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Dr. Darko Babic

Assistant Professor
University of Zagreb / ICOM Croatia
Darko Babić (Assistant Professor; PhD in Museum/Heritage Studies) is Chair of the Sub-Department of Museology, Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences (University of Zagreb, Croatia). After earning his MA degree (Ethnology & Information Sciences) he gained experience working as project manager on international projects, as an organiser of museum/heritage conferences, as an archivist and as assistant on national TV. He is active in contributing to the advancement of the museum/heritage profession serving as Chairman of ICOM Croatia, as a member of the board of ICOM-ICTOP and as a member of the Supervisory Committee to the European Association for Heritage Interpretation.
His research interests include topics related to museums/heritage and development, management and interpretation. He also has working experience on EU projects and as a free-lance consultant for museum/heritage sector including non-governmental organisations.

Sessions in which Dr. Darko Babic attends

Friday 3 June, 2016

Time Zone: (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
13:00
13:00 - 15:00 | 2 hours
Heritage as an Agent of Change (Epistemologies, Ontologies, Teaching)

This forum will explore the current directions of critical heritage studies and what makes ACHS distinctive. Panel members will discuss what the term critical means to them, and what directions they would like to see develop in the future. To help develop an open dialogue, the session will also give considerable time to contributions from the audience.  

17:00
17:00 - 19:30 | 2 hours 30 minutes
Festive Event

Welcome addresses and cocktail, followed by the Concordia Signature Event "The Garden of the Grey Nuns". As the opening ceremony and cocktail take place in the former Grey Nuns' Motherhouse, recycled into campus residence and reading rooms by Concordia University,  delegates will also have the possibility to discover the video Three Grey Nuns (3 minutes, by Ron Rudin and Phil Lichti. Three Grey Nuns recount their memories of communal life in the Grey Nun’s Motherhouse.  Built...

19:30
19:30 - 21:00 | 1 hour 30 minutes
Research-Creation Installation or PerformancePublic event

Working with archival documents and the current-day morphology of the Grey Nuns' site, Dr Cynthia Hammond, Dr Shauna Janssen, in collaboration with Dr Jill Didur, will curate a series of installations and performances that speak directly to the rich heritage of a specific urban landscape: the gardens of the Grey Nuns' Motherhouse, now part of the Concordia University downtown campus. Visitors will have the opportunity to explore the lost working gardens of the Grey Nuns. As with other such...

Saturday 4 June, 2016

Time Zone: (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
9:00
9:00 - 10:00 | 1 hour
Public event
Simultaneous translation - Traduction simultanée

What if we changed our views on heritage? And if heritage has already changed? While, on the global scene, states maintain their leading role in the mobilization of social and territorial histories, on the local scale, regions, neighbourhoods and parishes have changed. Citizens and communities too: they latch on to heritage to express an unprecedented range of belongings that no law seems to be able to take measures to contain, often to the discontent of...

11:00
11:00 - 12:30 | 1 hour 30 minutes
Changes in Heritage (New Manifestations)Notions of HeritageIndustrial HeritageOral History
Changes in heritageNew manifestations of heritageNotions of heritage

Industrial heritage in Britain has tended to be romanticised in museum ‘cathedrals’ and ‘theme parks’ (like Beamish), with workers’ lived experience subordinated to the machines, buildings and physical artefacts that dominate these spaces. Here workers’ lives are more often than not celebrated rather than critically reconstructed and interpreted. The politics, class relations and struggle, violence, poverty and murkier side of working life is increasingly being neglected as the past is san...

11:00 - 15:00 | 4 hours
Heritage Changes the Local SocietiesNotions of Heritage
Heritage changes the local societiesheritage and mobilityPost-colonial heritageGlobal vs local

How do borders shape heritage and its potential for change? Despite the growth of international connections in heritage studies, national, linguistic and disciplinary borders continue to structure scholarly and practical approaches to heritage. The aim of this session is therefore threefold. First we will address which borders limit our understanding of heritage today. What are the roles of linguistic, disciplinary, religious and national borders? Which methodologies are best suited to overco...

