IN-PERSON: Prague – Section A

Abstract

Walking has long occupied a place in arts and humanities research. In recent years, there has been renewed interest in the subject, with scholars from a range of disciplines posing new questions aimed at examining its creative, critical and pedagogical potential, as well as its social, physical and psychological benefits. In this work, the purpose of walking is not to observe and drift through one’s surroundings in the manner of a flâneur, but rather sees walkers attending to the politics of space and the ethics of taking up space by considering issues such as accessibility, climate change, land rights and sovereignty, and commemoration, remembrance and silence. Rooted in these discussions, as well as timely debates regarding contested monuments and other forms of ‘difficult heritage’, this paper examines how walking can enable critical engagements with place. Specifically, it considers how walking can be a means of making visible ‘hidden histories’ of chattel slavery, colonialism and imperialism, thus working against the longstanding erasure of these subjects in museums, heritage spaces, urban landscapes, and other sites of memory. It does this through presenting the early findings from a current research project, which entails creating and leading free public walking tours through locations in Glasgow’s built environment that reflect Scotland’s involvement in the British imperial project. Closely aligned with two of the conference’s key themes, ‘Museums and Places of Memory’ and ‘Local Histories – Regional Cultures’, the paper will demonstrate how walking can be a tool for interweaving discussion and acknowledgement of empire into dominant heritage discourses. Furthermore, it will propose that collective walking can foster increased public knowledge and understanding of these challenging histories, thus comprising a decolonial approach to heritage.