TRACES investigates the challenges and opportunities raised while transmitting complex pasts and the role of difficult heritage in contemporary Europe. At the centre of the project are a series of “Creative Co-Productions” in which artists, researchers, heritage agencies, and stakeholders collaborate researching selected cases of contentious heritage and developing new participatory public interfaces.
The IAE is a partner in TRACES, a three-year project (March 2016–February 2019) funded by the European Commission as part of the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme. TRACES investigates the challenges and opportunities raised while transmitting complex pasts and the role of difficult heritage in contemporary Europe. At the centre of the project are a series of “Creative Co-Productions” in which artists, researchers, heritage agencies, and stakeholders collaborate on long-term projects researching selected cases of contentious heritage and developing new participatory public interfaces.
The project involving 11 partners in Austria, Poland, Slovenia, Italy, Rumania, Germany, Norway and Great Britain is coordinated by Prof. Klaus Schönberger, Institute for Cultural Analysis, University Klagenfurt/Celovec.
The IAE’s work in the TRACES project, with Nora Landkammer and Karin Schneider as research team, is dedicated to learning and the involvement of stakeholders. Their research aims to identify ways in which educational programmes around contentious heritage can in themselves provide spaces of conflict and negotiation. How can a pedagogical setting open spaces for dissensus and different positionalities, yet at the same time be accountable that violence and exclusion is not re-enacted? What does it mean to take a stance, yet operate from a position of unlearning (Castro Varela / Dhawan 2009), as an educator who is her/himself positioned in the hierarchies and power relations in debate?
These questions are addressed in three complementary research strands:
- Accompanying the Creative Co-Productions in the development and parallel research of their programmes for public engagement and collaboration with stakeholders
- A study of the micro-processes of dealing with conflict in educational programmes on contentious heritage in museums, exhibitions, memory sites and independent projects
- An action research programme in collaboration with the education team of Weltkulturen Museum, Frankfurt a. M., for research and practice development of education with ethnographic collections
Following an action research paradigm, the workpackage 3 (WP3) aims to have outcomes in practice (learning practices, educational formats), on the level of tools for educators (educational materials) as well as theorization (publications).
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 693857. Responsibility for the information and views presented lies entirely with the authors.