16-18 June 2027, The Courtauld Institute, Vernon Square, London.
Over the past decade, debates around the colonial entanglement of museum collections, ownership of cultural heritage, and restitution have become increasingly mainstream and polarising in the public domain. This scrutiny has created urgency for the museum and heritage sector to address these issues, leading to heightened focus on provenance research, restitution (mostly to nation-states), and working with communities. Published accounts and case studies tend to focus on successful outcomes such as returns or co-curated exhibitions, but a “black-box” approach leaves the methods, methodologies, negotiations, tensions and failures of such initiatives largely invisible.
This interdisciplinary conference, organised by the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Centre for Buddhist Art and Conservation and the UK Association for Buddhist Studies (UKABS), focuses on Buddhist material heritage in its broader sense as a lens for these debates. That includes images, relics, manuscripts, ritual objects, architecture, sacred sites, and intangible practices. We invite contributions that focus on the process rather than the outputs and examine the ethical, religious, legal, political and practical dimensions of how Buddhist heritage is collected, studied, cared for, displayed, contested and returned. Contributions that embrace Buddhist practice/lived religion and material culture more generally are also welcome. The conference is open to all relevant disciplines, and we particularly encourage proposals that engage thoughtfully with communities, regions, traditions and topics that have been historically underrepresented or under-studied in Buddhist studies and heritage scholarship.
Questions the conference will explore include:
- How do Buddhist ethical and philosophical frameworks themselves bear on questions of ownership, care and value of material heritage?
- Can religious beliefs and perspectives be recognised and incorporated in the display, conservation, storage, and handling of Buddhist material heritage?
- What histories of collecting, trade, looting, gifting, and diplomacy have shaped Buddhist collections?
- What methodological, ethical and personal challenges arise in community-engaged research?
- Who can speak for “communities” in debates over ownership, care and return of Buddhist material heritage?
The deadline for abstracts is 14th December 2026, and outcomes will be communicated by 18th January 2027.
Attendees, including those presenting, will be expected to cover the costs of their attendance. We expect the registration fee (including vegetarian lunch and tea/coffee breaks) to be in the region of £85, with a reduced rate of £65 for members of either UKABS or IABS; registration will open in February 2027. Attendees will need to make their own travel and accommodation arrangements.
We particularly welcome submissions from early career researchers (ECRs), including postgraduate students. A small number of late-stage, UK-based PhD students will have their costs of attendance covered by UKABS, and these presenters need not address the conference theme.
All abstracts should be submitted via the Microsoft Form included in the link below.
The form will ask for the following:
- Title of paper
- Abstract (up to 200 words)
- Name (including title), affiliation, and email address
- Interest in accessing financial support (ECR & PG students only)
- If postgraduate student: title of thesis, anticipated date of completion
- Dietary restrictions or needs
Deadline for abstracts: 14th December 2026.