What happens when the heritage we inherit challenges the image we have built of ourselves and our communities? Can we preserve the past without silencing its most painful, controversial or contradictory memories?

These are some of the questions that will be at the centre of the T4EU Science Café Difficult Heritage, taking place on 1 October 2026, from 16:00 to 17:30 CET, at the Leonidas Donskis Library, in Kaunas, Lithuania. The event will also be livestreamed through the Transform4Europe YouTube channel. 

The Science Cafe will bring together experts from four universities of the Transform4Europe Alliance, including two researchers from Católica:

• José Guilherme Abreu, Universidade Católica Portuguesa;
• Laura Castro, Universidade Católica Portuguesa;
• Alessandro Carrieri, University of Trieste;
• Neža Čebron Lipovec, University of Primorska.

The discussion will be chaired by Linara Dovydaitytė, from Vytautas Magnus University.

Aimed at students, faculty, researchers, heritage professionals and anyone interested in the relationship between memory, identity and society, the event is part of the workshop T4EU Sustainable Heritage Cultural Responses to War: Shaping Heritage, Building Resilience.

The initiative is co-organised by Vytautas Magnus University, the Estonian Academy of Arts and Universidade Católica Portuguesa, in collaboration with the Kaunas Ninth Fort Museum.

The link for the livestream will be sent to registered participants a few days before the event. 

Registration View full playlist 

Heritage is deeply connected to identity, belonging and collective memory. It can help us understand who we are, where we come from and what unites a community. However, its construction is always selective: while some stories, achievements and experiences are celebrated, others — more painful, uncomfortable or contested — tend to be left out. 

It is in this context that Critical Heritage Studies engage with concepts such as difficult, dissonant, dark or unwanted heritage. Rather than preserving a stable version of the past, this perspective invites us to question who builds heritage narratives, whose voices are represented and which memories remain on the margins. 

As spaces of preservation, access to knowledge and public debate, libraries are not limited to holding documents and narratives: they allow different interpretations of the past to be confronted and create space for memories that do not always find a place in dominant discourses. 

Drawing on examples and perspectives from Portugal, Slovenia, Italy and Lithuania, participants will examine how different historical and social contexts influence the way heritage is interpreted and mobilised in the present. Can heritage accommodate uncomfortable and conflicting memories? What challenges does this approach pose to heritage preservation and interpretation practices? And what new possibilities might emerge when we acknowledge the complexity of the past?