International conference explores resilience and sustainable heritage
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The fourth international conference on the heritage of China was held in Suzhou, China, last week. The conference drew a diverse audience, including members of the Historic Conservation Committee of Jiangsu, faculty and students from the Suzhou University of Science and Technology, the Suzhou Historic City Group, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU), and the University of Liverpool.
The School of Law and Social Justice’s Professor Barry Godfrey was invited to deliver a keynote on dark tourism and sustainable heritage. The keynote highlighted the evolution of ‘dark tourism’ across Europe and Asia, a niche segment of tourism focussing on historical sites associated with tragedy or conflict.
The lecture resonated with the overarching theme of the conference – resilience and sustainable heritage – which explored the impact of modernisation, lifestyle shifts, and technology in preserving and strengthening cultural heritage on both local and global scales. The keynote sparked considerable interest, as it discussed development potential for Shanghai’s Tilangiao Prison, a recently decommissioned site in a prime location of the city, with implications for heritage tourism and urban revitalisation.
Following his address, Professor Godfrey presented awards for the best student papers, recognising academic excellence and encouraging innovative approaches to heritage conservation among emerging scholars.
Professor Barry Godfrey is an expert in criminology and cultural heritage, and his research interests span longitudinal studies of crime and sentencing; how individual and structural factors can affect desistence from crime; comparative international studies of offending and sentencing; court culture and practice; the history of Liverpool; and convicts in America and Australia.
Find out more about our Prison, Culture and Heritage research theme.