Practical session "Communication tools, perceptions and best practice examples"
Thursday, March 17 2022, 13:00 (Riga time), hybrid session
Žanis Lipke Memorial, Mazais Balasta dambis 9, Riga
Online: Join Zoom Meeting
https://lu-lv.zoom.us/j/99298234397?pwd=T2FjOFEvMUpBdmNCNnNLZW9qa2J4Zz09
Meeting ID: 992 9823 4397; Passcode: 089098
12.30–13.00 Welcome to a hybrid session (coffee or/ and connecting to Zoom, checking presentations, sound, etc.)
Chair: Raivis Sīmansons PhD
13:00 - 13:35 Opening of the session: Topography of memory. Holocaust tourism tools in Riga 1991-2022 (in English and Latvian)
University of Latvia project "Memo Tours" researcher, Curator at the Žanis Lipke Memorial
Raivis Sīmansons PhD
13:40 - 14:00 Salaspils Memorial Audioguide: a guide for an individual tourist (in Latvian)
Director of Daugava Museum and its branch Salaspils Memorial
Inese Kupšāne
14:05 - 14:25 Underground Riga commemorative stones and audio guide 2014-2022
Austrian Gedenkdiener / Voluntary memory worker at Žanis Lipke Memorial
Camillo Spiegelfeld
14:30 - 14:55 Holocaust and resistance remembrance activism in Latvia (in English and Latvian)
Director of Žanis Lipke Memorial
Lolita Tomsone
15:00 - 15:30 Touring Jungfernhof: 3-D tour about the Jungfernhof concentration camp and seven satellite sites
Director, Locker of Memory project, interdisciplinary public memory artist, writer, cultural historian, activist, and Full Professor at Lesley University's (U.S.) Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences
Prof. Karen Frostig PhD
15:35 - 15:55 Disrupting the Metaverse with Educational XR: Žanis Lipke Bunker VR Documentary
Creative Technologist at Fallon Worldwide, Minneapolis, U.S.
Cory McLeod
16:00-16:30 Q&A, discussion, and wrap-up of the session
16:30-18:00 Coffee break
18:00 Opening of the book "Boriss Lurje. Rīgā" and discussion about topography of memory
Representative of the U.S. Embassy in Latvia t.b.c.
Writer and artist, editor of the "Boris Lurie In Riga: A Memoir", researcher of Boris Lurie biography
Julia Kissina
Author of "Scherwitz. Der jüdische SS-Offizier" who’s essay on Lurie’s encounter with Scherwitz is published in the “Boriss Lurje. Rīgā”
Anita Kugler
History consultant of the "Boriss Lurje. Rīgā", Senior Researcher at the University of Latvia
Dr Kaspars Zellis
Director of Žanis Lipke Memorial
Lolita Tomsone
University of Latvia project "Memo Tours" researcher, "Boriss Lurje. Rīgā" exhibition and exhibition project coordinator
Raivis Sīmansons PhD
Scientific session "Difficult Heritage: Culture of Remembrance, Tourism and Communication in the Digital Age"
Friday, 18 March 2022, 11:00 am (Riga time)
Online: Join Zoom Meeting
https://lu-lv.zoom.us/j/95002493340?pwd=djJXSVVwbC9INXRSRlFYY2puV3BIdz09
Meeting ID: 950 0249 3340; Passcode: 373207
10.30–11.00 Welcome to the online session (connecting to Zoom, checking presentations, sound, etc.)
Chair: Dr Inese Runce
11:00 – 11:15 Opening of the session
Senior Researcher Dr Inese Runce
Leader of the project "MemoTours" Dr Aija van der Steina
University of Latvia
11:20 – 11:40 Keynote. Digital Holocaust Memory on social media: The perspectives of museums and their users
Stefania Manca
Stefania Manca is a Research Director at the Institute of Educational Technology of the National Research Council of Italy. Her research interests include social media and social network sites in formal and informal learning, teacher education, professional development, and digital scholarship. She is currently working on a three-year research project about the application of social media to Holocaust education from a learning ecologies perspective. She is the project coordinator of the IHRA grant "Countering Holocaust distortion on Social Media. Promoting the positive use of Internet social technologies for teaching and learning about the Holocaust," which includes the University of Education in Weingarten (Germany), the University of Florence (Italy) and the following participating organizations: Yad Vashem (Israel), Mémorial de la Shoah de Paris (France) and Mauthausen Memorial (Austria).
11:45 – 12:00 Ethics of difficult heritage
Solveiga Krumina-Konkova
University of Latvia
12:05 – 12:20 Past and present: Examples of monument wars in Latvia
Didzis Bērziņš, Kaspars Strods
Daugavpils University, University of Latvia
12:25 – 12:40 Empowering young people to sense-making of difficult heritage
Diāna Popova, Elizabete Grinblate, Raivis Sīmansons
Latvian Academy of Culture, University of Latvia
12:45 – 13:00 Can a Dark tourism study course be a personal value revision catalyst? The study of long-lasting effects on attitude and behaviour of former course participants
Ilze Grīnfelde, Linda Veliverronena
Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences
13:00–14:00 Lunch break
Chair: Dr Aija van der Steina
14:00 – 14:15 Tourism development in places of difficult heritage in Riga: challenges and possible solutions in Maskavas Forstate
Maija Rozite, Aija van der Steina
University of Latvia
14:20 –14:35 Guiding at the Jewish Holocaust sites in Riga. Difficult history, tourism and individual experiences
Inese Runce
University of Latvia
14:30–14:45 Dark tourism: challenges and solutions of communication of uncomfortable heritage objects - Brothers' cemeteries and war memorials in the Latvian information space
Beāte Putniņa
Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences
14:50–15:05 The role of tourism destination websites and information-seeking patterns of domestic travellers to Holocaust memorial sites
Aija van der Steina, Diāna Popova
University of Latvia
15:10–15:30 Keynote. Presenting Jewish Heritage in Latvia: Lessons from Abroad
Samuel D. Gruber
Samuel D. Gruber is an internationally recognized expert on Jewish art, architecture, and the historic preservation of Jewish sites and monuments. Dr. Gruber directs Gruber Heritage Global, a cultural resource consulting firm, and is president of the International Survey of Jewish Monuments. He was director of the Jewish Heritage Program of the World Monuments Fund (1988 -96) and Research Director of the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage abroad (1998-2006), during which time he worked on several projects in Latvia. Among his many current projects is a database of Holocaust Memorial Monuments in partnership with the Center for Jewish Art at Hebrew University and the University of Miami.
15:30 Conclusions, discussions
