Ecologies of violence: heritage and conflict in more-than-human worlds

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My original FLF project, Material Memories (May 2019-April 2023), explores the contributions of archaeology and heritage studies to understanding the ongoing social and cultural scars that occur in the aftermath of twentieth century conflicts and authoritarian regimes in South America, in partnership with the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (EAAF). The geographical scope of the project was subsequently expanded to include Southeast Asia (specifically Laos), as approved by the funder, to introduce a comparative aspect to the project, building on GCRF-funded fieldwork undertaken in Laos and Cambodia in 2019 whilst I was awaiting the results of the original application. This renewal proposal builds on and compliments the original project by focusing on the material memories of conflict in more-than-human worlds through an exploration of the impact of conflict and authoritarian violence on natural heritage and the environment. While the impact of armed conflict on (built and moveable) cultural heritage in affected communities has received significant attention from scholars in heritage studies and archaeology, the physical and ecological imprint of violence on biodiversity and natural heritage has thus far largely been neglected. Similarly, cultural heritage has received international policy protection since the drafting of the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (and arguably earlier through other policies and conventions), but no such convention currently exists for the protection of the natural environment in the event of armed conflict. The renewal project is innovative in proposing a holistic and comparative approach that brings together an exploration of the lasting impacts of twentieth century violence on both natural and cultural heritage in Paraguay, Laos and France. The latter is a new addition to expand the comparative elements of the project to the global north and broaden the network of international partners and collaborators. In doing so, the project will show how these past/local impacts relate to issues of present/planetary concern, including the climate and extinction emergencies and ongoing issues of global social and economic inequality. While heritage practices are conventionally understood to be pitted against processes of natural and cultural decay, which should be slowed or arrested, exploring the heritage and ecologies of violence reverses this to ask how instead we might exist amongst the ubiquitous, widespread and sometimes toxic by-products and remnants of conflict which persist, do not readily decay and impact upon landscapes for generations to come. These landscapes speak to a more significant legacy of the twentieth century; how industrialized conflicts have reshaped the planet irreversibly and how, in light of the significant human planetary transformations of the Anthropocene, we will all increasingly need to learn to live with and in landscapes of devastation.Building new international and local partnerships and collaborations with a range of organisations (including demining NGOs and nature conservation agencies) and researchers, the project will show leadership in bringing together international research, policy-making and practice in relation to cultural and natural heritage, exploring the interfaces and relationships between them. Through studying the local impacts of violence on landscapes, ecologies and people, and exploring associated concepts of human and non-human rights, the project will show how landscapes 'remember' past violence against both culture and nature, and how these material and biological scars persist in the contemporary world and continue to affect local communities.