laurajane Smith

Published on May 17, 2011

In this lecture Laurajane Smith will focus on the emerging interdisciplinary synthesis, also called by many Critical Heritage Studies. This development leads to a breakdown of former museum or heritage studies, as insights from memory studies, public history, tourism studies, anthropology, sociology, geography and cultural studies are being brought together.

Conceptualisations of heritage that abandon traditional material based definitions to identify heritage as a cultural process of meaning making are integral to understanding the cultural, social and political work that museums ‘do’ in society.

The lecture will review some of the major developments in critical heritage studies and illustrate how such developments are informed by, but also develop our understanding, of the cultural role of museums. Visitor research undertaken at museums in Australia and England will be used to illustrate the arguments developed in the lecture.

Date and location
Reinwardt Academie, Dapperstraat 315
26 May 14.30 - 15.30 hours

Admission is free. Registration is appreciated. Please register by sending an email to Wilma Wesselink, wilma.wesselink@ahk.nl.