
Dr Bryony Onciul is a lecturer in Public History at the University of Exeter. Her research primarily focuses on Indigenous history, exploring issues around community engagement, decolonisation, (re)presentation, cultural heritage management, and the relationships between power and voice. Her new book analyses these issues in depth: Museums, Heritage and Indigenous Voice: Decolonising Engagement published in 2015 by Routledge, New York.
Bryony is also interested in historical trauma and is working on a project that questions the role of official State apologies for historical wrongs. A further avenue of her research explores the future of heritage management in relation to the impact of climate change. Bryony is currently working on a project that compares a range of case studies affected by rising seas and storm surges, and considers how heritage professionals and local communities navigate these new and increasing challenges. Bryony founded the UK Chapter of the ACHS in 2013.
Bryony is also interested in historical trauma and is working on a project that questions the role of official State apologies for historical wrongs. A further avenue of her research explores the future of heritage management in relation to the impact of climate change. Bryony is currently working on a project that compares a range of case studies affected by rising seas and storm surges, and considers how heritage professionals and local communities navigate these new and increasing challenges. Bryony founded the UK Chapter of the ACHS in 2013.
Sessions in which Dr Bryony Onciul participates
11:00
11:00
- 15.50 Troubled Waters, Stormy Futures: Heritage in Times of Accelerated Climate Change
- Participant Dr Anna Woodham (King's College London) | Participant Dr Bryony Onciul (Univerisity of Exeter) |
- 11:00 - 11:30 | 30 minutes Part of: Heritage Futures / Utopian Currents I
- In response to the guiding theme of the conference “What does heritage change?” this paper will explore how changes to the way we traditionally ...
- Paper
9:00
9:00
- 10.00 The Role of Co-Production in Addressing Difficult Pasts and Futures
- Participant Dr Bryony Onciul (Univerisity of Exeter) |
- 9:00 - 9:30 | 30 minutes Part of: Co-Production in Heritage: Towards New Imaginaries. Part II. Co-Production, Conservation and Memory; Co-Production and the Professional Imaginary
- This paper will set out to understand what heritage changes and will ask “can heritage affect reality”? It will explore the way heritage and col...
- Paper
15:30
15:30
- Critical Heritage Studies in the UK: Future Directions Concordia, John Molson School of Business Building (MB) - MB 5.215
- 15:30 - 17:00 | 1 hour 30 minutes
- What is the future of the UK and what is the role of heritage in this shifting political landscape? How have debates on heritage in the UK chang...
- Roundtable
Sessions in which Dr Bryony Onciul attends
12:30
12:30
- Welcome Coffee UQAM, pavillon J.-A. De Sève (DS) - DS Ground Floor Hall
- 12:30 - 17:30 | 5 hours
- Pause
- Registration UQAM, pavillon J.-A. De Sève (DS) - DS Main hall
- 12:30 - 17:30 | 5 hours
13:00
13:00
- What is Critical Heritage Studies: Open Forum
- Signup required UQAM, pavillon J.-A. De Sève (DS) - DS-R520
- 13:00 - 15:00 | 2 hours
- This forum will explore the current directions of critical heritage studies and what makes ACHS distinctive. Panel members will discuss what the...
- Workshop
17:00
17:00
- Opening Ceremony and Cocktail
- Signup required Concordia, Grey Nuns Motherhouse (GN) - Former Chapel
- 17:00 - 19:30 | 2 hours 30 minutes
- Welcome addresses and cocktail, followed by the Concordia Signature Event "The Garden of the Grey Nuns". As the opening ceremony and cocktail...
- Cocktail
19:30
19:30
- The Garden of the Grey Nuns / Le jardin des sœurs grises Concordia, Grey Nuns Motherhouse (GN) - GN 1210
- 19:30 - 21:00 | 1 hour 30 minutes
- Working with archival documents and the current-day morphology of the Grey Nuns' site, Dr Cynthia Hammond, Dr Shauna Janssen, in collaboration w...
- Research-Creation
8:00
8:00
- Morning Coffee UQAM, pavillon J.-A. De Sève (DS) - DS Ground Floor Hall
- 8:00 - 10:00 | 2 hours
- Pause
9:00
9:00
- Keynote : What does heritage change? Le patrimoine, ça change quoi? (Lucie K. Morisset)
- Signup required UQAM, pavillon Judith-Jasmin (J) - Salle Alfred-Laliberté
- 9:00 - 10:00 | 1 hour
- What if we changed our views on heritage? And if heritage has already changed? While, on the global scene, s...
