Participants: José Guilherme Abreu (Catholic University of Portugal), Alessandro Carrieri (University of Trieste), Laura Castro (Catholic University of Portugal), Neža Čebron Lipovec (University of Primorska), Daiva Price (Vytautas Magnus University).

Moderated by Linara Dovydaitytė (museum and heritage researcher from Vytautas Magnus University).

Heritage is linked to identity. That is why it has traditionally been understood primarily as something positive. Heritage can give us a sense of belonging, place, and community. It can affirm who we are and where we come from. But heritage is also selective. It often highlights achievements, struggles, and stories we are proud of, while leaving out painful, shameful, and contested experiences. The past is never only positive. This is why Critical Heritage Studies also speaks of difficult, dissonant, dark, or undesirable heritage.

The Science Cafe on Difficult Heritage invites students, heritage practitioners, and anyone interested in how the past is used, interpreted, and negotiated in the present to explore what happens when we move beyond celebratory narratives. Sharon Macdonald (2008) suggests that difficult heritage “threatens to trouble collective identities and open up social differences”. What does this mean for heritage making practices? Can heritage make space for uncomfortable and conflicting memories? What challenges does this create, and what new possibilities might emerge? Together, we will explore these questions through diverse perspectives and examples from Portugal, Slovenia, Italy, and Lithuania, considering how different historical and social contexts shape the ways difficult heritage is understood and made in the present.

The Science Café is organised within the framework of T4EU Sustainable Heritage workshop “Cultural Responses to War: Shaping Heritage, Building Resilience”, co-organised by Vytautas Magnus University, Estonian Academy of Art and Catholic University of Portugal, in collaboration with the Kaunas Ninth Fort Museum. This week 30 students from all Kaunas Ninth Fort Museum: “How can a museum interpret and present the dissonant heritage of occupations, collaboration, resistance, and trauma in ways that foster dialogue rather than social division?” especially in the context of ongoing wars and multiple crises all around the world.