This course is a part of HF's PhD week.
NB! The course takes place in two different locations, see details below.
This PhD course focuses on ethical challenges raised by research with material objects such as manuscripts, archaeological finds, musical instruments, and human remains. Its aim is to encourage reflection about research practices and the role of historical disciplines in heritage science, addressing issues such as
- Fragility, stability and decay in the light of ‘value management’
- Access, digitization and intangible heritage
- Sustainability and useability, e.g. of musical instruments
- Repatriation and restitution
- Postcolonial perspectives on collection and exhibition strategies
The course especially invites PhD fellows in disciplines such as, but not limited to, archaeology, conservation, museology, languages and literatures, musicology and all other historical disciplines that work with physical objects. A concrete connection between the course and the topic of the PhD thesis is not necessary.
This is a 1 ECTS course.
Course Preparations / Obligatory Activities
Course participants are required to read the entirety of the obligatory curriculum, and to prepare for the visit to the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences. They will also write a brief (1 page) response-paper in which they critically engage with a proposition from one of the texts. The text may be chosen from either the obligatory or the suggested curriculum.
The response-paper must be uploaded in the course room on Canvas for approval by the course convenor by 20 November 2026.
Following the course, participants will write a reflection note (2 pages) about the excursion.
This essay must be uploaded to Canvas by 14 December 2026.
In Class
The first part of the course is structured around micro-lectures and practical demonstrations from the teachers, conservator/archaeologist Jerrod H. Seifert and music historian Judith I. Haug. Using ongoing research as case studies, they will demonstrate research practices, address concrete methodological and ethical issues and explore in dialog how findings from the two disciplines influence each other. Participants will discuss their response papers in breakout sessions.
After the lunch break, the course moves to the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences with a preparatory “walk and talk” exercise on the way. In collaboration with KHM/the Museum of Cultural History, we will have the opportunity to see some of their holdings and take part in the ongoing debate. Please familiarize yourselves with the code of conduct (see Course Curriculum).
Program:
9–12: Konserveringsstudiet, Kristine Bonnevies hus, 31 Blindernveien, Blokk B (entrance from Prestegårdsveien)
12–13: Lunch break
13–13:30: Walk and talk to the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences (IMB)
13:30–16: Visit to the collection
Language
The course language is English. Some of the texts on the Biological Anthropological Collection are in Norwegian.
Registration
Registration opens at noon on 7 October.
The course is limited to 20 participants.
Course Conveners
Contact person: Malene Bøyum, malene.boyum@imv.uio.no
IMV, responsible department
IAKH, contributing department
Presenters
Judith I. Haug, IMV
Jerrod Heath Seifert, IAKH
Course Curriculum
Obligatory reading
Australia International Council on Monuments and Sites. The Burra Charter: The Australia ICOMOS Charter for Places of Cultural Significance. Australia ICOMOS, 2013. https://australia.icomos.org/publications/burra-charter-practice-notes/
Dickerson, Adam B. and Erika R. Ceeney. “Repatriating Human Remains: Searching for an Acceptable Ethics.” The Ethics of Cultural Heritage, edited by Tracy Ireland and John Schofield. Springer, 2015. 89–104. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1649-8
Friedrich, Markus. “Why Materiality Matters in Archival History: An Introduction.” Material Cultures of Archiving, edited by Markus Friedrich. De Gruyter, 2026. 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111656014
Henderson, Jane, Ashley Lingle and Phillip Parkes. “‘Reflexive autoethnography’: Subjectivity, emotion and multiple perspectives in conservation decision-making.” Working Towards a Sustainable Past. ICOM-CC 20th Triennial Conference Preprints vol.20, edited by J. Bridgland. ICOM-CC, 2023. Link to publication
Muñoz-Viñas, Salvador. A Theory of Cultural Heritage: Beyond the Intangible. Routledge, 2023. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003288121 . Chapter 8: “The Ontologies of Cultural Heritage,” 131–158.