- Keynote with simultaneous translation / Conférence avec traduction simultanée

10:30
10:30
- Break | Pause UQAM, pavillon J.-A. De Sève (DS) - DS Ground Floor Hall
- 10:30 - 11:00 | 30 minutes
- Pause
11:00
11:00
- Heritage Futures / Utopian Currents I UQAM, pavillon J.-A. De Sève (DS) - DS-R515
- 11:00 - 17:00 | 6 hours
- The notion of heritage is closely linked to processes of change. In the Western context, the definition of heritage as "a contemporary product shap...
- Regular session
17:00
17:00
- Smoked meat in questions Bistro le Sanguinet - Bistro, étage principal et terrasse
- 17:00 - 18:00 | 1 hour
- This festive event will offer delegates a taste of one of the iconic dishes of Montreal, the smoked meat sandwich, imported by Jewish immigration f...
- Cocktail
18:30
18:30
- Keynote: Is Tangible to Intangible as Formal is to Informal ? (Michael Herzfeld)
- Signup required UQAM, pavillon Judith-Jasmin (J) - Salle Alfred-Laliberté
- 18:30 - 20:00 | 1 hour 30 minutes
- Most of what we experience as heritage emerges into conscious recognition through a complex mixture of political and ideological filters, including...
- Keynote with simultaneous translation / Conférence avec traduction simultanée

7:30
7:30
- Discovering katajjaniq – Nunavik’s Inuit throat singing | À la découverte du katajjaniq – le chant de gorge inuit du Nunavik
- Signup required UQAM, pavillon Judith-Jasmin (J) - Salle des boiseries (J-2805)
- 7:30 - 8:30 | 1 hour
- In English and French The two Inuit artists Nina Segalowitz and Taqralik Partridge are offering us an initiation to katajjaniq, this thousand...
- Event
9:00
9:00
- 09.00 Empathy as a Register of Engagement in Heritage Making: The Making and Withholding of Compassion
- Participant Prof. Laurajane Smith (Australian National University) |
- 9:00 - 9:30 | 30 minutes Part of: Empathy and Indifference – Emotional/Affective Routes To and Away from Compassion I
- This paper explores the role that empathy, as both a skill and an emotion, plays in the processes of politicized and self-conscious heritage-mak...
- Paper
- 09.30 Pilgrimage in a Contested Sacred Landscape: A Case Study in Conflict between Culture, Heritage Management, and Development in Native North America
- Participant Dr Kathleen Van Vlack (Living Heritage Anthropology) |
- 9:00 - 9:30 | 30 minutes Part of: Reshuffling of Knowledge and the Making of Autochthonous Cultural Heritage : Ethnographical Perspectives II | Mise en patrimoine et recomposition de régimes de savoir. Ethnographies d’expériences autochtones II
- In many societies around the world, religious specialists engage in the act of pilgrimage. While on pilgrimage, specialists travel on long-estab...
- Paper
- 10.00 "Dealing with the Past" in Northern Ireland: Empathy as Political Engagement in the Memorial Heritage Project
- Participant Prof Elizabeth Crooke (Ulster University) |
- 9:00 - 9:30 | 30 minutes Part of: Empathy and Indifference – Emotional/Affective Routes To and Away from Compassion I
- Now in a transitional phase between violence and established peace, Northern Ireland is dealing with the legacy of forty years of conflict. Memo...
- Paper
- 11.20 Pedagogies of Remembrance as Affective Practice: Reading Testimonial Literature of Indian Residential Schools with Future Teachers
- Participant lisa taylor (Bishops University) |
- 9:00 - 9:30 | 30 minutes Part of: Empathy and Indifference – Emotional/Affective Routes To and Away from Compassion I
- Heritage practices of making meaning through and with the past are inherently pedagogical, bringing the past to bear on the present in ways inte...
- Paper
- 11.40 Utter (In)Difference: On the Use of Temporality in Tourism
- Participant Dr Anna Källén (Stockholm University) |
- 9:00 - 9:30 | 30 minutes Part of: Empathy and Indifference – Emotional/Affective Routes To and Away from Compassion I
- Temporality is a key figure in contemporary tourism. Phrases and images such as “where time has stood still” or “past pristine landscapes” are c...
- Paper
- 10.00 Artifacts on Air: Cultural Coherence and Remote Access in Indigenous Collections
- Participant Emily Meikle (University of Toronto) |
- 9:00 - 9:30 | 30 minutes Part of: Reshuffling of Knowledge and the Making of Autochthonous Cultural Heritage : Ethnographical Perspectives II | Mise en patrimoine et recomposition de régimes de savoir. Ethnographies d’expériences autochtones II
- Drawing upon recent research that I conducted, this paper will explore if and how radio can be used to promote remote access to indigenous archa...
- Paper
- 11.00 Experiencing Mixed Emotions in the Museum: Empathy and Memory in Visitors’ Responses to Histories of Migration
- Participant Prof. Rhiannon Mason |
- 9:00 - 9:30 | 30 minutes Part of: Empathy and Indifference – Emotional/Affective Routes To and Away from Compassion I
- Research involving display analysis and interviews with staff and visitors has shown empathy to be an important feature of interpretative strate...
