Heritage and the Olympics

HERITAGE and the OLYMPICS
The 11th Cambridge Heritage Seminar
University of Cambridge, UK

24 April 2010
http://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/heritage-seminar

CALL FOR PAPERS
The 11th Cambridge Heritage conference seeks to examine the Olympics as a global and a local phenomenon affecting heritage by addressing two themes:
(1) the Olympics as heritage and (2) the impact of the Olympics on cultural heritage. Every four years the Olympics goes beyond just being a sporting event, offering a local and a global stage where countries can promote and showcase themselves to the world. Cultural heritage is intimately entangled in the games, both in terms of the Olympics as historic, but also in how the event impacts the cultural heritage of the host country.


Narratives about nationhood are often constructed for the event, showcasing traditional national history. The games offer the host nation a chance to re-imagine or repackage its past, or at the very least to create a brand and logo for it. The actual Olympic event and the days leading up to it are a time of ritual, where the heritage of Ancient Greece is connected to a myriad of symbolic representations of the modern day host country. The games also present an opportunity for ‘staged conflict’ on an international level, where countries battle one other, competing aggressively, yet civilly for titles. In addition, the games have an enormous impact on the built environment and heritage in the host country. Winning a bid to host the games goes hand in hand with hopes for investment, regeneration and development, and considerable changes take place to the built environment and economy of the host city. The games also have an enormous impact on cultural heritage, affecting both existing and newly developed cultural heritage sites and projects.

The 11th Cambridge Heritage Seminar is using the Olympic games as a forum for thinking about how one event can impact and transform local and global cultural heritage. It will be divided into two sessions. The first session will explore how the games are themselves heritage, and the second will examine the ‘heritage-impact’ of the games in the nations that host them. The conference particularly welcomes theoretical contributions and case studies from Athens, Beijing and London.

Some indicative themes and questions of the type we intend to address are:

The symbolism and performance behind the Olympic games.
How does one sporting event manifest as both global and local heritage?
How has the Olympics become a commodified event? How does Olympic tourism impact cultural heritage?
How do the games affect and transform the existing built environment of a city?
How does new built architecture become cultural heritage in its own right?

Please send 500-word paper abstract or poster proposals to Shadia Taha at st446@cam.ac.uk. Proposals should be sent as PDF or Word documents and should include full contact information and a brief CV. General Information and Registration will be available soon at:
http://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/heritage-seminar

Deadline for submission of abstracts: 28 February 2010