11:00 - 17:00 | 6 hours
Heritage Changes the Social OrderCitizenshipUrban HeritageActivists and Experts
Heritage changes peopleActivist vs expertHeritage-makers

There is no doubt that the involvement of civil society is a key element in the history of heritage. Working upstream, in line with or against the tide of state recognition, enlightened amateurs or ordinary citizens have invested time and energy in the safeguarding and enhancement of a good, a place or a practice, judged, from their point of view, as irreplaceable or remarkable. It is easy for each country or each region to find an example of a precursor, working alone or in a group, who has ...

13:30
13:30 - 17:00 | 3 hours 30 minutes
Changes in Heritage (New Manifestations)Notions of Heritage
13:30 - 17:00 | 3 hours 30 minutes
Heritage Changes the PoliciesIntangible HeritageTourism
Heritage changes the policiesHeritage policiesGlobal vs localSimultaneous translation - Traduction simultanée

With sustainable development gaining momentum as a priority of UNESCO heritage policies, an increasing number of food-related nominations are being submitted for inscription on the lists of the Convention for the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage. The Mediterranean diet, traditional Mexican cuisine and the Japanese dietary culture of washoku are just some examples of this booming phenomenon. Since food and foodways are powerful references for self-representation and ident...

13:30 - 17:00 | 3 hours 30 minutes
Changes in Heritage (New Manifestations)Notions of HeritageMuseums
15:30
15:30 - 17:00 | 1 hour 30 minutes
Heritage Changes Politics
Heritage changes politicsPolitical uses of heritageUses of heritageHeritage and conflicts

In recent decades, the growth of the World Heritage industry has necessitated the reconsideration of scale. Formerly dominated by nation-states, some influential international organizations such as UNESCO and its advisory bodies (ICOMOS and IUCN) are now taking a strong role in decision-making through policy-making and implementation. Despite the power of the transnational organization and its relation with states parties, there is a growth of regionalism and “localism” in the heritage indust...

17:00
17:00 - 18:00 | 1 hour
Festive Event

This festive event will offer delegates a taste of one of the iconic dishes of Montreal, the smoked meat sandwich, imported by Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe in the early 20th century. In particular, the tasting will allow a discovery of the products of the renowned international institution Schwartz's, the Hebrew Delicatessen for which Montrealers and tourists alike are willing to wait in long line-ups. During the tasting, “Chez Schwartz,” a documentary produced by Garry B...

18:30
18:30 - 20:00 | 1 hour 30 minutes
Public event
Simultaneous translation - Traduction simultanée

Most of what we experience as heritage emerges into conscious recognition through a complex mixture of political and ideological filters, including nationalism.  In these processes, through a variety of devices (museums, scholarly research, consumer reproduction, etc.), dualistic classifications articulate a powerful hierarchy of value and significance.  In particular, the tangible-intangible pair, given legitimacy by such international bodies as UNESCO, reproduces a selective ordering of cul...

Sunday 5 June, 2016

Time Zone: (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
9:00
9:00 - 12:30 | 3 hours 30 minutes
Heritage Changes the PoliciesIntangible HeritageTourism
Simultaneous translation - Traduction simultanée

With sustainable development gaining momentum as a priority of UNESCO heritage policies, an increasing number of food-related nominations are being submitted for inscription on the lists of the Convention for the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage. The Mediterranean diet, traditional Mexican cuisine and the Japanese dietary culture of washoku are just some examples of this booming phenomenon. Since food and foodways are powerful references for self-representation and ident...

9:00 - 12:30 | 3 hours 30 minutes
Changes in Heritage (New Manifestations)Notions of HeritageArchitecture and Urbanism

The notion of heritage is closely linked to processes of change. In the Western context, the definition of heritage as "a contemporary product shaped from history" (Harvey 2010) highlights the extent to which our relationship with the past is being continually re-configured. However, there is a future dimension implied in this relationship that is often neglected; to paraphrase William Morris, the sense in which heritage testifies to the hopes and aspirations of those now passed away. Making ...

9:00 - 12:30 | 3 hours 30 minutes
Heritage Changes the Living EnvironmentHeritage Changes Politics
Heritage changes the environmentHeritage values

In many emerging economies of the Global South, new urban mega-projects are strategically reviving heritage into simulacra, copies without originals, intended to sell places. We refer to these projects collectively as "New Built Heritage." This type differs from earlier constructions of heritage by canonical state institutions such as museums and ministries of culture in the way its main goal is to differentiate and market places rather than solely to shape collective identities. This session...

