The IRC's Prof. Máiréad Nic Craith was a speaker at an international symposium on The Role of Living Culture in Identities and Sustainable Community Development, held at Summerhall in Edinburgh on 4 November 2015. This symposium offered a platform for Scotland to showcase itself, not only through the ICH performances of delegates, but also as a leader in ICH theory and practice. A major focus of the debate was on human rights and heritage in multicultural development contexts.
Ullrich Kockel has been featured in a short video published by the International Society for Ethnology and Folklore as part of their Ethnological Sensations series. Using an episode of autoethnographic research, he explores the complexities of ethnological field research when buildings and places change over time, and the importance of trusting instincts.
Drawing on insights from different cultures, our Professor Ullrich Kockel explores how we might be able to recover the terms of ecologically well-grounded being and employ them creatively to grow resilient, socially and culturally sustainable communities.
Trailer for a blockbuster movie based on the workshop of the international doctoral training programme "Transformations in European Societies", which took place at Heriot-Watt from 28 October to 2 November 2013.
Being an expert on all things to do with heritage, Máiréad was invited by the United Nations in 2011 to advise on access to heritage as a human right. The preservation of intangible heritage is something she is deeply passionate about, and she continues to build on to this awareness and its importance in her work.
Media Representations of Musical Pasts in Contemporary France
Nostalgia, widely recognised as a common human emotion, is a well-established and prominent feature of the popular music industry and media culture in many national contexts. In France, nostalgia has gained particular prominence following the launch of long-running, successful concert tours in the mid-2000s featuring pop singers who became famous in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. While highlighting the sheer volume and intensity of popular music nostalgia in French media coverage during the 2000s, Professor Tinker will show how such coverage shapes the popular music culture of France as well as national, generational and other identities.