The 2020-21 CAS Interdisciplinary Research Talk series presents Maria Fernanda Escallón, assistant professor of anthropology, in a talk titled "Cultural Heritage Declarations and The Trap of Exclusion" on Thursday, Feb. 4, 3:30–5:00 p.m. The CAS IR talks are 35-45 minutes followed by a Q&A session. Since teaching and research in the liberal arts is often multidisciplinary and collaborative, the talks are meant to encourage conversation, interest, and understanding across divisional lines in the college.

Talk abstract: To what extent has formal recognition of Afro-descendants’ “cultural heritage” further marginalized Black communities in Colombia? In 2005 the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared the cultural practices of the Afro-Colombian people of San Basilio de Palenque––known as Palenqueros––as “Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.” Though in principle the declaration elevated the culture and history of all Palenqueros, in practice, many experienced the heritage declaration as a form of exclusion—from power, from social networks, from frameworks of expertise, from opportunity, and from systems of authority. In this talk, Escallón examine a group of Palenqueras working as fruit vendors on the streets of Cartagena. These women felt exploited by and excluded from the heritage recognition process, which popularized their image as an icon of heritage tourism, without providing any tangible financial benefit. She examines the disconnect that exists between Palenqueras’ public image and their lived experience in order to trace how the heritage declaration became both an opportunity for and an obstacle to their socio-economic mobility. Rather than promote equity and inclusion, her findings reveal how heritage allowed gendered and racialized histories of dispossession to become sanitized stories of cultural difference.

Maria Fernanda Escallón is an assistant professor of anthropology with an interested in cultural heritage, race, diversity politics, ethnicity, and inequality in Latin America. Her work examines the consequences of cultural heritage declarations and draws attention to the political and economic marginalization of minority groups that occurs as a result of recognition. Her current book project, based on multi-sited ethnographic research in Colombia, examines the consequences of cultural public policy on marginalized communities and minority groups. Specifically, her research traces how the declaration of cultural practices of Afro-Latino communities as “heritage of humanity” may further marginalize already vulnerable community members and leave structural racial inequities intact.

Details:

Cultural Heritage Declarations and The Trap of Exclusion  

Maria Fernanda Escallón, Assistant Professor, Anthropology 

Thursday, February 4, 3:30–5:00

Zoom meeting: click here to join