Science Café on Critical Heritage

UNESCO Chair on Heritage Interpretation and Education for Enhancing Integrated Heritage Approaches, University of Primorska, Koper, Slovenia and T4EU Transformation Lab on Critical Heritage are proud to invite you to the first UP Science Café.

The T4EU Science Café on Critical Heritage debate will be held by:

• Neža Čebron Lipovec, Assist. Prof. of Heritage, UP Faculty of Humanities & UNESCO Chair
• Daniela Koleva, Assist. Prof. of Heritage, University of St. Kliment Ohridski

and moderated by:

• Irena Lazar, Prof. of Archaeology, UP and Unesco Chair
• Zrinka Mileusnić, Assoc. Prof. of Archaeology, UP and UNESCO Chair

The event is dedicated to discussing and understanding the critical heritage and its perception. The transformations in the humanities and the social sciences in the 1960s–70s led to the formation of a new research field, heritage studies. Heritage studies conceptualise heritage in broader temporal boundaries and a network of agents involved in its formation. Within heritage studies, cultural heritage covers the distant and recent past, ordinary and everyday life, different social groups and their vision of heritage.

Yet, in the 2000s, heritage studies were debated. As a result, a field of critical heritage studies emerged. The key task was to analyse discursive practices of defining and using heritage primarily by state and international institutions. The scholars conceptualise heritage as a process, discourse and participatory cultural phenomenon. So, heritage is understood as a constant rethinking and redefinition of cultural values by different agents, which are also constantly changing.

When: Thursday, 4 September 2025, 6 p.m. – 7.30 p.m.
Where: Faculty of Humanities Courtyard, UP
Application deadline: 2 September 2025
Registration: HERE

The T4EU Science Café will be organised within the UP Faculty of Humanities and the Unesco Chair International Summer School of Museology and Heritage. This event brings together students, young experts, researchers and stakeholders working in different heritage disciplines, heritage science, museums, NGO, etc. The event aims to open the debate about Critical Heritage and its understanding.

The Faculty and UNESCO Chair, with their long-lasting collaboration with various heritage institutions, are the starting point for discussing the critical heritage; this is how universities can be a driver of open academic discussion and accelerate the knowledge transfer from academia to the public.