3rd International Conference on Heritage Management Education and Practice: Ensuring Fair Access and Inclusion in Heritage Management Processes

Building upon the first two editions of the conference – which explored intersections across disciplines and stakeholders, and developing integrated practices respectively, we now begin to look into specific aspects of heritage management education and practice as relevant to society. To facilitate the development of integrated practices and collaboration among stakeholders, it is important to ensure that we are fair in our approach of heritage management in terms of who is involved and who has access to various levels of heritage management process – from planning, decision making to interpretation and implementation, and further to benefits and responsibilities. It also means to ensure that the very process of identification of heritage is based on a fair recognition process, and the narratives are also inclusive of multiple voices. In the same line of thought, it is also important to enable access for all (to our heritage sites including museums physically and mentally) as well as pursue an inclusive practice whereby the heritage management process is inclusive to the best possible extent in a given context. However, as ideal as these propositions sound, the reality may be different in different contexts for a variety of reasons. At the same time, there may be good practices that can be looked up as sources of inspiration and trendsetters.

We, therefore, propose to delve deeper into the issues of access and inclusion in the broader domain of heritage management, such as archaeological excavations and sites management, architectural and urban heritage management, museums and curatorial practices, cultural and creative economies, crafts and community development, legal and administrative processes as well as educational frameworks for heritage management. The following are a non-exclusive list of potential thematic areas for various sessions that may be considered:

For the third edition of the conference, we have expanded our format for abstract submissions/proposals. We invite abstracts for the following categories of submissions:
1. Session Proposals (to be submitted by proposed session coordinator along with 3 other presenters)
If you would like to coordinate a session on a suitable title under any of the following themes, you may submit a proposal for session organization. The session may have any of the formats, and all the presenters need to be individually registered for the conference. If the session is organized on behalf of an organization or group, a reasonable contribution from the organization towards the conference cost is expected. The details of this can be discussed.

• Sessions with paper presentations: Each session need to have at least three and a maximum of four presentations of 15 – 20 minutes each, and a session chair (usually the person who submits the proposal). The session chair may also be one of the presenters in the particular session. If you plan to submit all papers for Journal of Heritage Management, the proposer or the session chair may be invited as ‘guest editor’ for the issue which will feature all papers under a theme/topic. However, all such papers need to first meet the standards of the journal and need to be reviewed by the editor first.
• Roundtable session: If you wish to organize a session in a roundtable format, you will need four speakers who will address a particular question or offer a brief commentary on the given agenda. Such session may have four to six speakers including the session chair, and all need to have registered individually. For a roundtable session, only the session abstract highlighting key agenda and expected takeaways along with brief bios of speakers or panellists will be required.
• Session proposals shall address the access and inclusion issues in any aspect of heritage management, i.e. archaeological sites, urban heritage, museums, interpretations, governance and so on.

Please submit your session proposals to [email protected]

2. Individual Paper/Poster Presentations
Abstracts of 500 – 700 words are invited from anyone interested from around the world for a paper/oral presentation or a poster presentation. Abstracts submitted for oral presentation may be recommended for poster presentation based on the review by the scientific committee.

The abstracts must have the following information reflected clearly for the reviewers to evaluate:

• Nature of work, i.e. research, actual ongoing project, a theoretical framework development, literature review based paper, or a completed project report, and so on; and the nature of the author’s involvement.
• Key problem or issue addressed or being addressed,
• Methodology brief, and
• Expected conclusion or achieved results.

The abstracts will be blind-peer-reviewed on the above parameters, by the scientific committee. Accepted abstracts will be invited for a 15-20 minutes oral presentation session, or for a poster session. Authors of accepted abstracts may opt to submit a full paper to be considered for publication in the Journal of Heritage Management. Details about full paper submission will be shared to authors of selected abstracts at the time of notification of abstract review process.

3. Students Works (Thesis, Projects or Research Papers)
Students at any Bachelors or Masters level pursuing a thesis or project or any research related to heritage may submit an abstract of 500 – 700 words under this track. Selected abstracts will be invited for a 10 – 15 minutes oral presentation, and rest of the qualified abstracts will be offered a poster presentation option.

This will offer extra room for students to gain experience in presenting at an international conference at an early stage. Students’ presentations will be evaluated by a panel of jury, and a best paper or poster award (one out of ten presentations) will be given during the valedictory session.

4. Proposal for participation at the Expo of Best Practices
Organisations interested in sharing their exemplary works in the heritage sector may consider participating in our expo of best practices. We may not have enough space to exhibit all the works, so organisations are invited to submit an abstract and a sample of projects to proposed to be displayed. In the last conference, Aga Khan Trust for Culture exhibited its Global Historic Cities Programme including around 30 panels and preceded with a special panel discussion. Organisations will be expected to contribute a reasonable amount to support the cost of such an exhibition, hence the abstract submission may be treated as an expression of interest. If your organization or institution is interested in collaboration or participating in the best practices expo, please email us to discuss your proposal: [email protected]


Timeline:
Call for Abstracts announcement: February 15, 2019
Last date to submit abstracts: May 15, 2019
Notification of abstracts selection results: July 15, 2019
Registration opens: July 15, 2019

Registration rates and deadlines are listed below.

Registration Rates (includes lunches, tea breaks, conference kit and conference reception)

Applicable taxes will be levied on registration fees (based on the prevalent rule from the Government of India, at the time of registration).

For further updates, please visit the conference website.

If you have any questions or proposals in connection to this announcement, please feel free to be in touch with us.

Conference Chair
Neel Kamal Chapagain, PhD
Associate Professor and Director
Centre for Heritage Management, Ahmedabad University
[email protected]
[email protected]