14:00
14:00 - 15:30 | 1 hour 30 minutes
Co-Construction and Community Based HeritageHeritage Changes the Social OrderCitizenshipPublic event
Simultaneous translation - Traduction simultanée

"What does heritage change?" is a multifaceted  question to which the answer(s) are in primary respects related to real-life negotiations among different groups of citizens, cultures, races, ethnic groups, sexual identities, and social classes about received, official and/or widely accepted or accomodated intangible attributes, cultural traditions, historic monuments, buildings, and other transmitted or revived historical legacies. Heritage designated by and for whom, for what motivations, an...

Monday 6 June, 2016

Time Zone: (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
9:00
9:00 - 12:30 | 3 hours 30 minutes
Changes in Heritage (New Manifestations)Notions of HeritageIntangible HeritageTourism
Simultaneous translation - Traduction simultanée

This session is committed to extending previous research collaborations on food and culinary systems as objects of political mobilization – ICA 52, 2006 (Seville); Mexico DF, 2009; ICA 54, 2012 (Vienna); Uqam, 2014 (Montreal). On this occasion, we will deepen and develop ongoing debates about the growing place of food in the cultural politics of heritage and its impacts on society, about which there is still scarce documentation.  How are food and culinary heritages constructed and...

9:00 - 15:00 | 6 hours
Heritage Changes Rights
Heritage changes rightsJustice and heritageHeritage and the lawRight to heritage

Questions about the repatriation of cultural property, issues of access and exclusion in the World Heritage system, intangible heritage practices in conflict with human rights norms, or the ways in which the international human rights regime is interpreted as a form of cultural heritage itself: rights are now considered relevant in a broad variety of heritage situations. This is reflected in the incorporation of references to human rights in a series of key international heritage-relate...

9:00 - 15:00 | 6 hours
Heritage Changes the Social Order
Heritage changes peopleActivist vs expertHeritage-makers

Heritage processes vary according to cultural, national, geographical and historical contexts. Since the late 1980s, the phenomenon of contestation in heritage has been increasingly recognized. However, there is still little detailed and situated knowledge about the range of actors present in contestations, the variety of strategies they pursue, the reasoning behind their choices, the networks they develop, and how, from all this, heritage has been and is constructed. More often than not, con...

12:30
12:30 - 13:30 | 1 hour
Co-Construction and Community Based HeritageArchitecture and UrbanismPublic event

As Canada shifts from a resource-based economy to a knowledge-based economy, small communities that were established to service the primary sector are faced with a complex and unique set of challenges. They are communities built on a culture of hard work, resourcefulness, and creativity; their residents are now tasked with developing strategies to deal with a lack of employment, depopulation and resettlement.  Small is premised on the notion that leveraging the rich cultur...

13:30
13:30 - 15:00 | 1 hour 30 minutes
Research-Creation Installation or PerformanceHeritage in ConflictsOral History

Around the globe the planning of large-scale memorial-museum projects concerned with violent histories are frequently marred by conflict, omission, and competitions of victimhood. This problem also extends to scholarship on genocide and memory. “Moving memory” is a collaborative multi-sited research exhibition about the Armenian and Roma genocides that proposes creative solutions to these museological and scholarly conflicts around commemoration. Our multi-sited event includes two pr...

15:30
15:30 - 17:00 | 1 hour 30 minutes
Public event
Simultaneous translation - Traduction simultanée

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 identification ou de sa conservation. Cela peut plus profondément s’expliquer parce que, dès le départ, il célébre un événement ou conserve une mémoire qui peut être ou devenir une source de dissenssions et de conflits politiques. Enfin, sa reconnaissance suscite des gains économiques pour les uns mais des pertes pour les autres. Mais peut-être...

Tuesday 7 June, 2016

Time Zone: (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
9:00
9:00 - 17:00 | 8 hours
Public event

Milan Tanedjikov (Concordia University) and six LaSalle College students. A Material Culture & Fashion Exhibit June 6 and 7 The garments are part of a collection, titled Odesza, designed by six LaSalle College students under the artistic direction of Milan Tanedjikov.  The collection: an artisanal Montreal-based clothing collection that is part of the slow-fashion movement. The clothes are made by hand with environmentally friendly material and workers are ...

