Short Abstract:

Writing is a primary form and formality of heritage-making in both ethnographically based research and cultural policy. What are the professional and ethical norms and solutions to better embody representations of living heritage grounded in scholarship within official texts?

Long Abstract:

The writing tradition of social science research translates and transforms cultural realities into textual descriptions. This framework is being taken to greater reaches with the rising recognition of living cultural practices within national and international heritage-making policies. Though academics are typically not involved as scribes of local cultures serving this powerful writing diplomacy, in recent critical heritage scholarship they are reflecting, observing and amending the underpinnings and challenges of this increasingly specialized heritage writing. And some are shaping these texts in dual roles as scholar/practitioners and policy advisors. How are they effecting change in official policymaking contexts?

How can we, as scholars, foster more critical involvement into living heritage writing in policymaking, heritage research, and within UNESCO frameworks? What are the recognised, or emerging, best practices for keeping heritage dynamics thriving against this unavoidable objectivization and textual transformation? How do classical heritage institutions devoted to storing texts (archives, museums) shape contemporary strategies of recording living heritage utilising their competencies for handling historical documents? What are their limitations, professional ethics, and safeguarding protocols to exercise their writing heritage power? What other writing agencies, writers, voices, and views could these movements integrate and empower to generate more credibility and diversity? Is heritage-writing ready to embrace more dynamic methods, that could offer less-filtered testimony to represent ever-changing cultural life?

This panel welcomes critical analysis and case studies reflecting on current and prospective heritage writing practices. Scholars involved in heritage interpretation and praxis are invited to share their experiences and solutions.

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