The Interdisciplinary Studies Institute (ISI) will cosponsor an international conference hosted by The University of Massachusetts Amherst Center for Heritage and Society. ‘The Past for Sale? New Perspectives on the Economic Entanglements of Cultural Heritage’ will take place on the UMass Amherst Campus on May 15-17, 2013. The goal of the conference is to bring together a wide range of academics, economists, heritage professionals, development experts, government officials, and community leaders to examine the economic impact of cultural heritage. Rather than seeing tourism, urban redevelopment, and antiquities looting as distinct economic problems—as case-by-case profits and/or losses—the conferences hopes to encourage a multi-disciplinary discussion of the economic entanglements of cultural heritage.

For more information and the preliminary program, see the conference website.