When? Wednesday 3 December 2025, 1-2 p.m. CET
Where? online

In the frame of the digital colloquium "Heritage & Justice. Unpacking Legal Narratives in Natural History", Sigrid Boysen, from the Helmut-Schmidt-Universität, Germany, will talk on December 3rd about "Law and the Appropriation of Nature. Colonial and Postcolonial Orders of Nature".

Natural history collections come into existence through a myriad of avenues – colonial extraction, war time plundering, and donations from naturalists and game hunters to name just a few. The legal and ethical justifications for each avenue provide unique insight into how "nature" is turned into a collectable natural history object.

What bureaucracies and paper trails exist to establish and protect museum collections? How do modern digital technologies perpetuate or transform concepts of heritage, ownership and access? Are taxidermies, fossils or herbarium specimens legally defined as cultural artifacts and what consequences do these definitions have for indigenous sovereignty and restitution?

This lecture series brings together international scholars with diverse perspectives across legal, ethical, and professional frameworks. It aims to open up a research field and map the complexities that lie at the intersection of law, ethics, politics, sovereignty, and natural history collections.