McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research annual report 2018-19

About us
Cambridge Heritage Research Centre
Ben Davenport
In the second year since its
establishment in 2017, the
Cambridge Heritage Research
Centre (CHRC) has continued
to grow its activities and
events, expanding the
range of the Centre’s research themes and exploring new
formats for engagement and collaboration.
The CHRC welcomed a new cohort of graduate members
in October 2018, the last year for which heritage studies
would be taught as an Archaeological Heritage and
Museums option within the MPhil in Archaeology, before
the launch of the MPhil in Heritage Studies in October
2019.
The academic year started with an opportunity to
showcase the exciting and wide-reaching research
topics of our established doctoral student members at
the Annual Heritage Fair, where poster presentations
displayed current projects. Both PhD and MPhil
student members benefited from talks by a number of
distinguished visitors to Cambridge arranged by the
CHRC and also from several graduate masterclasses which
provided them with new perspectives on their developing
research projects.
The Heritage Research Seminar Series was another forum
displaying the breadth and interdisciplinary nature of
the field, with 11 seminars taking place during termtime
on subjects ranging from ‘The role of women in
the transmission of Sudanese intangible heritage’ to ‘The
protection of cultural property during armed conflict’. In May
the CHRC held its second Annual Heritage Lecture at which
Professor Mark Turin (University of British Columbia) spoke
about ‘Language as Heritage’ and Indigenous language
resurgence in the twenty-first century, in what was a timely
presentation in the United Nations International Year of
Indigenous Languages. Since giving his lecture, Professor
Turin has become one of seven Affiliated Members of the
CHRC, with Dr Tanja Hoffmann (University of Saskatchewan)
also linking with the Centre in this capacity in 2019. The
CHRC welcomed several visiting scholars who contributed
greatly to the heritage community this year: Felipe Gaitán-
Ammann (Columbia), Dr Hyun Kyung Lee (South Korea), Dr
Eisuke Tanaka (Japan) and Saw Naing Oo (Myanmar).
May also saw the 20th Cambridge Heritage Symposium. The
CHRC welcomed 20 speakers and over 60 delegates to the
two-day event to explore the subject of Heritage and Food.
As in previous years the Symposium convenors, Rebecca
Haboucha and Dr Liliana Janik, were ably supported by our
Heritage MPhil students, both in planning the event and on
the day.
Centre research projects continued in Cape Verde (Marie-
Louise Stig Sørensen), Cambodia (Dacia Viejo Rose), Tanzania
and coastal East Africa (Paul Lane) and the White Sea region
(Liliana Janik). New projects which began in during the
2018–19 academic year included Gilly Carr’s project ‘Sites at
Risk’, funded by the International Holocaust Remembrance
Alliance (IHRA), and Marie Louise Stig Sørensen’s project
‘Yangshao Culture: 100 year research history and heritage
impact’, funded by the Shanghai Academy of Guyewang
Studies.
https://www.heritage.arch.cam.ac.uk/
Second Annual Heritage Lecture, 7 May 2019.
‘Language as Heritage: Indigenous Language
Resurgence in the 21st Century’, Prof. Mark Turin.
20th Cambridge Heritage Symposium, 10–11 May
2019. ‘The Heritage of Food: cooking identities and
tasting memories’.
Archaeology at Cambridge 2018–2019 7