Call for Abstracts
The journal Change Over Time: An International Journal of Conservation and the Built
Environment, published by the University of Pennsylvania Press, invites submissions for the Fall 2019
issue.
A HERITAGE OF WAR, CONFLICT, AND COMMEMORATION
Guest Editor: William Chapman
Sites of war and conflict that symbolize collective loss or that served as pivotal moments in
national or global history are sometimes elevated to the status of “heritage.” Battlefields, sites
of bombings, or places of terrorist attacks are all marked by human tragedy and acts of violence
and their interpretation is inherently conflictual. This issue of Change Over Time examines
heritage produced by violent acts of destruction and our efforts to commemorate the complex
narratives these sites embody.
To support the interpretation of sites characterized by absence, we have often erected
commemorative memorials of various forms from plaques and commissioned statuary to the
presentation of charred and damaged remnants of what stood before. Examples featuring the
vestiges of physical destruction include: the hull of the USS Arizona, sunk during Japan’s 7
December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor; the skeleton of the domed administrative building that
marked the zero point of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in August 1945; the stabilized walls of
St. Michael’s Cathedral in Coventry, a victim of the German Luftwaffe’s November 1940 blitz;
and the “Survivors’ Stairs,” the last remaining element of the World Trade Center following its
destruction on 11 September 2001. In this issue, we invite contributors to interrogate the types
and nature of heritage produced out of war and conflict, the forms of its commemoration, and
the challenges associated with its conservation. We encourage contributors to consider the
influence of class, politics, and culture in commemorative expressions; the technical and
conceptual challenges of conserving objects or places of destruction; inclusive or conflicting
(re)interpretation; and evolving perceptions of places over time.
We welcome contributions representing a broad array of geographic, cultural, temporal, and
historical contexts that may or may not include vestiges of destruction but that do address the
complex attributes of collective place based tragedy. Submissions may include, but are not
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limited to, case studies, theoretical explorations, and evaluations of current practices or policies
as they pertain to the conservation and commemoration of heritage of war and conflict.
Abstracts of 200-300 words are due 1 August 2018. Authors will be notified of provisional
paper acceptance by 1 September 2018. Final manuscript submissions will be due late
November 2018.
Submission
Articles are generally restricted to 7,500 or fewer words (the approximate equivalent to thirty
pages of double-spaced, twelve-point type) and may include up to ten images. See Author
Guidelines for full details at cotjournal.com, or email Senior Associate Editor, Kecia Fong at
cot@design.upenn.edu for further information.
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