09 May 2023 | 6:15 p.m. - 7:45 p.m. |
Main building of the University of Bonn | Lecture Hall IV 

Event 4/11 of the lecture series "Digitalization of Memory Practices and Heritage in Global Perspectives" in the summer semester 2023

The event is hybrid, which means that participation is possible both in person and digitally.

If you would like to participate via Zoom, please register early by sending an email to kranzant@uni-bonn.de. If you would like to attend in person, no registration is required.

The language of the event is English.

On the lecture series

How has digitalization changed the way we remember personally and collectively? Through their omnipresence, digital applications and infrastructures seem to be reshaping memory culture and practices around the globe. Mobile devices and cloud services enable individuals to access images, texts, and video recordings from the past anywhere and anytime. Collections are being digitalized and made more accessible. During the Corona Pandemic, museums offered virtual tours. Governments are also using digital tools increasingly to shape authoritative cultural heritage and public discourses on identity and history. 

Digitalization does not only facilitate a greater diversity of memories and voices. Digitalization also challenges conventions and can enables manipulation and selection of content. The consequences with which the intersection between technologies and cultures has been set in motion can be best discussed by comparing memory & heritage practices in different societies and world regions. How is the personal ability to remember changing and which materials are becoming new and differently accessible for remembering? What kind of influence do platforms and social media have on forms of memory in rural Africa or hyper-urban China? How does digital creativity differ in remembering in Europe, Latin America and Africa? How do digital tools enable us to perceive everyday culture on the one hand and global interconnections such as colonialism, climate change, and geopolitics on the other hand? Does the relationship between cultures of memory and digital technologies differ significantly or are they similar in African, American, European, and Asian countries?

Lecture:

Prof. Dr. Inger Leemans

Professor of Cultural History at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam & Research leader at NL-Lab, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW)

Discussion:

Prof. Dr. Paul Basu

Hertz Professor of Global Heritage, University of Bonn

Prof. Dr. Birgit Münch

Professor of Art History, University of Bonn

Prof. Dr. Inger Leemans

Moderation:

Prof. Dr. Sophie Elpers 

Professor of Intangible Cultural Heritage and European Ethnology, University of Antwerp