Austrian Commission for UNESCO

• 12. Juni 2025
• 18:00 - 21:00 Uhr

Background

Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), as defined by UNESCO, encompasses living traditions, practices, knowledge and forms of expression that are passed down through generations. It is a living component of social interaction, is carried by human beings and transcends geographical borders. People all over the world are able to practice intangible cultural heritage. It is constantly evolving and changing as it interacts with its surroundings – whether society or the environment. The UNESCO 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage emphasises this aspect and describes a dynamic, community-based process in which shared knowledge and skills play an identity-forming role. However, living cultural heritage, which can and should bring communities together, can also have a divisive effect. Rituals, crafts or customs are often tied to specific prerequisites – be it gender, religious or social background. This creates (invisible) barriers that deny some people access and exclude them from practices of cultural heritage, even though culture should in its essence be a place of encounter. It also means that some practices are carried out in secret.

In an increasingly complex and diverse society, where people live a wide variety of cultural practices, the question arises as to how intangible cultural heritage of all peoples and communities can be strengthened and made visible – especially for those individuals and (migrant) communities whose knowledge and traditions are often not anchored in the public consciousness.

These topics will be discussed based on the following questions:

• How can intangible cultural heritage be made more visible in a multi-rooted society?
• What role do museums, research institutions and networks play?
• How can cultural heritage (especially that of migrant communities) be recognised and promoted?

The event “The intangible heritage of our multi-rooted society” will take the conference of the Network for Migration History as an opportunity to bring together experts from academia, culture and practice to discuss strategies for making visible and safeguarding intangible cultural heritage in multi-rooted societies. It aims to provide a space for exchange and interdisciplinary discussion in order to open up new perspectives on the interaction of migration, identity and intangible cultural heritage in a diverse society and to facilitate long-term collaboration on this issue.

Programme overview: 

• 18:00   Welcome
• 18:15   Keynote presentations by Dr. Ceren Güneröz, University of Ankara (online)                    and Dr. Mark Schep, Dutch Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage
• 19:30   Interactive World Café
• 20:30   Summing up, outlook
• 21:00   Closing remarks and networking opportunity

Event chaired by: Martin Fritz, Secretary General of the Austrian Commission for UNESCO

The full programme is available as a download at the end of the article. 

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Speaker biographies:

Dr. Ceren Güneröz graduated from the Tourism Guidance Program at Başkent University in 2001 and worked as a professional tour guide until 2007. That same year, she began her MA in Museum Education at Ankara University, where her thesis focused on children's museums and science centers. During her studies, she gained international experience through internships and volunteer work at children's museums in Frankfurt, Hamburg, and Miami. In 2010, she pursued a Ph.D. in Fine Arts Education at Ankara University, spending part of her research at Goldsmiths, University of London, studying museology within the Department of Cultural Studies. She completed her doctorate in 2015 with a dissertation titled Archaeology Museums and Cultural Diversity. In 2017, she conducted research on next-generation museums in the United Arab Emirates. She later earned a second master’s degree in Museology from Başkent University in 2021, with a thesis exploring museums in Jordan. Dr. Güneröz continues to work in the fields of museum education, contemporary museology, and cultural diversity. She also serves as director of the Ankara University Toy Museum and the Center for Research and Application of Children's Culture

Dr. Mark Schep: studied social psychology, cultural history and education at Utrecht University. Schep holds a PhD in museum education (University of Amsterdam). In a joint project of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, and Stedelijk Museum, he researched the role of museum guides in art and history museums, which resulted in a guideline for guides: Guiding is a profession. After his PhD, amongst other things, he researched educational programs of museums and published a Trend Report on Museum and Heritage Education. Schep is currently employed as a researcher at the Dutch Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage (KIEN) and as a lecturer in cultural heritage at the Reinwardt Academy in Amsterdam. In his work for KIEN, which is part of the Dutch Open Air Museum in Arnhem, Schep focuses on museums and intangible cultural heritage (ICH), migrants and ICH, and the implementation of the UNESCO 2003 Convention. In one of his recent research projects, together with fellow researcher Aholi So, he researched the processes that influence the heritage transmission of 1st and 2nd generation Dutch people of Chinese descent. 

Downloads

• Detailed Programme 134 KB (pdf)
  Programme with Thematic Tables of the World Cafè