- Paper
11:00
11:00
- Maverick Heritages. Ugliness, Discomfort and Illegality in the Political and Social Construction of Heritage UQAM, pavillon J.-A. De Sève (DS) - DS-M240 - SALLE ANNULÉE
- 11:00 - 12:30 | 1 hour 30 minutes
- With regard to the main question of the 3rd ACHS Biennial Conference, "What does heritage change?" the convenors of this session propose ethnograph...
- Regular session
14:00
14:00
- Keynote: Renaming, Removal, Recontextualization of Heritage: Purging History, Claiming the Present, Imagining the Future? (What Change-Role for Heritage Professionals?) (James Count Early)
- Signup required Musée des Beaux-Ars de Montréal - Cummings Auditorium
- 14:00 - 15:30 | 1 hour 30 minutes
- "What does heritage change?" is a multifaceted question to which the answer(s) are in primary respects related to real-life negotiations among dif...
- Keynote with simultaneous translation / Conférence avec traduction simultanée

17:00
17:00
- ACHS 2016 General Assembly Concordia, John Molson School of Business Building (MB) - MB 1.210
- 17:00 - 18:30 | 1 hour 30 minutes
- Talk
9:00
9:00
- Critical Creation series: The visits (of which there were none) Episode N. 2 Concordia, Engineering, Computer Science and Visual Arts Integrated Complex Building (EV) - EV Atrium
- 9:00 - 17:00 | 8 hours
- Dominique Fontaine / Livia Daza-Paris, A video and photographic installation.
- Event
15:30
15:30
- Keynote: Il n'est de patrimoine qu'au futur...| Only in the future will it be heritage... (Xavier Greffe)
- Signup required Concordia, John Molson School of Business Building (MB) - MB 1.210
- 15:30 - 17:00 | 1 hour 30 minutes
- Le patrimoine fait aujourd’hui l’objet d’attentions autant que d’agressions et de destructions. Cela peut s’expliquer par les difficultés de son id...
- Keynote with simultaneous translation / Conférence avec traduction simultanée

9:00
9:00
- Co-Production in Heritage: Towards New Imaginaries. Part II. Co-Production, Conservation and Memory; Co-Production and the Professional Imaginary Concordia, John Molson School of Business Building (MB) - MB S1.401
- 9:00 - 15:00 | 6 hours
- Involving communities, visitors or the public is frequently presented as one of the major tasks of museums and heritage sites in current global mov...
- Regular session
10:30
10:30
- Break | Pause Concordia, John Molson School of Business Building (MB) - MB Atrium
- 10:30 - 11:00 | 30 minutes
- Pause
11:00
11:00
- "Heritage" Constructions and Indigeneity: Considering Indigenous Cultural Centre Design in Canada Concordia, John Molson School of Business Building (MB) - MB 2.430
- 11:00 - 12:30 | 1 hour 30 minutes
- In November 2014, artists and thinkers including Jimmie Durham, Michael Taussig, Rebecca Belmore and Paul Chaat Smith convened in Calgary and Saska...
- Regular session
13:30
13:30
- Thinking Through the Museum: Difficult Knowledge in Public Concordia, John Molson School of Business Building (MB) - MB S1.430
- 13:30 - 15:00 | 1 hour 30 minutes
- The Canadian Museum for Human Rights opened to the public in September 2014. Yet this "first museum solely dedicated to the evolution, celebrati...
- Roundtable
15:30
15:30
- Ephemeral Sites of Critical Anti-modernism: Exploring the Tangible and Intangible Cultural Heritage of Experimental 1970s Eco-social Communities Concordia, John Molson School of Business Building (MB) - MB 3.265
- 15:30 - 17:00 | 1 hour 30 minutes
- The 1970s witnessed a flourishing of living experiments in space, place and community sharing broad ambitions to bring about transformed human soci...
- Regular session
- The Neglected Landscape: How Do We Put Canadian Interiors on the Map? Concordia, John Molson School of Business Building (MB) - MB S1.430
- 15:30 - 17:00 | 1 hour 30 minutes
- Canada is often pictured as vast territory of wilderness and wide-open spaces. Yet most of Canadian life plays out in interior spaces. These spa...
- Roundtable
19:00
19:00
8:30
8:30
- Post-Conference Tour: À la découverte de Kahnawà :ke | Discovery of Kahnawà :ke
- Signup required UQAM, pavillon J.-A. De Sève (DS) - DS Registration table (meeting point)
- 8:30 - 17:30 | 9 hours
- ||| Les Mohawks constituent la nation amérindienne la plus nombreuse parmi les dix différentes nations que compte le Québec. La nation mohawk...
- Tour