The annual Graduate Archaeology at Oxford (GAO) Conference warmly invites graduate and early career researchers to share their ideas and works with the wider archaeological community at this year’s in-person conference to be held at Oxford.
Heritage, as a contemporary understanding of the past, has historically played a key role in shaping cultures and identities. Its ever-evolving nature has placed the preservation, management, and repatriation of heritage in global discussions around justice, sustainable development, and post-conflict reconstruction and reconciliation. This conference will explore historical perspectives of heritage while also addressing the multifaceted issues associated with the abuse, conflict, and repatriation of our invaluable heritage. The conference welcomes diverse perspectives, interdisciplinary work, and research from various geographical regions.
Potential questions to explore include:
- How have communities understood cultural heritage, and what were the implications of these understandings?
- How has heritage been abused, including through the illicit trade of cultural artefacts, vandalism, unauthorised excavations, the impact of tourism on heritage sites, etc.?
- What is the role of heritage in conflict, for example, the destruction of heritage in times of war?
- What are the key considerations or issues in the repatriation and restitution of cultural artefacts, human remains, and/or sacred objects?
Submission Guidelines:
You can submit a paper abstract, no longer than 300 words to gao2024@arch.ox.ac.uk. The deadline for paper submissions is Monday 18 December 2023. Selected papers will be presented at a conference at the Ioannou Centre (TBC), scheduled for two days in March 2024 (TBC).
We greatly look forward to your contributions. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the conference coordinators at gao2024@arch.ox.ac.uk.
Conference Coordinators: Yuxin Fu, Kristen Barrett-Casey, Lua Valino de Jong and Elizabeth Weinberg (University of Oxford)
