Haunting Ruins

Ruins, rubble and decaying material can foster a more layered theory of time, change and memory. The seven ethnographic case studies in Haunting Ruins trace human engagements with the temporal forces of ruins, which can trace the past and transform the present. Conjuring environmental humanities, the anthropology of history, memory and archaeology, this book delves into the complex influence of the past on the present and the future and urges scholars to consider ruins as things to think with.

Valentina Gamberi is a MSCA-CZ fellow at Palacký University Olomouc (UPOL). Previously, she held positions as an adjunct lecturer (University of Bologna, 2022–2023) and a research fellow (Research Centre for Material Culture in Leiden, 2021–2022 and the Institute of Ethnology of Academia Sinica, 2019–2020). Her most recent publication in English is Experiencing Materiality: Museum Perspectives (Berghahn, 2021).