Associated Reseach Project

en/counter/points aims to uncover (re)negotiations of belonging in different public spaces (museums, cultural platforms, heritage and memory sites and city spaces), time frames (linking past and present) and related to significant themes (migration, colonialism, post-socialism), in a changing Europe. It combines theoretical, critical impulses from memory studies, contemporary history, architecture, museum and heritage studies, and anthropology to create a conversation between them and our research question. The project takes a transnational, interdisciplinary and collaborative approach to tackle the question of how and why multiple heritages, memories, processes of attachment and belonging to and in cultural spaces and places, are being (re)negotiated during a time of European migration and identity ‘crises’. The project as a whole aims to investigate contemporary notions of belonging in relation to different aspects of political and social change in Europe.  The intention is to investigate both harmonious and conflicting notions of identity and belonging in contemporary Europe.  The wider project connects research teams based in Germany, Italy, Poland and the Netherlands undertaking different research at a variety of locations in and beyond those countries. The project is led by Dr Susannah Eckersley, who is both the consortium leader and the Newcastle PI. en/counter/points is financially supported by the HERA Joint Research Programme (www.heranet.info) which is co-funded by AHRC, BMBF via DLRPT, C N R, NWO, NCN and the European Commission through Horizon 2020.