Samir Belgacem
Research project
Decolonizing heritage conservation and policy in Algeria: between consonance, dissonance, and (national) identity.
Supervisors: Dr. Louise Cooke and Prof. Stephanie Wynne-Jones
I am working on the heritage conservation practice in Algeria. The aim of my research is to formulate best practice advice for the heritage conservation in the country, based on evidence collected from interviews undertaken among a wide spectrum of individuals composing the present Algerian society.
My research first looks into creating a historiography to document the origins and evolution of the heritage conservation legislation and practice in Algeria, starting from the early colonial period to present day, influenced by the French classical views on Algeria, to establish the diagnosis of the lack of effectiveness of heritage valuation today.
It then aims at collecting evidence to support a new conservation philosophy based on the social valuation of the people who experience their heritage and to whom it belongs, in order to decolonize the present conservation practice inherited from French neoclassicists like Viollet-le-Duc and Prosper Mérimée, present in Algeria in particular and in formerly colonized countries in general, that silences indiginous voices to the benefit of a colonial and imperialist agenda.