ECRspeak: Early Voices -ACHS New Digital Space
Editors: Yelyzaveta Nesterova, Stanley J. Onyemechalu, and Desmond Sham
Editorial Criteria
The ACHS’s Early Careers Researchers Network coordinating team is pleased to announce the launch of a new digital space dedicated to critical heritage discussions among early career researchers - ECRspeak: Early Voices.
Reason for blog
We realize that there is still a limited number of arenas where early career researchers can frequently express themselves and respond to emerging, urgent, and critical issues in heritage. While academic journals such as the International Journal of Heritage Studies are definitely important sites for such engagement, the rigorousness may be too intimidating for some ECRs, such as practitioners and early graduate students, and the timeframe for the publication cycle may not be that suitable as a site to engage with more pressing issues of contemporary times. Finally, this blog aims to provide a democratized space for contributions on heritage issues that go beyond the typical academic-speak to reach non-academic audiences.
Self-reflection on the activities for the past year
The ECRspeak: Early Voices blog emerges from the urge to vocalize opinions and contributions of those who are at the outset of their careers and have fresh perspectives towards the status quo and future(s) of critical heritage studies and practices. So far, within the ECR Network, it has existed as a rubric of our monthly newsletter, where we have shared short critical reflections of the ECR community on recent ACHS events such as the 2022 Santiago Conference. Additionally, we also featured the 2023 Heritage Justice II: Contestation, Motion and Emotion Symposium, which highlighted original and innovative research cutting across a wide variety of themes like contested pasts, difficult heritage, (de)colonization, affect, memory, migration, and spotlighting multiple case studies from across the globe. This symposium, organized by and for ECRs based in different parts of the world, helped us to again emphasize the importance of sharing knowledge on a range of topics and platforming discussions on a variety of standpoints. We hope the ECRspeak: Early Voices blog will allow more exchanges, discussions, and feedback on a more frequent basis.
Reflection on further directions
Firstly, we want to extend ECRspeak: Early Voices by establishing connections with other early career groups around the world interested in critical heritage studies. Additionally, in parallel with the Currents, we plan to invite contributions from our members on projects/initiatives/proceedings/exhibitions they are involved in to spark their critical reflection and spotlight their roles in the field. Lastly, the blog will help to advance discussions about urgent topics and discussions within the heritage field and practices, the repertoire of which is expanded every day.
Frequency of posts and style
We want to be flexible with the format and style of the content in our blog. We welcome ECRs who wish to write about their new or ongoing research/publication/practices in heritage for a non-expert audience (aka, 'democratized writing’) to increase the accessibility of knowledge and will be glad to broaden our audience beyond areas traditionally associated with heritage studies.
We plan to maintain our blog by posting content on a rolling basis and as frequently as possible. Every submission will be reviewed by the editors and at least one other ECR peer familiar with the subject before approval and publication. You will be able to learn about any updates by subscribing to our mailing list. If you would like to share something with your peers, please email your piece of not more than 800 words to ecr@criticalheritagestudies.org.
With best wishes,
The ECRN Committee