Open Call – The Summer Seminar “Towards a performative turn in heritage: Case of WWII Monuments and Memorials in Western Balkans”, 12-24th September 2021

18. маја 2021

UNESCO Chair in Cultural Policy and Management is launching an Open Call for participants for the Summer Seminar Towards a performative turn in heritage: Case of WWII Monuments and Memorials in Western Balkans, which will take place in different locations in Serbia from 12-24th of September 2021. The Summer Seminar is organized in cooperation between University of Hildesheim (Germany), UNESCO Chair in Cultural Policy and Management of the University of Arts in Belgrade (Serbia), Europa Nostra Serbia and SEE Heritage Network and is funded by DAAD.

The Summer Seminar consists of four-day lecture sessions, two-day preparatory workshops, three-day field-work project and final group presentations. All the planned activities investigate monuments and memorials dedicated to WWII events, at several locations in Serbia – in Belgrade, Čačak, Kragujevac, Kruševac, and Užice. Recently, these sites have been gaining significant international attention based primarily on their aesthetics – thus deployed of socio-political circumstances and ideological concerns. This is where we will take a turn, and go beyond the form and context(s) and observe these sites and practices from the perspective of performativity of memory and most importantly of (performing) heritage. Thus, the program offers both the new theoretical insights as well as field work with practical production of final deliverables, made through moderated and direct collaboration and exchanged between students from Hildesheim and Belgrade and heritage practitioners from the Western Balkans region.

Thanks to the support by DAAD, participation in the Summer Seminar is free of charge for selected participants. The organizers will be covering the accommodation in Belgrade to students and to selected professionals from the Western Balkan countries, who are not based in Belgrade and will cover accommodation during the field-work to all participants.

If you are a current generation of students (2020/2021) or previous generation (2019/2020) you can apply for one of the 6 places available to students of UNESCO Chair, but if you are an alumni of previous generations, you can apply for one of the 6 places for heritage professionals from the Western Balkan region.

You can apply for the Summer Seminar by sending a statement of interest (up to 500 words) and your CV to email: ss0201pheritage@gmail.com, by May 31st 2021. Please indicate in your email whether you are applying as a heritage professional from one of the Western Balkans countries, or as an MA student of the University of Hildesheim or University of Arts in Belgrade. The final selection will be made until 30th of June 2021.  If the conditions for travel and gatherings due to COVID 19 pandemic are prohibiting the seminar to take place, the organizers will consider postponing the program to 2022.

You can find all the necessary details in the official Open Call.

OPEN CALL FOR SUMMER SEMINAR