The Ironbridge International Institute for Cultural Heritage, University of Birmingham in association with World Heritage UK will hold a special international meeting to discuss research and global policy, focusing on the communication of World Heritage values, from 7-8 October at the World Heritage Site of Ironbridge Gorge. The event will be immediately followed (9-10 October) by the third annual conference of World Heritage UK where practitioners will explore the many ways to communicate World Heritage to different audiences.

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This joint event will take place within the Ironbridge Gorge which, in 1986, became one of the first UK sites to be awarded World Heritage Status by UNESCO.  The designation of the Ironbridge Gorge as a World Heritage Site recognised the area’s unique contribution to the birth of the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century, the impact of which was felt across the world. The surviving built and natural environment with its museums, monuments and artefacts, serve to remind us of this area’s unique contribution to the history and development of industrialised society.

As part of the AHRC Collaborative doctoral research between the Ironbridge International Institute for Cultural Heritage (IIICH), University of Birmingham and Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, a two day conference is planned for the 7-8tOctober 2017.

The conference is the product of the research programme which started in 2014 and has been focused on the Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site. The four researchers have been examining the relationships that World Heritage Sites share with different communities of interest in communicating World Heritage Values.

The research themes were Education within the World Heritage Site (Jamie Davies), Specialist groups and World Heritage- Ironbridge Gorge as an Industrial World Heritage Site (Joe Raine), Tourism within Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site (Coralie Acheson) and the communities of Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site (Malgorzata Trelka).

For more information about each theme, and to see the open call for papers, please select the links below:

Deadline: 15 May 2017