Lectio Magistralis of WILLEKE WENDRICH

h. 17:00 | Salone d'Onore, Castello del Valentino, Torino

DIST Newcomers is a meeting cycle organized by the Department on the occasion of the arrival of new colleagues, with the aim of sharing knowledge and fostering relationships between the different research and educational specializations that characterize the Department.

This event features Prof. Willeke Wendrich, with a lecture entitled entitled Touching the Intangible: Digital Heritage, Embodiment and Memory

Registration for partecipation: https://forms.office.com/e/b3JwC6eL9r

To the casual onlooker the task of archaeologists is to unearth and safeguard archaeological artifacts. More important to archaeological research are the considerations where and why to focus research, and whether to excavate at all. The interpretation of archaeological data is served greatly by digital means of recording, analysis and representation.
From geophysical survey to integrated databases and virtual reality reconstructions, archaeological data are the basis for a deeper understanding of human behavior and motivations in the past, but also for preserving and evoking the memory and cohesion of communities in the present. Careful analysis can enable us to reconstruct intangible heritage such as the activities
and movements that are part of craft production, cooking or dancing, from the scant tangible remains at our disposal through a process in which cultural heritage is correlated to the human body and embodied activities.

Willeke (Willemina Zwanida) Wendrich is a full professor in cultural heritage and digital humanities at DIST since November 2023. From 2000-2023 she was a professor of Egyptian Archaeology and Digital Humanities at the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at the University of California, Los Angeles. She was the initiating holder of the Joan Silsbee Chair in African Cultural Archaeology. She worked for 35 years in Egypt, and has directed archaeological projects in Egypt, Yemen, Ethiopia and Italy. Her research interests are settlement archaeology, ancient and modern craftmanship, and the archaeology of knowledge transfer, with a strong focus on the intersection of archaeology, intangible heritage, science and indigenous knowledge. From 2012 to 2016 she was the Director of the Center for Digital Humanities at UCLA and from 2015 to 2023 she directed the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA.

PROGRAM

Introduction
Andrea Bocco, Head of DIST

Lectio Magistralis, Touching the Intangible: Digital Heritage, Embodiment and Memory
Willeke Wendrich, Full professor in Cultural Heritage and Digital Humanities

Musical Interlude, Kora harp music
Elena Russo, kora harp player

Aperitivo

Registration for partecipation: https://forms.office.com/e/b3JwC6eL9r

For information: comunicazione.dist@polito.it