Call for Papers – Coimbra Group International Seminar on Universities’ Built Heritage
29 August 2022
Heritage Working Group
The Heritage Working Group is pleased to announce the international seminar “The Built Heritage of Universities – use, re-use, hidden stories and aspects of conservation and interpretation”, to take place at the University of Tartu on Tuesday 15 November 2022.
One of the priorities for the Coimbra Group Heritage Working Group is to encourage the institutions in the network to think carefully about how they manage their built heritage in the context of their overall responsibility for university heritage.
The history of universities is inextricably linked to their buildings which provide the essential space needed to deliver university research, teaching and efficient administration. As the needs of universities change, buildings also change their function – they are re-built and even re-purposed. This can be related to changes of political and historical circumstances which are often inscribed into the architecture of the built heritage. Consequently, the built heritage of universities can contribute to the telling of the history of the institution, the buildings having been witnesses to many decades of change
Nowadays university buildings have also become heritage sites that are visited by many so they can appreciate their architecture and view the heritage they contain. With the use of historical buildings as heritage sites, managing aspects of the communication of hidden stories and conservation of buildings are two linked issues which are having to be considered by universities on a high level.
The aim of this international seminar is to bring together various aspects linked to the built heritage of Coimbra Group Universities and also to provide a space for broad discussions on the aspects of this topic mentioned above. This event represents the starting point for further in-depth research on the built heritage of universities that will be focused in the context of an EU funded project proposal to be prepared by the working group.
The academics selected to give lectures at this seminar can have their work published open access and in a printed version in the journal Curiositas (University of Graz in cooperation with the Coimbra Group).
Programme committee:
Jaanika Anderson (University of Tartu)
Pedro Casaleiro (University of Coimbra)
Jeremy Upton (University of Edinburgh)
Bernadette Biedermann (University of Graz)
Academics from Coimbra Group Universities interested in presenting at the seminar are invited to submit their abstracts before 16th September,via email, to: bernadette.biedermann@uni-graz.at, jeremy.upton@ed.ac.uk and jaanika.anderson@ut.ee.
This call for papers is restricted to universities that are members of the Coimbra Group. For more information about the conference, you are welcome to contact the programme committee directly.