The Heritage Theater.
The dynamics of cultural heritage in a globalizing world
Rotterdam Conference on Globalization and Cultural Heritage
May 13-15 2009

The Department of Cultural Studies, Faculty of History and Arts, Erasmus
University Rotterdam, is the location of two research programmes,
'Globalization and Cultural Heritage' and 'Community Museums Past &
Present', funded by NWO (Dutch Science Foundation, part of the
programmes 'Transformation of Art and Culture' and 'Cultural Dynamics')
and the Dutch VSB Foundation. See for more information:

http://www.fhk.eur.nl/english/globalisation_and_cultural_heritage/
http://www.fhk.eur.nl/english/communitymuseums/

To conclude the first and to launch the second project, the Department
is organizing an international conference on the effects and causes
of globalization and cultural heritage, 'The Heritage Theater. The
dynamics of cultural heritage in a globalizing world'.

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, organizations for the
preservation of heritage were founded as part of European national
cultural policy, in countries colonized by the West, and in independent
states outside Europe. In this sense, heritage institutions are early
examples of cultural export on a global scale. The export of heritage
concepts, heritage formats, and heritage knowledge from the West to
other countries and vice versa is still going on, not only in
traditional, well-tried ways, but also in other formats, like theme
parks, games and internet sites.
Similarly, in non-Western countries various other ways of protecting and
presenting cultural heritage have developed over the last few decades.
Institutions such as cultural centers and community centers displaying
cultural heritage have no counterparts in Western countries. In the last
decades, heritage institutions work together on a global scale. The
perception of a shared past created new forms of cooperation between
institutions in different nations and the legitimacy of traditional
local museums was challenged by the migration of new, sometimes
transnational oriented communities.

The current interest in cultural heritage is also the result of the
growing demand on the part of international tourism for places with a
cultural heritage that can be experienced as part of leisure activities.
All over the world, countries are beginning to realize the economic
benefits of tourism, and searching for possibilities to expand tourism.
Today, the interest in cultural heritage is global and diverse. Indeed,
it is no longer correct to speak of a single audience, since cultural
heritage visitors have different backgrounds and different expectations.
The growing exchange of information between individual heritage
institutions, and between those institutions and the public, is part of
a global process that makes use of interconnected information networks.

Location: Wereldmuseum Rotterdam
Contact: Marlite Halbertsma, halbertsmafhk.eur.nl

Chairs: Marlite Halbertsma (EUR), Alex van Stipriaan Luïscius (EUR and
Royal Tropical Institute), Christine Chivallon (Institut d'Études
Politiques de Bordeaux) and Wiendu Nuryanti, Gadjah Mada University,
Yogyakarta)

Programme

Wednesday, May 13

18.00 Wellcome Dinner

Thursday, May 14

10.00 Opening of the Conference by Dick Douwes, Dean of the Faculty of
History and Arts

10.15 Key Note Speech by Mike Robinson, Chair of Tourism and Culture,
Leeds Metropolitan University and Director of the Centre for Tourism and
Cultural Change: 'Meaning in chaos, experiencing cultural heritage and
the challenge of the popular'

11.15 Coffee break

11.30 Yatun Sastramidjaja, Erasmus University of Rotterdam: 'Virtual
identities and the recapturing of place: heritage play in civil
society's re-appropriation of the past'

12.30 Lunch break

13.30 Uta C. Protz, European University, 'Between heritage and theatre:
The rise of the museum in the Arab Gulf'

14.00 Sybille Frank, Technische Universität Darmstadt: 'When global
flows meet local cultures: tourists (re)fashioning Cold War heritage at
Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin'

14.30 Cheryl Finley, Cornell University: 'Performing the past: slavery,
tourism and commemoration'

15. 00 Tea break

15.30 Christoph Rausch, University Maastricht: 'Trophy Houses. The
heritage of the 'Maisons Tropicales'

16.00 Karel Arnaut, Ghent University, and Bambi Ceuppens, Royal Museum
for Central Africa, Brussels: 'After heritage: can the subaltern
remember? Notes from Belgium's Africa'

16.30: Panel

17.00 Drinks, dinner

Friday, May 15

10.00 Valika Smeulders, Erasmus University Rotterdam: 'Channeling
emotions about the slavery past and the audiences they speak to'

11.00 Coffee break

11.15 Anja B. Nelle, Fundaçao de Desenvolvimento Habitacional de
Fortaleza: 'Urban intervention and the globalization of signs:
marketing World Heritage Towns'

11.45 Ferdinand de Jong, University of East Anglia: 'Memory and
materiality: The Jola Museum and its Fetishes'

12.15 Lunch break

13.00 Gwenny van Hasselt, Erasmus University Rotterdam: 'The Dutch
National Historical Museum'

13.30 Patricia van Ulzen, Open University Heerlen: 'International
airports as showcases for national cultural heritage. The case of
Schiphol Airport'

14.00 Dorus Hoebink, Erasmus University Rotterdam: 'Community museums
and virtual communities'

14.30 Tea break

15.00 Hélène Verreyke, Erasmus University Rotterdam 'Migration museums
and global communities'

15.30 Heng Wu, University of Bergen, 'The interpretation of ethnicity as
a type of cultural heritage in Chinese context in a globalizing world'

16.00 Sadiah Boonstra, Free University Amsterdam: 'Performing identity,
shaping heritage. Wayang puppet theatre and the dynamics of heritage
formation in contemporary Indonesia'

16.30 Panel. End of the conference

17.00 Drinks, fare-well dinner