Winter School

The second Winter School sponsored by the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures focuses on cultural heritage.

This theme is explored along the lines traced by the definition provided by UNESCO, that is to say both as a product and a process which together constitute the cultural capital of contemporary societies. Cultural heritage is inherited from the past, it is re-created and preserved in the present for the benefit of future generations. It includes intangible as well as tangible heritage, together with forms of representation and identities. Cultural heritage has lately become central to universities and society as a whole. Research work, initiatives and policies have played an active role in defending and promoting cultural diversity and peaceful dialogue between different people and generations achieving a creative and sustainable social, cultural and economic development. In line with the identity of our Department – which is firmly grounded in literatures, languages and cultures – and following its interdisciplinary vocation, this year’s Winter School explores the idea of cultural heritage through cultural studies scholars, museum experts, literary critics, linguists, writers and musicians.

The Winter School will open with two talks that investigate the connections between cultural heritage and the humanities. Rodney Harrison will focus on the future of heritage studies and their relation with the environmental humanities. His talk will be followed by Edoardo Gerlini who will make a case for the “text” to be included in the list of Unesco’s cultural heritage. The first day will end with a workshop entitled “Memoria di luoghi” in which Francesco Benozzo will explore the spatio-temporal stratigraphies of landscape heritage, as well as perceptions of places. The morning of the second day will be dedicated to the Grand Tour. It will begin with two lectures followed by some testimonies of young scholars and students. Maurizio Ascari will introduce this session with a talk on bildungs-travels in the context of transcultural desire and national prejudices. Fiammetta Sabba will concentrate on the role of libraries during the Grand Tour and present a virtual version of the journey of librarian Angelo Maria Bandini from Florence to the South of Italy in search for precious book heritage. Young scholars and international students will conclude this session with new narratives of the experiential dynamics of shared cultural experience of their re-visited Grand Tours; they will offer some reflections on their own bildungs-travels and the role played by libraries in the journeys through knowledge. In the afternoon Kim Potowski will talk about heritage languages, that is to say languages used in family and private contexts in alternative to the national language, notably in diglossic regional contexts. Potowski’s lecture will focus on Spanish as heritage language in the U.S. The second day will conclude with Enrico Fink’s recital and talk on Jewish music.In the morning of the following day Claudia Borghetti, Cristina Li, Ana Pano Alamán and Roberto Mulinacci will convene a workshop entitled “Qual è la mia lingua materna? Dipende…” that will provide further reflections on the issue of heritage languages. This is a practical workshop based on observations on how a group of Chinese  heritage language speakers living in Italy feel about their own bilingualism and  heritage language.The last two sessions will be dedicated to literature. Through their conversations on and readings from their recent works, writers Lyn Innes and Abdulrazah Gurnah will weave episodes of colonial history, personal memories and imaginings to tell (hi)stories that risk to be forgotten. In the afternoon, Liliane Weissberg will offer some reflections on the history of German-Jewish literature with particular reference to the keen interest showed by German writers of Jewish origin in the feuilleton. Everybody is invited to join the final round table to exchange views, ask questions and propose ways in which we can continue a dialogue on cultural heritage

Following the positive feed-back from students who attended our Winter School in 2019, this new programme once again encourages exchange. For this reason, our programme includes plenary lectures, conversations between speakers and students, workshops and a final discussion.

Plenary lectures are open to all at this link


To enrol in workshops and for general information, please write to lilec.summer-winter-school@unibo.it
All participants will receive a certificate of attendance

Jon Kear, Untitled 2020. [Courtesy of the artist]