Workshop “From Contested Ownership to (In)Voluntary Returns” & Panel Discussion with Flower Manase

The event is inspired by one of the research unit's new subprojects, “Voluntariness and the Repatriation of Human Remains from Colonial Contexts (1970-2021)” conducted by PD Dr. Silvan Niedermeier during our second funding phase. The collaborative workshop is a result of our vivid exchange with the Collaborative Research Center TRR 294 “Structural Change of Property” and the “Wissenschaftliche Koordinationsstelle Koloniales Erbe in Thüringen”  (KET).

Planned as a forum for lectures and project presentations at Thursday afternoon and Friday morning, the workshop “From Contested Ownership to (In)Voluntary Returns. Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Postcolonial Fight for Restitution and Repatriation” will take place at the research building „Weltbeziehungen“ at the University of Erfurt. A detailed program will be published soon.

Among several international guests we especially welcome Flower Manase, since 2009 curator of history at the National Museum of Tanzania (Museum and House of Culture, Dar es Salaam) and visiting “Mercator Fellow” to the CRC “Structural Change of Property” in October and November 2024.

On October 24, 2024, Flower Manase joins us for a public panel discussion in the evening featuring guests from from local politics, postcolonial research as well as Thuringian and Saxonian museums. Downtown at the Café Franz Mehlhose (Löberstr. 12, 99084 Erfurt) from 6:00 to 7:30 pm we will discuss today’s challenges of dealing with (post)colonial heritage and questions of restitution in Erfurt and Thuringia. The panel discussion is titled “Verstecken? Ausstellen? Zurückgeben? Die Restitutionsdebatte und das Erfurter koloniale Erbe.” and will be held in German language.