USP - Conférence : "Passion patrimoine : plongée dans les vestiges du passé ?"
Lecture by Odile Parsis
The success of the “Heritage Days,” the large audience for the “Passion for Heritage” segment of the television program *Des racines et des ailes*, and the popularity of Stéphane Bern and his Fondation du Patrimoine demonstrate the French people’s interest in everything that comes to us from the past. Monuments, archives, and works of art are today the pride of the nation and contribute to its identity. Why such a keen interest in historical relics? How has history—from the French Revolution to the invention of “new forms of heritage”—rooted this passion in French tradition? What about its spread to the wider world?
Odile PARSIS, an Agrégée, Ph.D. in history, and Maître de conférences, taught contemporary history at the University of Lille. She has become a specialist in historiography and scholarship in France during the 18th and 19th centuries, as well as in the issues of heritage, memory, and identity in northern France. In 2012, she was elected to the Committee for Historical and Scientific Works, where she serves on the Commission for Contemporary History and the Present. She has also been a member of the Scientific Committee of the Mérimée Society since 2012.
