C5: Connecting Authorizing Forces against the Authorized Heritage Discourse
Tracks
5
| Sunday, November 29, 2026 |
| 4:10 PM - 5:25 PM |
| RHMZ02 |
Overview
Stream: Heritage Governance, Policy and Power
Paper / Session Submitter
Dr Diogo Machado
Lecturer
Western Sydney University
Connecting Authorizing Forces against the Authorized Heritage Discourse
Summary Abstract
The forces that create the Authorized Heritage Discourse (AHD) have exclusionary effects, often reinforcing static ideas of heritage and identity that seek to downplay minority identity in favor of national stability and conformity. As one of these authorizing forces, the law relies on the idea of promoting social stability via static legal rules. However, areas of law like environmental law and human rights can challenge assumptions we make about the law. This session queries whether it is possible to leverage authorizing forces against the AHD. Is there more to the AHD and its components than we have thus far assumed? What are the possibilities and limits of attempts to subvert authorizing forces and turn them against the AHD? This session suggests ways the law (as an authorizing force) can help us work against the AHD by connecting heritage to identity, solidarity, anti-essentialism, and other important social justice-grounded conceptual frameworks.
Biographies
Lucas Lixinski is Professor and Associate Dean (International) at the Faculty of Law & Justice, UNSW Sydney. He sits on the editorial board of the International Journal of Heritage Studies, and is a former Vice President (Conference) of the ACHS.
His latest monograph is A Research Agenda for Cultural Heritage Law.
Dr Diogo Machado is a lecturer at Western Sydney University. He holds a PhD in Law (UNSW), MSc in Criminology (University of Glasgow), and an LLB First-Class Honours (University of BrasÃlia). His scholarship bridges professional and disciplinary knowledge, with contributions to the fields of transnational crimes, cultural heritage, and criminology.
Dr Ayla do Vale Alves is a Lecturer at Adelaide University researching in international law, human rights, cultural heritage and Indigenous rights. She was a Judicial Clerk at the European Court of Human Rights and is a Coordinator of the ACHS Chapter on Latin America and the Caribbean.
Sherine is an economist, lawyer, teaching fellow and doctoral researcher in refugee cultural heritage and international law at UNSW Sydney. She was a visiting researcher at the University of Milan-Bicocca and Jagiellonian University, and has published with the International Journal of Cultural Property and International Journal of Heritage Studies, among others.
