CHAMP @ Illinois - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Greetings from the Director of CHAMPI’m Helaine Silverman, the Director of the Collaborative for Cultural HeritageManagment and Policy. What a pleasure it is to write this introduction to CHAMP’s firstnewsletter (Summer 2013). Started in 2005, the Collaborative for Cultural HeritageManagement and Policy (CHAMP) has evolved into one of the premier research centersfor cultural heritage and museum studies. CHAMP is especially grateful to Professor D.Fairchild Ruggles (former Co-Director of CHAMP), the Department of LandscapeArchitecture, Department of Anthropology, and the Center for Global Studies for theirsignificant contributions to the growth of CHAMP into its current configuration.The past year has been an especially good one for CHAMP. We had an array of guest speakers, becameinvolved in the creation of the new UNESCO Center for Global Citizenship at Illinois (UCGC), learned muchfrom important projects being conducted around the world by CHAMP scholars, enjoyed the continuingwealth of faculty publications, and saw an enthusiastic cohort of graduate students pursuing minors inHeritage Studies and Museum Studies. The most exciting development this year has been the formalization ofCHAMP’s partnership with the outstanding Ironbridge International Institute for Cultural Heritage (IIICH) atthe University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, led by its visionary director, Professor Mike Robinson.CHAMP will build on these achievements to construct a yet more productive future. I welcome everyoneto join us in our many activities. Please visit CHAMP’s website to keep up with all news and events(champ.anthro.illinois.edu).Kind regards,Helaine SilvermanDirector of CHAMP2

CHAMP ON CAMPUSCHAMP co-sponsored the campus Distinguished Lecture of Dr. Michael Day (Chief Executive, HistoricRoyal Palaces, England) who spoke about major changes in the presentation of Kensington Palace to thepublic (April 25, 2013).CHAMP became a founding partner of the new UNESCO Center for Global Citizenship (UCGC).Curator Allyson Purpura reinstalled the Africa Gallery in the Krannert Art Museum (see photo).CHAMP and IIICH (Ironbridge International Institute for Cultural Heritage) co-hosted the workshop,“Encounters with Popular Pasts: Meanings and Myths at the Interface Between Heritage & Popular Culture,”on the UIUC campus. Fifteen colleagues from the University of Birmingham, UIUC, and five other Americanuniversities presented a fascinating series of papers, which we plan to publish.CHAMP’s Newest Faculty Member:Christine Taitano DeLisleTina is an historian of the Pacific Islands, U.S. Empire, and Native Pacificwomen and gender. She is Chamorro and has a special interest in her homeisland of Guam and Micronesia. Prior to coming to UIUC, Tina taught at theUniversity of Michigan, where she was a postdoctoral fellow in the Asian/Pacific Islander American Studies Program. She also has taught MuseumStudies and Pacific Island History courses at the University of Guam. OnGuam, Tina has been involved in various public history projects. These includeco-producing a film (with Vicente Diaz, UIUC Department of Anthropology)on traditional Micronesian seafaring and navigation and a film onpre-World War II Chamorro pattera (“nurse-midwives”). She also hascurated several exhibits on Guam and Micronesia such as the recent “I Kelat/The Fence: Historical Perspectives on Guam’s Changing Landscape,” whichis the Guam component of the Smithsonian’s “Between Fences” exhibit.Tina’s museum experience also includes assisting the Chicago Field Museum with the display and use byChicago communities of a traditional nineteenth-century Maori whare nui (“meeting house”) and she servesas a consultant to the new Guam Museum. Recently, Tina was invited to address the U.S. military buildup inGuam by the Guam Humanities Council in their community “civic reflection” conversations and by theUniversity of Guam as part of its Presidential Lecture series.4