9:00 - 15:00 | 6 hours
Heritage Changes PlaceCo-Construction and Community Based HeritageActivists and Experts
Heritage changes placeCo-construction of heritageCommunity-based heritageHeritage makers

Involving communities, visitors or the public is frequently presented as one of the major tasks of museums and heritage sites in current global movements toward new collaborative paradigms (Golding and Modest 2013; Watson and Waterton 2011). Co-production is a highly current issue, and a proposed emancipatory solution to the authorized heritage discourse, which seemingly has reached a critical juncture. Scholarship has echoed calls from communities for more direct involvement in the presentat...

9:00 - 12:30 | 3 hours 30 minutes
Heritage as an Agent of Change (Epistemologies, Ontologies, Teaching)
Heritage as an agent of changeEpistemologiesOntologiesTeaching

Among other aims, the Critical Heritage Studies (CHS) Movement, most exemplified by the promotional efforts of the Association of Critical Heritage Studies (ACHS), seeks to push heritage studies beyond its more traditional, longstanding "borders" of investigating the progress, as well as shortcomings, of the museum and heritage enterprise. Indeed, in the manifesto for ACHS, it is noted that heritage studies ought to expand to include a broader range of disciplinary (and interdisciplinary) the...

9:00 - 15:00 | 6 hours
Heritage as an Agent of Change (Epistemologies, Ontologies, Teaching)Notions of HeritageHeritage Changes Itself (Geographical and Linguistic Processes of Transformation)
Heritage changes itselfHeritage and geographyLinguistic transformation of heritageNotions of heritage

Heritage has multiple, concurrent origins. It is performed and produced by individuals, groups and organizations, or institutions on various scales. It is a transformative process and thus closely connected to the transitional. In heritage, transitionality may be usefully conceptualized under the rubric of the liminal, which at its core anticipates change and transformation, structure-agency relationships, affect, and human experience—all significant issues in recent theoretical debates in th...

9:00 - 15:00 | 6 hours
Changes in Heritage (New Manifestations)Notions of HeritageIndustrial HeritageIntangible HeritageUrban HeritageArchitecture and Urbanism
Changes in heritageNew manifestations of heritageNotions of heritage

While intangible cultural heritage is an important factor in maintaining cultural diversity in the face of growing globalization, there is still little appreciation of its value. UNESCO endorsed the importance of intangible cultural heritage not only as a cultural manifestation but also, and more importantly, as a wealth of knowledge and skills that are transmitted through generations. We invite paper contributions that address multiple ways of understanding, recognizing, valuing, and p...

11:00
11:00 - 12:30 | 1 hour 30 minutes
Public event

Nyata Nyata (Karla Etienne and Zab Mabongou) This hybrid demonstration project explores the links between heritage and artistic creation that is revealed in practice. Interspersed in the presentation will be extracts of past work and examples of live dance created for this occasion with dancers and drummers. Zab Maboungou and Nyata Nyata are a contemporary dance company that is unique in Montreal and in Canada. Cette conférence-démonstration, d'une durée...

13:30
13:30 - 15:00 | 1 hour 30 minutes
Heritage as an Agent of Change (Epistemologies, Ontologies, Teaching)Activists and ExpertsPublic event
Heritage as an agent of changeEpistemologiesOntologiesTeaching

The roundtable will explore ideas around the concept of insignificance. That is, how things are judged to be unimportant, not worthy of conservation, meaningless, or without substantive power or influence. We will examine this notion in relation to the history, theory, and practical application of significance as a concept and method in heritage. In short, we will discuss the significance of insignificance. The notion of ‘significance’ is central to heritage conservation in many pa...

15:30
15:30 - 17:00 | 1 hour 30 minutes
Heritage Changes the Policies
Heritage changes the policiesHeritage policiesGlobal vs local

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 changed since the influential critiques of Hewison and Wright in the 1980s? How can those engaged in Critical Heritage Studies in the UK negotiate the difficult relationship between academic critique and sector relevance? How do current debates in the UK relate to and differ from those in Western and non-Western contexts? This workshop will bring ...