J4: Heritage pasts, presents, and futures in Latin America and the Caribbean
Tracks
4
| Wednesday, December 2, 2026 |
| 1:00 PM - 2:15 PM |
| RHMZ01 |
Overview
Stream: Heritage Futures, Care and Relationality
Paper / Session Submitter
Dr Naomi Oosterman
Assistant Professor
Erasmus University Rotterdam
Heritage pasts, presents, and futures in Latin America and the Caribbean
Summary Abstract
This panel explores various contestations and negotiations of cultural heritage in Latin America and the Caribbean, foregrounding how pasts are mobilised in present-day struggles and (re)imagined for more just futures. The panel is organised by members of the Latin America and the Caribbean chapter of the ACHS and showcases critical heritage studies from Latin American and Caribbean epistemological and ontological frameworks. By focusing on the shared theme of enduring colonial and authoritarian legacies, the presentations in this panel underscore how heritage in the region was, is, and remains an active site of memory, governance, and future-oriented justice. Topics of foci in this panel are the de-patrimonialisation of ancestral remains, repatriation, uses of heritage in times of social crises, heritage place-making, and grassroots initiatives in negotiating and navigating colonial and authoritarian legacies.
Biographies
Patricia Ayala is an Assistant Professor at the University of Chile. Her research explores the intersections between Indigenous peoples, archaeologists, and the State, with a particular focus on heritage-making processes and the ethical and political dimensions of archaeology.
Camila Malig is a PhD candidate at the Institute for Cultural Inquiry at Utrecht University. Her research project ‘Negotiating Past and Present-Day Injustices in Cultural Heritage Spaces’ examines how colonial legacies are addressed by diverse actors within cultural heritage spaces in the Netherlands and the Caribbean. She co-coordinates the Latin America and the Caribbean chapter of ACHS.
Naomi Oosterman is an Assistant Professor of Cultural Heritage at Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Her research interests are the illicit trade of arts and antiquities (with a particular focus on Latin America), the policing of art and heritage crimes, and contested and colonial heritage.
