Legal and Ethical Challenges in Digital Cultural Heritage
Digital Challenges Seminar Series
Where: the House of Connections (Grote Markt 21, 9712 HR Groningen)
When: February 11, 2025, 13:00-17:00
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The Digital Challenges Seminar Series, organized by the Digital Heritage unit of the Heritage Pasts and Futures group at the Faculty of Arts, in cooperation with the Jantina Tammes School of Digital Society, Technology and AI, aims to put scholars and experts from different disciplines in contact to tackle common challenges in digital applications and brainstorm solutions and best strategies. This inaugural seminar examines the ethical and legal challenges of digital heritage and the twofold implications of digitisation in terms of accessibility and democratisation. While digital tools promote access and knowledge democratisation, they also risk perpetuating inequities, raising issues of ownership, cultural misappropriation, and technological disparities that may unintentionally reinforce dominant cultural narratives and limit the very access they aim to foster. Marking two decades since UNESCO’s Charter on the Preservation of Digital Heritage, this seminar will critically examine current legal frameworks and advocate for policy reforms and community-driven approaches to foster ethical and inclusive digital practices. It will also address best practices for navigating challenging contexts, such as how to engage with communities that hold profoundly different cultural perspectives or conflicting views, or how to handle ethical dilemmas when consultation with rightful stakeholders is not feasible, such as in cases involving digitised human remains. Participants will delve into these complex topics through a keynote presentation and lectures featuring representative case studies, followed by roundtable discussions to collaboratively explore solutions and their implications for research and practice. The keynote speaker, Dr Vanessa Tünsmeyer (University of Groningen, Faculty of Law), is an expert in cultural heritage law, with a focus on UNESCO treaties, cultural and indigenous rights, comparative approaches to the restitution and repatriation of colonial-era cultural heritage. For any inquiries about the event, you may contact the event organiser, dr. Manuela Ritondale (m.ritondale@rug.nl).
Program
13:00-13:30 – Welcome and Walk-In
13:30-13:45 – Introduction (Manuela Ritondale, University of Groningen, Faculty of Arts)
13:45-14:30 - Keynote: Vanessa Tünsmeyer (University of Groningen, Faculty of Law), Rights, regulation and heritage actors
14:30-15:00 - Hayley Mickleburgh (University of Amsterdam, Faculty of Humanities, and Texas State University, Forensic Anthropology Center) & Alicia Walsh (Leiden University, Faculty of Archaeology), Ethics and Care in Digital Archaeology: Challenges in the Study of Human Remains
15:00-15:15- Coffee break
15:15-15:45 - Cindy Zalm (Wereldmuseum), Colonial collections in a digital world.
15:45-16:15 – Kiki Santing (University of Groningen, Faculty of Arts), Disputed heritage in post-Islamic State Mosul: reconstruction in a post-conflict context.
16:15 - 17:30 Roundtable discussion
Abstracts
Vanessa Tünsmeyer (University of Groningen, Faculty of Law), Rights, regulation and heritage actors
Heritage actors play a key role in preserving and sharing cultural heritage with the wider public and, through its presentation, also shape the way it is perceived. These actions have a direct influence on the enjoyment of (cultural) rights by individuals and groups. The seminar overall explores the tensions that may arise out of the digitization of heritage between democratization and accessibility on the one hand and perpetuating inequality on the other. Dr. Tünsmeyer will explore this tension through the lens of human rights, which recognize these diverse interests in legally binding provisions. The linkage between human rights, digitization and restitution/ repatriation of cultural heritage connects to both international cultural heritage law and human rights law, which will both be explored
Hayley Mickleburgh (University of Amsterdam, Faculty of Humanities, and Texas State University, Forensic Anthropology Center) & Alicia Walsh (Leiden University, Faculty of Archaeology), Ethics and Care in Digital Archaeology: Challenges in the Study of Human Remains
The digitization of human remains in archaeology, alongside the collection of increasingly large digital datasets on the biology of past humans (e.g., through genetic profiling), raises complex ethical and cultural questions, particularly regarding data ownership, control over narratives about the past, consent, and representation. In this lecture, we examine the tensions between accessibility and cultural sensitivity, exploring how digital technologies can both democratize knowledge and provide tools for caring for human remains, while also perpetuating existing inequalities or risk creating new ones. Drawing on case studies from archaeological practice, we address challenges including navigating competing stakeholder perspectives and developing strategies for ethical decision-making in contexts where consultation is not feasible. Through these examples, we hope to encourage critical dialogue on approaches to responsibly digitize and care for archaeological human remains.
Cindy Zalm (Head of Realization and delivery at the Wereldmuseum) Colonial collections in a digital world
The Wereldmuseum preserves a collection of around 500.000 objects and almost a million photographs. In managing this collection, the Wereldmuseum has implemented policies strongly drawing from European open access policies. The collection as well as the museums belonging to the Wereldmuseum group originate in the Dutch colonial period. In my contribution I will demonstrate how colonial ways of thinking has influenced collection policies and what that means for providing digital access to collections. As case studies I will focus at two of our projects: Tag the Picture and the datahub for colonial collections.
Kiki Santing (University of Groningen, Faculty of Arts), Disputed heritage in post-Islamic State Mosul: reconstruction in a post-conflict context
The city of Mosul, Iraq, suffered extensive damage following three years of occupation by the Islamic State (IS) and the liberation in 2017. Mosul’s diverse heritage, spanning ancient Assyrian and Mesopotamian sites to Islamic and Christian landmarks, was deliberately targeted by IS, including the Mosul Museum and the tomb of the Prophet Younes (Jonah). Heritage reconstruction in Mosul is a complex, multi-layered process, intersecting with humanitarian concerns, project prioritization, religious and sectarian dynamics, security concerns and challenges, geopolitics, and international interest. Drawing on interviews with local and international stakeholders conducted over the past year and a half, I will examine contested reconstruction efforts and the processes behind initiating them in Iraq’s post-conflict context.
Last modified: | 10 February 2025 3.53 p.m. |