Heritage future(s) / future heritage(s): on the threshold of change
18–20 March 2026 | Porto, Portugal
EPoCH 2026, hosted by Universidade Católica Portuguesa, is organised in partnership with the Transform4Europe (T4EU) alliance. The conference brings together scholars, professionals, and artists to explore how heritage and conservation can evolve amid rapid climatic, technological, and societal transformations.
The event centres on two interconnected ideas
- heritage future(s) — how current conservation practices enable or limit future possibilities;
- future heritage(s) — what future generations will consider worth preserving.
Suggested Topics
- Rethinking heritage: borders, margins, new epistemologies
- Conservation-restoration: future tools, methods, and the immaterial
- Heritage and climate change
- Over-tourism and new tourism models (creative, sustainable, niche)
- Sustainable materials, technologies, community-based knowledge
- Digitalisation, modelling, Data Science & AI for heritage
Keynote Speakers
- Cornelius Holtorf – (School of Cultural Sciences, Linnaeus University);
- Paulo Lourenço – (Department of Civil Engineering, University of Minho);
- Roberta Altin – (Department of Humanities at the University of Trieste, Italy).
Key Dates
- Call for abstracts: 3–30 November 2025 — extended to 4 January 2026.
- Author notifications: 20 January 2026.
Find out more: artes.porto.ucp.pt.
Photo by sarah b on Unsplash