On September 24–26, 2026, an international conference titled "Contested Pasts, Uncertain Future(s): Heritage, Memory, and History" will be held in Yerevan on the initiative of the Laboratory of Philosophy and Theory of History. The conference will bring together philosophers, historians, anthropologists, archaeologists, and researchers working on issues of heritage and memory. This scholarly event will serve as a platform for the development of critical thinking and professional dialogue, offering an opportunity to present and discuss how the past is interpreted, preserved, and contested across different disciplines and societies.

The theme "Contested Pasts, Uncertain Future(s): Heritage, Memory, and History" explores how societies make sense of experiences of destruction, violence, and loss, and how these meaning-making processes shape collective identities and ideas of the future. Taking into account the realities of a world marked by genocide, war, cultural destruction, and ecological catastrophe, the conference aims to examine the moral and epistemological responsibilities involved in engaging with, narrating, and constructing the past.

The conference seeks to expand the theoretical study of heritage as a field of conflict and negotiation. Heritage is never neutral: it embodies claims of ownership, belonging, and continuity, often intertwined with issues of displacement, colonial legacies, and political power. Discussions will address how, under global pressures of appropriation, modernization, and destruction, indigenous communities struggle to preserve their historical lands, languages, and material cultures. These issues call for a renewed philosophical interpretation of the concept of heritage, considered from the perspectives of its ontological foundations, ethical implications, and relationship to historical justice.

The conference will take place within the spatial and conceptual setting of the exhibition "Prehistoric Sculpture and Contemporary Totems", whose direct engagement expands the artistic dimension of heritage. This shared environment invites participants to "inhabit" a space in which the prehistoric and the contemporary, the material and the metaphysical, merge into a single whole. The space bears traces of temporal continuity, allowing past and present to intermingle without collapse.

Here, among ancient standing stones and contemporary sculptural forms, dialogue on heritage, memory, and historical consciousness acquires a tangible and spatial dimension. The exhibition space functions not merely as a setting, but as a "viewing platform" through which to observe myth, materiality, and reinterpretation. It becomes a "listening space" attuned to the silent continuity of stone and to the transformations of matter that connect the earliest gestures of sculpture to contemporary metaphysical questions in art.

The conference proposes the following guiding questions:

• How are narratives of catastrophe, violence, and loss preserved or transformed into heritage?

• What moral obligations arise in interpreting and representing contested pasts?

• How do academic, cultural, or global institutions intervene in and legitimize collective memory?

• How do pluralism, relativism, and the political use of history affect trust in historical knowledge?

• What role do our interpretations of the past play in shaping visions of the future?

In this sense, the conference includes the following thematic areas (without being limited to them):

• Heritage, violence, and the politics of preservation

• Memory institutions and the governance of world heritage

• Narratives of catastrophe and cultural loss

• Memory, mourning, and responsibility

• Historiographical authority and epistemological trust

• Nationalism, identity, and historical narrative

• Ethical and aesthetic dimensions of ruins

Guidelines for Paper Submission

Those wishing to participate in the conference should submit abstracts of 300–500 words by March 15, 2026 to lab.philosophy@ysu.am (in .doc or .docx format). The abstract file should be named as follows: surname, title of abstract.

Authors of accepted papers will be notified by April 15, 2026.

Papers may be presented in Armenian or English.

Participation in the conference is free of charge.

For questions, please contact the conference organizers at lab.philosophy@ysu.am.