Exploring Intangible Religious Heritage: Our Conferences

Upcoming explorations

INHERENT Lecture Series – First Edition (March 2026)

The first edition of the INHERENT Lecture Series will take place online on 24-26 March 2026, hosted by the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) and organised within the framework of an Alexander von Humboldt postdoctoral research project.

Entitled
What Remains When Religion Is Gone? Intangible Religious Heritage between Law, Institutions and Lived Practices,
the lecture series is conceived as a space for critical and interdisciplinary dialogue on the transformations affecting religious heritage today. It brings together legal scholars, archaeologists, architects, engineers and heritage practitioners, as well as students, to reflect on the complex relationships between law, governance, material contexts and lived religious practices.

Rather than offering definitive answers, the event focuses on key questions such as:

How do legal and institutional frameworks engage with religious practices as intangible heritage?
What happens to religious meanings when material contexts are transformed, displaced or reused?
Who decides what is preserved, transformed or lost in processes of heritage governance?

Connecting Global Scholarship and Heritage Practice

The programme will feature contributions from internationally recognised scholars and practitioners from Europe, Australia and North America, ensuring a truly transnational and multidisciplinary perspective. Particular attention will be given to issues of cultural diversity, power, post-colonial critique and adaptive reuse of religious buildings, as well as to the role of institutions in shaping heritage narratives.

The lecture series is part of the broader INHERENT research project and is closely connected to ongoing activities within the COST Action CA24125, focusing on the crisis of intangible heritage and its impact on tangible heritage loss.

Further details on the programme and speakers will be announced soon.