H&I Research Cluster Meeting with Naomi Oosterman on policing cultural heritage

Description

On 20 March from 16:00 – 17:00, Naomi Oosterman will present the results of her Incentive Grant research on the policing of cultural heritage in Chile, Rapa Nui, and Argentina.

Consisting of 30+ interviews with law enforcement agencies, art dealers, policy makers and indigenous community initiatives, she will discuss and contextualise the daily routines and decision-making processes of different stakeholders tasked with the policing of cultural heritage. The presentation will specifically discuss how plural policing efforts – the phenomenon of blurring boundaries between public, private, and community actors – attempt to counteract the illicit trade in cultural objects. The policing of art and heritage crimes is highly political, and often singularly protected by national heritage laws taking a universalist approach (“national heritage”), which sees heritage of indigenous cultures, or “other forms” of heritage, as inferior. Underlining this talk is therefore the question of how “difficult” heritage is policed, how various actors negotiate tensions between opposing interpretations of the term ‘heritage’, and what constitutes ‘ownership’ in light of policing practices.

She will furthermore discuss her strategies for fieldwork, methodological choices, and will reflect on her experiences in navigating tensions between actors with fundamentally opposing viewpoints.

Period	20 Mar 2025
Event type	Seminar
Location	Rotterdam, NetherlandsShow on map