Angela YT Chan 
For the panel ‘Heritage in/as creative solutions to global challenges’, I will present on ‘Critiquing a ‘Sustainable Military’: an artistic investigation into militarism and the colonial legacies of the climate crisis’ - my longer-term project I have continued to develop with the Heritage for Global Challenges Research Centre (Department of Archaeology, University of York), who are leading this session.
“Convened by Hayley Saul, University of York, Emma Waterton, University of York, and Felicity Picken, Western Sydney University.
This session explores creative geographies of heritage in responding to pressing and emergent global concerns. Exploring creative and innovative ways of thinking about, and managing, heritage is vital to ensuring we are mindful of legacies and past experiences that are either threatened by, or invaluable to, future pathways and innovative solutions to globally relevant problems. Heritage is an enduring dimension of social, cultural and environmental well-being, but is not itself fixed nor rooted in the past. Creativity is an important component of the ongoing deployment of heritage in maintaining social and planetary health, affecting social, cultural and environmental justice in important and potentially transformative ways. This double session (Part 1 and Part 2) will explore how heritage can play a creative role in transitioning to a more just and sustainable planetary future in these rapidly changing times, and is organised around both water and land-based geographies of heritage. This session (Part 1) will consist of individual presentations with short discussions following each paper.”
“The Annual International Conference 2025 will be chaired by Professor Patricia Noxolo (University of Birmingham, UK), on the theme of Geographies of creativity/creative geographies.”
Find out more about the RGS Annual International Conference and the Heritage for Global Challenges Research Centre.