Rossi Rognoni, Gabriele. “Preserving Functionality: Keeping Artifacts ‘Alive’ in Museums.” Curator: The Museum Journal 62 (2019): 403–413. https://doi.org/10.1111/cura.12327
Snickare, Mårten. Colonial Objects in Early Modern Sweden and Beyond: From the Kunstkammer to the Current Museum Crisis. Amsterdam University Press, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1515/9789048554942 . Chapter 4: “Object Lessons: Materiality and Knowledge in the Kunstkammer of Johannes Schefferus,” 69–91.
Suggested reading
You are free to select an additional chapter from a collected volume listed under “Obligatory reading” for your response paper.
Finbog, Liisa-Rávná. It speaks to you: making kin of people, duodji and stories in Sámi museums. DIO Press, 2023.
Harrison, Rodney, Caitlin DeSilvey et al. Heritage futures: comparative approaches to natural and cultural heritage practices. UCL Press, 2020. Chapter 24: "Living with transformation," 359 – 374. https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781787356009
Holtorf, Cornelius. "Averting loss aversion in cultural heritage." International Journal of Heritage Studies 21(4) (2015): 405–421. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2014.938766
Jones, Andrew Meirion, and Nicole Boivin. “The Malice of Inanimate Objects: Material Agency.” The Oxford Handbook of Material Culture Studies, edited by Dan Hicks and Mary C. Beaudry. Oxford University Press, 2010. 333–352. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199218714.013.0014
Jones, Siân and Thomas Yarrow. “Crafting Authenticity: An Ethnography of Conservation Practice.” Journal of Material Culture 18 (2013): 3–26. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359183512474383
Kariwiga, Jason, Gabriel Wrobel, and Michael C. Westaway. “Papuan Pasts. The Origins of Papuan Human Remains Collections in the World’s Museums, the Issue of Repatriation, and Telling New Stories with Skeletal Data.” The Routledge Handbook of Museums, Heritage, and Death, edited by Trish Biers and Katie Stringer Clary. Routledge, 2024. 177–190. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003195870
Sadie, Julie Anne and Stanley Sadie. Calling on the Composer. A Guide to European Composer Houses & Museums. Yale University Press, 2025. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5vkvkk.7 Chapter 3: “A Fragile Legacy,” 35–56.
Shapreau, Carla. “Bells in the Cultural Soundscape: Nazi-Era Plunder, Repatriation, and Campanology.” The Oxford Handbook of Musical Repatriation, edited by Gunderson, Frank D., Robert C. Lancefield, and Bret D. Woods. Oxford University Press, 2018. 503–530 https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190659806.001.0001
Stuermer, Matthias, Gabriel Abu-Tayeh, and Thomas Myrach. “Digital sustainability: basic conditions for sustainable digital artifacts and their ecosystems.” Sustain Sci 12 (2017): 247–62. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-016-0412-2
Warren, Michelle R, and Neil Weijer. “Re-Imagining Digital Things: Sustainable Data in Medieval Manuscript Studies.” Digital Philology 10 (2021): 111–34. https://doi.org/10.1353/dph.2021.0005
Ween, Gro. “Repatriation of Anthropological Knowledge”. The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology, edited by Hilary Callan and Simon Coleman. Wiley, 2024. https://doi-org.ezproxy.universitetetioslo.no/10.1002/9781118924396.wbiea2536
Wibowo, Sarwo Ferdi, Khairul Fuad Alfida et al. “Preservation as a Shared Responsibility: Collaboration for the Sustainable Preservation of Ambon Manuscripts.” Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture 53 (2024): 91–106. https://doi.org/10.1515/pdtc-2024-0014
Background information on the Biological Anthropology Collection
Webpage at the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences
The Institute of Basic Medical Sciences on ethical considerations
Guidelines for the use and management of the collection
Report on the scientific value of the collection (in Norwegian)
Studentparlamentet ved UiO: De schreinerske samlinger må repatrieres og gjenbegraves! (in Norwegian)