In the Global West, our understanding of contemporary interactions, community, and participation in public life is changing rapidly, as we continue to morph and adjust to the affordances of rapid developments in mobile technology and computing, and the transformative power of new modes of digital communications. As a result, the ethical frameworks for heritage practitioners and researchers need readjustment, and an awareness of a wide variety of ethical considerations, often outside the traditional framing of a western-focused subject area.

The broad range of institutions and organisations involved in the sector need to be able to anticipate and adjust to meet the ethical challenges presented by contemporary and future technological, social, legal and political developments, regionally, nationally and globally. This symposium will bring together leading scholars on the subject of digital heritage to ask how we can best prepare, implement and anticipate ethical practices in our work. How can we understand the ethical impact of digital public participation, new technologies for data collection and analysis, digital colonialism, harassment and discrimination in the digital world, and the climate impact of digital technologies?

This symposium aims to answer these questions and more, and foster debate, new collaborations and better awareness of ethical digital heritage in both academic research, as well as the museums, galleries and heritage industries, and beyond.

Speakers: Paul Bernal (University of East Anglia); Chiara Bonacchi (University of Stirling); Samantha Callaghan (Kings College, London); L. Meghan Dennis (Leeds City College); Harry Dyer (University of East Anglia); Paola Di Giuseppantonio Di Franco (University of Essex); Ryoko Matsuba (University of East Anglia); Jeremy Ottevanger (Sesamoid Consulting); Daniel J. Pett (Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge); Jon Pratty (University of Sussex); and Lorna Richardson (University of East Anglia).