Activities

Material heritage, research in crisis

RePaZ focuses exclusively on research on tangible heritage. The physical preservation of cultural goods in danger is already handled by important initiatives—through museums, organizations like the Institut National du Patrimoine (INP), nonprofits, and private organizations—and the research unit does not substitute for such efforts. Its primary goal lies elsewhere: maintaining research on material cultural goods that attest to human societies, both past and present.

Art history and archaeology are the disciplines at the heart of these process. Any work that mobilizes materiality and visuality can receive attention from RePaZ, so long as they pertain to the same central question: how to drive continuity of research in areas that are partially or totally inaccessible due to crisis circumstances?

This question engages three dimensions that the unit joins in a complementary manner.

Knowledge and archives.  Confronted with inaccessibility in the field, art historical and archaeological archives become central resources. Documenting and analyzing them allows us to ensure the survival of entire chapters of human history. It also raises unprecedented epistemological questions: What does it mean to produce scientific knowledge at a distance? What are the tensions between local knowledge and remote research? What are the methods for studying cultural heritage in crisis zones?

Research training and support. RePaZ acts in the interest of researchers by offering a scientific support structure adapted to the particular constraints that crises impose on research.

Academic hosting. The unit offers an institutional anchor for researchers whose working conditions are directly impacted by conflicts or political crises, by hosting both doctoral and postdoctoral researchers.