Call for Papers: “Heritage and Resonance”
Heritage and Resonance: Towards Other Modes of Relating to the World
The journal Notas de Antropología de las Américas (NAA), a peer-reviewed open access (OA) publication, invites authors from the humanities and social sciences to submit unpublished articles for its special issue with the title “Heritage and Resonance: Towards Other Modes of Relating to the World“.
In the last decades, heritage studies have undergone a significant shift, moving away from object-, site-, or practice-centered approaches toward an understanding of heritage as a dynamic, relational, and continuously negotiated social process (Smith 2006). This perspective made it possible to examine how meanings of the past are constructed in the present, how these meanings are contested among different actors, and how they participate in the configuration of possible futures. In this context, the concept of resonance, developed in contemporary social theory as a form of affective, responsive, and non-instrumental relationship with the world (Rosa 2019 [2016]), offers a compelling analytical framework for rethinking heritage dynamics. From this perspective, heritage is not only preserved, represented, or managed, but also experienced, felt, and lived through relationships that involve reciprocity, responsiveness, and transformation. Furthermore, this approach enables a more explicit incorporation of the affective and emotional dimensions that permeate heritage practices (Smith 2021), while opening up the possibility of exploring broader relationships between human and non-human agents, as well as between the material and the immaterial, in contexts where heritage is configured as a complex, multiscale field of interaction (Harrison 2013).
In a time marked by ecological crises, disputes over memory, processes of decolonization, and transformations in the ways we inhabit the world, it is particularly important to examine how heritage can be understood as a relationship of resonance that allows us to conceive of new ways of being in the world.
This special issue invites submissions that address, from a variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives, questions such as:
- How does the concept of resonance contribute to heritage studies in general and to the notion of heritage in particular?
- Which role do feelings and emotions play in heritage processes and relationships?
- How does resonance allow us to rethink the relationships between agents, including humans and non-humans, as well as between the material and the immaterial?
- How are these relationships expressed in specific contexts?
- What limitations does the concept of resonance present for studying heritage processes and relationships?
Submissions based on case studies, theoretical reflections, or innovative methodological approaches are welcome.
In addition to the dossier, the magazine also contains a section for reviews of recent publications of all kinds (books/articles, audios/podcasts, exhibitions, films, etc.) as well as one for translations, which are also welcome.
We welcome manuscripts by email to notasaa@uni-bonn.de until 30 November 2026. Decisions on contributions and notification of acceptance will be made in April 2027.
Information on editorial guidelines, style guide and previous issues can be found here.
Bibliography:
Rodney, H. (2013). Heritage: Critical Approaches. London: Routledge.
Rosa, H. (2019) [2016]. Resonance: A Sociology of Our Relationship to the World. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Smith, L. (2006). Uses of Heritage. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203602263
Smith, L. (2021). Emotional Heritage: Visitor Engagement at Museums and Heritage Sites. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315713274
Yannick Dreessen, Verónica Montero Fayad, Lars-Michael Schacht, and Carla Jaimes Betancourt (Special Issue Guest Editors)
