The seminar series "Ecologies, Collections, and Contested Heritage: (Un-)Natural History and Italian Colonial Ambitions in Africa" seeks to bring together historians of art and architecture, historians of science, experts in literary studies, critical museology, critical heritage studies, postcolonial theory and decolonial critique, artists, curators, and cultural practitioners to examine the environmental aspects related to the history of Italian colonialism and military occupation in Africa. The analyses and discussions center on diverse issues including the built environment, urban landscapes, agricultural projects, concepts and practices of natural history, epistemologies, museum collections, the role of archives and counter-archives and past and present endeavors to challenge them.
The series pays particular attention to the role of different media regarding environmental issues such as photography and film. It sheds new light on the role of the environment in urban spaces, on plants in relation to architecture, squares, promenades, and on spaces of commoning. It interrogates specimens in natural history collections in Italy, Libya, in the Horn of Africa, and beyond, issues of conservation, the curation and display of botanical and zoological collections, and it will discuss questions of restitution and reparation. Challenging dominant narratives, confronting contested histories, and amplifying voices that have been historically silenced, the series both examines the history and legacy of the toxic heritage of Italy’s colonial endeavors, and it seeks to unearth stories of resistance and resilience.
Through collaborative efforts among scholars and artists, the seminar series aims to navigate the complexities of Italy’s colonial past, acknowledging both its legacies of oppression and resistance. By reframing the Italian colonial archive through a critical and ethical lens as well as by emphasizing and highlighting local contexts and perspectives in North Africa, in the Horn of Africa and beyond, the series seeks to foster meaningful engagement with these histories and to contribute to broader conversations around the complex intersections between cultural and natural heritage, environmental and social justice.

Ecologies, Collections and Contested Heritage, co-convened by Jermay Michael Gabriel and Vera-Simone Schulz, is part of the Epistemologies of Conviviality project at Leuphana University, funded by the Volkswagen Foundation.