TRAINING IN HERITAGE STUDIES, MUSEUMSTUDIES, AND ARCHITECTURAL STUDIESCHAMP sponsors two interdisciplinary graduate minors (Heritage Studies; Museum Studies) in addition tothe MSc in Architectural Studies with a concentration in historic preservation, which is housed in UIUC’sSchool of Architecture. Currently, students pursuing these minors come from:- Anthropology- Architecture- Landscape Architecture- Library and Information Science- Recreation, Sport and Tourism- Urban and Regional PlanningFoundational courses include:- Case Studies in Global Heritage (World Heritage Studies)- Cultural Heritage- Cultural Aspects of Tourism- Heritage Management- Historic Building Preservation- History of the Urban Environment- History of World Landscapes- Museum Informatics- Museum Theory and Practice- Recording Historic Buildings- Social Construction of SpaceMore than a dozen other courses are offered as topical electives. Heritage Studies students have theopportunity to work at sites around the world, including recurring projects in the U.S., Peru, and India. MuseumStudies students have internships in the campus museums and museums elsewhere as well as learningfrom study visits to major museums in nearby Chicago, Indianapolis and St. Louis. Students participate instudy tours to World Heritage and other ancient and historic sites and noteworthy urban centers. Under theCHAMP-IIICH collaboration students from Illinois and from Birmingham will be able to study at eachother’s campuses and take seminars based on jointly prepared course modules.5

Trans-Atlantic Dialogues onCultural Heritage (TADCH)Mike and Helaine have chosen the concept of “Trans-Atlantic Dialogues on Cultural Heritage” (TADCH)as the intellectual framework for the CHAMP-IIICH relationship. Our aim is, by reflection and discussion,to generate a series of research questions that examine Old World and New World perspectives on culturalheritage. We propose a genuine two-way exploration of the continuities and disturbances in the ways thatheritage is constructed, consumed, mediated and filtered. Similar yet different, the powerful and influentialintellectual traditions of North America and Europe are linked through historical engagement and contemporaryeveryday connection. Each side of the Atlantic – North as well as South – offers its own geographicaland historical specificity expressed and projected through heritage. In geopolitical terms and through everydaymobilities, people, objects and ideas have flowed and continue to flow back and forth across the Atlantic,each shaping the heritage of the other and each shaping the meanings and values that heritage conveys.TADCH asks: Where, and in what ways are these Trans-Atlantic heritages connected? Where, and in whatways are they not? What can we learn from reflecting on the different contexts and cultures as they produce,consume, absorb, resist, and experience the heritage of the other? Trans-Atlantic dialogues on cultural heritage– which began as early as the voyages of Christopher Columbus and Leif Ericcson – are deeply implicatedin an important array of approaches to modernity and its future.The first event of the TADCH initiative was the May 23-24, 2013 workshop on heritage and popular culture(see page 9), which inaugurated what will be a series of open-ended and provocative conferences that areintended to significantly advance the empirical study and theorization of cultural heritage. StrengtheningTADCH is the timely award of a prestigious Fulbright Grant to CHAMP’s Associate Director, Paul H. Kapp(School of Architecture), with which he will spend Spring 2014 at IIICH. Also, Helaine has been named aVisiting Research Fellow at IIICH for 2013-2015, and Mike will be a Research Associate at UIUC.8

CHAMP Partners with the UNESCOCenter for Global Citizenship at IllinoisCHAMP director Helaine Silverman, Professor Barbara Ford (Graduate School of Library and InformationScience, UIUC and a member of the United States National Commission for UNESCO) and Professor AmaniAyad (Graduate School of Library and Information Science, UIUC) are the co-founders of UCGC.The desire to create this organization sprang from our commitment to key ideals of UNESCO by advancingintercultural engagement, assisting in the formation of inclusive knowledge societies and promoting sustainabledevelopment. UCGC was inaugurated on April 15, 2013 in a ceremony officiated by Mr. Guy Djoken,Executive Director of the UNESCO Center for Peace in Washington, D.C. In his keynote address,Mr. Djoken spoke about “UNESCO and the Mission for Peace in a Troubled World.” In his second lectureon April 16, Mr. Djoken talked about “Community Activism and UNESCO’s Millennial Goals.”At the inauguration of UCGCFrom left to right: Elly Hanauer (Associate Director, Center for Global Studies, UIUC), Barbara Ford,Don Gerard (Mayor of the City of Champaign, IL), Guy Djoken, Laurel Prussing (Mayor of the City ofUrbana, IL), Helaine Silverman, and Amani Ayad10

