‘Sensitive’ legacies of old universities – a knowledge exchange workshop

by Dr Dacia Viejo Rose, Prof Pedro Ramos Pinto and Dr Trish Biers.

This report first appeared in the Cambridge Heritage Research Centre bulletin.

On 19 and 20 February, the University of Coimbra hosted a Coimbra-Cambridge inter-university dialogue entitled “Sensitive Heritages: Histories, Universities, Cities”. In a context where collective memories, public narratives, and heritage policies are increasingly subject to scrutiny and contestation, this seminar was intended as an opportunity to discuss institutional dilemmas, academic responsibilities, and possible forms of mediation in the face of historical legacies. The basis for the discussions was a report coordinated by Professor Rossa entitled ‘Sensitive Heritages at the University of Coimbra’,which was published in the context of the celebrations marking the tenth anniversary of the UC’s inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List, when questions of ‘restitution and returns’ came to the fore. During the seminar, panellists discussed how universities with long legacies can meaningfully engage with these issues, the ethical dilemmas that emerge, and how to reconcile heritage preservation with historical accuracy and memorial justice. 

In the first session of the workshop, the Coimbra participants discussed the University’s work researching and engaging with its multiple heritages. It was noted that the Coimbra report was among the first in Portugal to bring to the public’s attention the discussion of how institutions such as public universities are repositories and custodians of significant amounts of material and immaterial heritage, connecting them to the country’s colonial past. The University of Coimbra has been working to map and catalogue many of these collections, and Dr Luísa Trindade (Associate Professor of Art History) introduced the University’s Science Museum online catalogue project, which is beginning to make its colonial collections public. A few dimensions of this heritage have received the most attention to date, in particular the University of Coimbra’s collection of human remains, many of which were acquired during the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Portugal’s then-colonial possessions in Africa and Southeast Asia, amongst other locations. Ongoing research aims to uncover the origins of the remains, the history of their use in teaching at the University, and to engage in broader conversations about conservation and restitution. An additional curator has been appointed to work with the collection, while the University is also looking to create a curatorial position to oversee all its collections.

The presenters also discussed how the term ‘sensitive heritages’ needs to encompass other aspects of the University. For instance, Professor Delfim Leão (Vice-Rector for Culture, Communication and Open Science and Professor at the Institute of Classical Studies) discussed the University’s recent work with communities displaced from the old city in Coimbra in the 1940s to make room for the construction of a modern campus. In 2023, the University supported a project, exhibition and events that brought some of the former inhabitants to the site. The area is now occupied by the University Library and many of its faculties, and Dr Miguel Bandeira Jerónimo (Associate Professor in History and Director of the PhD programme in Heritages of Portuguese Influence) also argued for the importance of studying and reflecting on these buildings. Erected by the dictatorship headed by Oliveira Salazar (himself a former Professor at Coimbra), these buildings and their fabric reflect the ideals and perspectives of the regime, particularly in relation to questions of empire, colonialism and supposed civilizational hierarchies, as evidenced in the panels by Severo Portela Júnior for the lobby of the Faculty of Letters (see image).

In the afternoon session, the Cambridge visitors introduced their work to the audience. Dr Trish Biers, curatorial manager of the Duckworth Collections, a biological anthropology collection within the Department of Archaeology, discussed the difficult legacies of colonial collecting practices that institutions are trying to sensitively address today. Many museums and universities face the same problems with their collections, regardless of country, such as limited staffing and scarce financial resources that hinder meaningful engagement with communities of origin. Dr Biers shared some practical ways she and the Duckworth team tackle these issues in Cambridge. Along those lines, Dr Pedro Ramos Pinto, convenor of the Legacies of Enslavement Special Initiative, introduced the work done in Cambridge from the creation of the Working Group in 2019 to the publication of its Report in 2022, and the subsequent programmes and exhibitions developed around Cambridge. Pedro also emphasised the need to go beyond explorations of ‘legacies’ in the sense of financial links between the collegiate University.

CHRC Director, Dr Dacia Viejo Rose, spoke of the different scales at which difficult legacies are being addressed at Cambridge, from undergraduate to postgraduate teaching, from individual to group research projects and through special initiatives being undertaken by colleges, university museums and on a university-wide scale. Dacia also mentioned the Researching Legacies project (CHRC, 2023-2025) focused on an interdisciplinary conversation about how ‘legacies’ are defined and the methodologies used by different disciplines to research them. Regarding restitutions, she mentioned examples of instances when these have gone beyond mediatised symbolic gestures resulting from negotiations between institutions, to more meaningful forms of relationship-building and repair.

Background

Since 2022, the CHRC and the University of Coimbra’s UNESCO Chair on Intercultural Dialogue on Heritages of Portuguese Influence [Patrimónios, established in 2018], held by Professor Walter Rossa from the Department of Architecture, have been collaborating in a series of academic exchanges focused on contested heritage. These exchanges have brought together researchers with backgrounds in architecture, history, politics, and archaeology; they have made for particularly fruitful discussions and comparisons of different experiences of colonialism and its aftermaths. 

Follow-up and resources

Legacies of Enslavement Initiative 
Researching Legacies of the Past
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology Repatriation Approach
Bringing the Ancestors Home