Since 2023, the Académie des Traces has been offering an innovative educational programme that is
- transnational
- multilingual
- interdisciplinary
- free of charge
- accessible
The Académie des Traces is a living network of more than 500 people. It creates a platform for sharing methods, knowledge, and perspectives, emphasizing museum practices and academic research. It prioritizes the amplification of emerging voices in both areas. Join our community here!
In 2025, the Académie des Traces remains dedicated to exploring heritage constituted in colonial contexts, exploring how it can help us think and work through some key societal challenges of today.
From November 2025 to April 2026, we engage in informal conversations about the troubles, insecurities, and doubts that arise in the research and exhibition projects of the members of the Académie des Traces. To take part in these conversations, simply join our network — you will receive a link and the schedule for our monthly discussion rounds.
In the spring of 2025, we organised a free online seminar, in which we explored the four central themes participation, environmental crisis, digitization and mental health through the lens of colonial heritage. You can find the abstracts and recordings of the seminar here.
In 2025, we also published the Académie des Traces dossier, “Examining De/Colonial Traces Through Colonial Collections,” with contributions of the 2024 Académiciens and Académiciennes, published in partnership with the platform Contemporary And (C&).
The 2024 Edition of the Académie des Traces was structured around four key themes: Restitute/Repatriate, Represent/Exhibit, Acquire/Appropriate, Imagine/Perform. These themes were explored through an online workshop (with videos available on this site), a spring school in Berlin, and a study day at the Villa Médicis in Rome.
The Académie des Traces is hosted by inherit.heritage in transformation and the Centre Marc Bloch, two research centres at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. It is developed in partnership with the École du Patrimoine Africain, Sorbonne Université, Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis, and the University of Bucarest.
In 2025, the Académie des Traces is made possible thanks to the support of the Strategic Partnership Funding of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, inherit.heritage in transformation, and the Centre Marc Bloch.
The Académie des Traces would not have been possible without the support of Centre Marc Bloch e.V., the Centre for Anthropological Research on Museums and Heritage (CARMAH), the École du Patrimoine Africain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, the Franco-German Youth Office, the Stiftung Deutsch-Amerikanische Wissenschaftsbeziehungen, the Stiftung Genshagen, and the Université Franco-Allemande.
