The conference will explore links between heritage, memory and the vitality of linguistic minorities in Canada and the world.

One of our objectives is to assess the role of minority community memory through case studies of practices highlighting different aspects of communities’ pasts. How do we remember today? What histories do minority communities construct? How do they do so? What is the  and how do these relationships contribute to present-day community development? The conference will focus on practices and places that transmit community memory and history at the local, regional, national, and international levels.

We will also reflect on how groups and individuals from these communities use ideas about heritage and history. How do their discourses and practices contribute to minority language community vitality (Giles, Bourhis and Taylor)? How do they navigate the tensions between heritage and history? Lowenthal differentiates the historical discipline, which is meant to be objective and disinterested, and heritage, which aims to inform the present: “We use heritage to improve the past, making it better (or worse) by modern lights.” We are likewise interested in the commodification of minority community heritage and memory activities. How does the past translate into a tourism industry and tourism products (museums, exhibitions, guided tours)? What is the economic impact of these activities and to what extent, if any, is “scientific credibility” (Goulding) sacrificed? What is the “heritage industry” in a minority language environment, and what opportunities and risks does it present? Given such cultural and economic issues, how can an open dialogue about the strengths and weaknesses of these constructed histories take place?

Funded by the Government of Canada