A Selection of CHAMP Faculty ProjectsAndrew Bauer (Anthropology)discourses of natural heritage in IndiaDonna Buchanan (School of Music)ethnomusicology and cultural heritage in the BalkansAnita Say Chan (College of Media)globalization and digital cultures in PeruLaura Davis (Anthropology)coal and the heritage of labor and class in IllinoisChristina Taitano DeLisle (American Indian Studies)public history and the representation of identity on GuamLynne Dearborn (Architecture)the Hmong vernacular environment in Thailand and the U.S.Chris Fennell (Anthropology)historical archaeology of heritage and identity in IrelandSusan Frankenberg (Anthropology)hyphenated heritage and community museums in the U.S. midwestElly Hanauer (Center for Global Studies)interpreting immigration in French museumsPaul Kapp (Architecture)urban regeneration and historic preservation in the U.S. and EnglandCele Otnes (Business Administration)consuming royal heritage in EnglandRobert Pahre (Political Science)American heritage in the U.S. national parksAllyson Purpura (Krannert Art Museum)representing Africa in the museumCarla Santos (Recreation, Sport and Tourism)cultural capitals of Europe and mass-mediated tourism narrativesHelaine Silverman (Anthropology)UNESCO World Heritage and community sustainability in Peru and ThailandAmita Sinha (Landscape Architecture)sacred Hindu landscapes of IndiaGabriel Solis (School of Music)mid-20th century nostalgia and the creation of heritage from pop culture in the U.S.Michael Twidale (Library and Information Science)museum informatics and digital heritage11

Books by CHAMP Faculty12

Graduate Student Spotlight:Caroline WislerWe are happy to feature the research of one of CHAMP’s fine graduate students,Caroline Wisler, who is working toward her doctorate in the Departmentof Landscape Architecture. Caroline is the Graduate Student Liaisonto CHAMP’s Executive Committee. She has compiled a record of outstandingtraining for a future heritage career. Caroline holds a BA in Archaeologyand Religious Studies, an MA in Landscape Archaeology and a secondMA in Anthropology. Prior to beginning doctoral studies at UIUC, Carolinespent a Fulbright year in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, where sheconducted independent research and was a lecturer at the University ofBanja Luka. Most recently, Caroline was awarded a prestigious ResearchFellowship with the American Research Center (ARCS) located in Sofia,Bulgaria for a semester of cultural immersion in the history of the Balkanswhile conducting research on heritage development in post-communistsocieties and studying the Serbo-Croatian language. She was the recipient of FLAS Fellowships forAcademic Years 2012-13 and 2013-14 through UIUC’s Russian, Eastern European, and Eurasian Center andEuropean Union Center, respectively. This summer she returns to Bulgaria for an archaeological fieldseason with ARCS at Heraclea Sintica. In the following (necessarily brief) statement Caroline tells us abouther doctoral research.It was compelling events – such as the shelling of the old city of Dubrovnik in 1991, the demolition of theBamiyan Buddhas of Afghanistan in 2001, and the destruction of the Askari mosque in Samarra, Iraq in2006 and 2007– coupled with my interest in how cultural heritage can be activated to serve local communitiesthat urged me toward my current research. I seek an applied understanding of the practice, politics andpolicymaking of cultural landscape reconstruction and heritage management in post-conflict or transitioningsocieties with the critical purpose of fostering mutual understanding and coexistence. My regional focus isthe former eastern bloc and Yugoslavia. I have a particular interest in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), whichsuffered extreme violence during its transition from state socialism to democracy in the early 1990s, the legacyof which is still seen and felt in the country. In BiH, nearly 3,000 architectural heritage properties werestrategically targeted for destruction. Despite the signing of the Dayton Peace Accords in 1995, antagonismand tensions among ethnic groups continues to be exerted spatially in the landscape. Drawing upon theoreticalconstructs from Peace Studies, I identify these manipulations as structural and cultural violence, contributingto negative peace in BiH and countries mired in intractable conflict. I explore the potential for culturalheritage – once instrumentalized for violent ends – to instead transform conflict. By repurposing heritageas a tool for public reconciliation, I propose that inter-group dialogue can be facilitated through communityinvolvement in the reconstruction process. This process lends itself to the simultaneous development ofa shared narrative to which groups contribute and identify through physical reconstruction. In this way, thecultural landscape can be both restored and re-storied. By activating this latent capacity of cultural heritage,heritage professionals may increase the social sustainability of heritage by fostering communities’ understandingof and investment in their cultural heritage, regardless of its potential for representing difference.Communities divided as a result of conflict or those experiencing a period of tumultuous transition may alternot only the current and future conditions of cultural heritage, but their society as a whole.14

