Event

As a part of its Lunch Time Seminar Series, the Institute of Gender and Development Studies will host a seminar by Dr. Rowena Butland, Lecturer in Geography, UWI St. Augustine, titled Challenging ‘His-Story’: The Inclusion of Gender in Cultural Heritage Management. This seminar will take place on Wednesday February 3rd, 2010, at noon, at the IGDS Seminar Room.

In the face of cultural homogenisation and rising nationalism, increasing interest has been given to the protection and management of cultural heritage. With the threats of modernity and unsustainable environmental changes, global, national and local heritage lists have been expanding with more and more examples of tangible and intangible elements that symbolise our presence and identity on earth and with others. Cultural heritage is given meaning and value in defining who we are and where we have come from.

The management of cultural heritage is interdisciplinary in nature, pulling in archaeologists, architects, art historians, anthropologists, chemists, and others. Within each, issues concerning the representation, influence and role of gender have been explored, but these debates are not carried through to the application of these disciplines in preserving and conserving our individual and collective memories and identities. This paper explores the potential to include gendered perspectives within cultural heritage management, using the Angkor World Heritage area as a case study. The paper argues that there is a need to consider gender when trying to understand and manage the socially constructed interpretations, values and meanings assigned to the tangible and intangible aspects of our cultural landscapes. 

 

About Dr. Rowena Butland

Dr. Rowena Butland is a Lecturer in Geography at The UWI St Augustine campus, teaching in urban and economic geography and the geography of the Caribbean. Having trained in archaeology and geography at the University of Sydney, Australia, research interests encompass cultural heritage management, urban cultures and planning, the social and cultural construction of scale and place, and participatory approaches to GIS and remote sensing, across Southeast Asia and the Caribbean.