Digital Challenges Seminar Series

Legal and Ethical Challenges in Digital Cultural Heritage

Where: the House of Connections (Grote Markt 21, 9712 HR Groningen)

When: February 11, 2025, 13:00-17:00

The Digital Challenges Seminar Series, organized by the Digital Heritage unit of the Heritage Pasts and Futures group at the Faculty of Arts, in cooperation with the Jantina Tammes School of Digital Society, Technology and AI,  aims to put scholars and experts from different disciplines in contact to tackle common challenges in digital applications and brainstorm solutions and best strategies. This inaugural seminar examines the ethical and legal challenges of digital heritage and the twofold implications of digitisation in terms of accessibility and democratisation. While digital tools promote access and knowledge democratisation, they also risk perpetuating inequities, raising issues of ownership, cultural misappropriation, and technological disparities that may unintentionally reinforce dominant cultural narratives and limit the very access they aim to foster. Marking two decades since UNESCO’s Charter on the Preservation of Digital Heritage, this seminar will critically examine current legal frameworks and advocate for policy reforms and community-driven approaches to foster ethical and inclusive digital practices. It will also address best practices for navigating challenging contexts, such as how to engage with communities that hold profoundly different cultural perspectives or conflicting views, or how to handle ethical dilemmas when consultation with rightful stakeholders is not feasible, such as in cases involving digitised human remains. Participants will delve into these complex topics through a keynote presentation and lectures featuring representative case studies, followed by roundtable discussions to collaboratively explore solutions and their implications for research and practice. The keynote speaker, Dr  Vanessa Tünsmeyer (University of Groningen, Faculty of Law), is an expert in cultural heritage law, with a focus on UNESCO treaties, cultural and indigenous rights, comparative approaches to the restitution and repatriation of colonial-era cultural heritage. For any inquiries about the event, you may contact the event organiser, dr. Manuela Ritondale (m.ritondale rug.nl).

Program

13:00-13:30 – Welcome and Walk-In

13:30-13:45 – Introduction (Manuela Ritondale, University of Groningen, Faculty of Arts)

13:45-14:30 - Keynote: Vanessa Tünsmeyer (University of Groningen, Faculty of Law), Rights, regulation and heritage actors

Abstract: Heritage actors play a key role in preserving and sharing cultural heritage with the wider public and, through its presentation, also shape the way it is perceived. These actions have a direct influence on the enjoyment of (cultural) rights by individuals and groups. The seminar overall explores the tensions that may arise out of the digitization of heritage between democratization and accessibility on the one hand and perpetuating inequality on the other. Dr. Tünsmeyer will explore this tension through the lens of human rights, which recognize these diverse interests in legally binding provisions. The linkage between human rights, digitization and restitution/ repatriation of cultural heritage connects to both international cultural heritage law and human rights law, which will both be explored

14:30-15:00 - Hayley Mickleburgh (University of Amsterdam, Faculty of Humanities, and Texas State University, Forensic Anthropology Center) & Alicia Walsh (Leiden University, Faculty of Archaeology), Ethics and Care in Digital Archaeology: Challenges in the Study of Human Remains

15:00-15:15- Coffee break

15:15-15:45 – Wakanyi Hoffman (Inclusive AI Lab), (Title TBC)

15:45-16:15 - Kiki Santing (University of Groningen, Faculty of Arts), Disputed heritage in post-Islamic State Mosul: reconstruction in a post-conflict context.

16:15-17:30 Roundtable discussion