“The French Connection”UIUC-École du Louvre ExchangeIn the summer of 2012, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the École du Louvre inParis signed a Memorandum of Understanding to develop a collaborative exchange program. The programhas two principal components:1) A summer study-abroad course for fifteen students from the University of Illinois and fivestudents from the École du Louvre.2) Two internships annually (one per semester) for graduate students from the École du Louvreat either the Spurlock Museum or the Krannert Art Museum.The study-abroad course meets for three weeks in July at various museums in and around Paris, and inthe classrooms of the École du Louvre. The course provides an introduction to museology and is taught byleading curators, administrators, and other museum professionals. Students also participate in discussions, ledby a professor from the University of Illinois, in which they discuss the sessions with experts and the assignedreading. Students are graded by the professor based on participation and written assignments.Interns for the École du Louvre work at the museums of the University of Illinois on projects related totheir areas of specialty. Each internship lasts for one semester. Interns also attend a graduate seminar in arthistory.The collaboration with the École du Louvre provides unique opportunities:- Access to monuments and art works. Sessions take place in galleries and other facilities normallynot open to students or the public. For example, last summer students entered the restoration studiosof the Musée du Louvre and saw works by Giotto, Leonardo, Titian, Manet, and many others beingrestored. The restoration process was explained by demonstrations with masterpieces such asLeonardo’s St. Anne. For another example, at the chateau de Versailles students climbed up on scaffoldingto study ceiling frescoes. Other museums visits included the Musée d’Orsay, the Musée du QuaiBranly, and the Musée du Cluny.- World-class experts. Instructors included Pierre Curie, perhaps the greatest living conservator ofRenaissance painting, Laurence des Cars, head of Agence France-Muséums (which overseas an annualbudget of over €85 million), and renowned curators such as Aurélien Gaborit and Christophe Léribault.All instructors play major roles in French museums.- Interaction between French and American students. American and French students study side by side.Museum policies vary enormously between the two countries and reflect fundamental differences inthinking about the state’s relationship to citizens and national heritage. In discussion session therehave been excellent debates between students that opened their eyes to alternative ways of thinkingabout fundamental issues. For example, this past year students debated policies concerning objectsacquired through colonialism or conquest, and they discussed whether museums should treat all visitorsas identical, or recognize and address specific aspects of identity such as race, gender, and sexuality.The collaboration holds enormous potential for future development.- A new dimension to both undergraduate and graduate curricula, providing opportunities for learningthat are not possible on campus.- A recruitment tool to attract graduate students.- Publicity for the university that demonstrates its partnership with a museum and institution of higherlearning whose fame and achievements are unparalleled in their field.- Potential for future collaborative research projects for faculty and graduate students.15

CHAMP’s Executive CommitteeHelaine Silverman (Director) (helaine@illinois.edu)Paul Kapp (Associate Director) (phkapp@illinois.edu)Anita Chan (Media & Cinema Studies)Lynne Dearborn (Architecture)Susan Frankenberg (Museum Studies & Anthropology)David O’Brien (Art History)Cele Otnes (Business Administration)Robert Pahre (Political Science)Wayne Pitard (Spurlock Museum)Allyson Purpura (Krannert Art Museum)Carla Santos (Recreation, Sport and Tourism)Amita Sinha (Landscape Architecture)Gabriel Solis (Music)Mike Twidale (Library and Information Science)Contact Us:Collaborative for Cultural Heritage Management and Policy109 Davenport HallUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign607 S Matthews AvenueUrbana, IL 61801USATel: (217) 333-3616Fax: (217) 244-3490Email: helaine@illinois.eduWebsite: champ.anthro.illinois.eduCHAMP Newsletter No. 1 (Summer 2013)Designed by Charlene Dudley (cjdudle2@illinois.edu)