In this seminar we will discuss the relationships between law and heritage studies, and particularly how law’s role is underestimated in shaping what kind of memory is possible in different societies, particularly transitioning societies who are actively seeking to reinvent themselves and their identity as a nation. We will use the Confederate Monuments controversy in the US as a platform to investigate the role of law (and particularly international law) in shaping our relationship with heritage, memory, and history.
Lucas Lixinski is Professor at the Faculty of Law and Justice, UNSW Sydney. He specializes in cultural heritage law and policy (particularly UNESCO), international human rights law, United Nations, and Latin American politics and law. His recent publications include “Legalized Identities Cultural Heritage Law and the Shaping of Transitional Justice” (forthcoming, CUP March 2021).
Statue of a Confederate soldier on the campus of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Source: Yellowspacehopper at English Wikipedia, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
