The Critical Heritage Studies collection, promoted by the UNESCO Chair in Cultural Landscapes and Heritage of the University of the Basque Country / Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (EHU), is an editorial space dedicated to the analysis and critical review of cultural heritage from feminist, intersectional and decolonial perspectives. Its purpose is to question hegemonic narratives about cultural heritage, broaden the subjects and experiences recognised in its construction, and promote new forms of interpretation and valorisation.

This orientation was materialised in the first volume, Promotoras de arquitectura. Mujeres, poder y paisajes urbanos, which inaugurated the collection and laid the foundations of an editorial line committed to the production and dissemination of knowledge, the strengthening of academic collaboration networks, and the visibility of women's contributions to architecture, heritage and the configuration of urban landscapes.

The collection aims to promote and disseminate rigorous research that critically reviews the ways in which heritage has been constructed, selected, valorised, managed and transmitted, paying particular attention to the memories, experiences and contributions of women and other groups historically marginalised from dominant heritage narratives.

From an interdisciplinary perspective, it seeks to generate new readings of cultural legacy and landscapes, questioning traditional theoretical, methodological and institutional frameworks and attending to power relations—of gender, class, ethnicity and other axes of inequality—that intervene in heritage-making processes.

This approach is grounded in understanding heritage not as a neutral or objective inheritance from the past, but as a social and cultural construction traversed by processes of selection, recognition, legitimation and exclusion. From this perspective, absences are as significant as presences, because they allow us to identify which memories have been recognised and which have been relegated from historical narratives.

The collection also aims to contribute to the development of research that broadens the subjects, objects, practices and memories recognised as cultural heritage, incorporating approaches capable of critically reviewing the so-called Authorised Heritage Discourse and including issues traditionally rendered invisible by traditional historiography.

Research on heritage and cultural landscapes that explicitly incorporates gender, feminist, intersectional and/or decolonial perspectives will be welcome, as will work aimed at critically reviewing hegemonic heritage narratives and rendering visible subjects, memories, practices and experiences historically excluded.

The following are some of the fields of application of these approaches:

• cultural heritage and cultural landscapes;
• architectural, urban, industrial and intangible heritage;
• memory, identity and heritage-making processes;
• living cultures and knowledge transmission;
• communities, participation and social appropriation of heritage;
• groups, experiences and memories historically marginalised from official narratives;
• critical methodologies for the valorisation, interpretation, management and transmission of heritage.

Purely descriptive work or work focused exclusively on heritage conservation, cataloguing or management that does not incorporate any of the critical approaches defining the collection will not be accepted.

The collection will have a clear interdisciplinary, collaborative and international vocation, encouraging dialogue between different fields of knowledge, institutions, territories and academic traditions.

It is also conceived as a tool to promote the dissemination and social transfer of knowledge, as well as the strengthening of national and international collaborative networks.

One volume per year is planned, linked primarily to the results of the 8M Reflexive Conference, and, when appropriate, to other research and scientific activities aligned with the collection's editorial lines.

Submitted works must constitute original contributions, based on rigorous research relevant to the collection's objectives.

2026 

Veronica Benedet

Architect from the Universidad de Buenos Aires, specialist in the Restoration of Historic Buildings from the Universidad Católica Argentina, and International Doctor from the University of the Basque Country / Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (EHU), where she obtained the qualification of Outstanding Cum Laude for her thesis Residential Urban Heritage of the Twentieth Century. Towards a Protocol for Inclusive Valorisation and Management. Case Studies in the Basque Country. She is currently a contracted postdoctoral researcher at the EHU and is a member of the Built Heritage Research Group (GPAC) and the UNESCO Chair in Cultural Landscapes and Heritage.

Her research career began in the field of Archaeology of Architecture and built heritage, and subsequently focused on the valorisation, protection and management of twentieth-century architectural and urban heritage. This line constitutes one of the main axes of her work and has been developed both through academic research and through projects involving the valorisation, inventory, conservation and management of heritage. Since 2017 she has coordinated the Patrimonio Siglo XX platform, dedicated to research, transfer and dissemination of contemporary architectural and urban heritage.

In this field she has directed and participated in projects such as Comprehensive Heritage Valorisation Protocol Applied to Twentieth-Century Residential Buildings (2017–2018), linked to her doctoral thesis; Agency (and Reclamation) of Cultural Heritage in Environmental Sustainability Projects (2021–2022); and New Protocols for Managing the Impact of Visual Pollution on Cultural Heritage in the Basque Autonomous Community (2023–2024), in addition to participating in the review and updating of the Inventory of Heritage Assets and Architectural Complexes of Basque Cultural Heritage, among others.

Her earlier career also includes research on colonial architecture in Buenos Aires, industrial heritage and socioeconomic management of built heritage, as well as work on heritage documentation, conservation and management in Spain and Argentina. These include the Master Plan for the Churches of Álava, the enhancement of the walls of Vitoria-Gasteiz—recognised with a Europa Nostra Prize—, heritage inventories for the Basque Government and various municipalities, the documentation of the Punta Begoña Galleries in Getxo, and the Integral Management Plan of Puerto Gaboto in Argentina.

Her previous publications in these areas include work on colonial architecture in Buenos Aires, industrial heritage, the socioeconomic management of built heritage, and contemporary landscape and urban planning.

From 2019–2020 onwards she specifically incorporated gender studies applied to architecture and heritage, initially through the research project Arquitectas (in)VISIBLES en Euskadi. The Problems Hidden by This Invisibility, funded by Emakunde. Since then she has developed a line focusing on the first generations of women architects in the Basque Country and Navarre, female and co-authorships, women as promoters of architecture, and their participation in the construction and transformation of urban landscapes.

Her postdoctoral research in the Abasto neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, funded through a Margarita Salas grant (2022–2024), allowed her to transfer the valorisation methodology developed in her doctoral thesis to the urban landscape, integrating heritage, memory, sustainability, inclusion and urban landscape.

Since 2019 she has directed and coordinated the 8M Reflexive Conference on Architecture, Heritage and Gender, with participation from researchers from the Basque Country and Argentina and the support of the UNESCO Chair in Cultural Landscapes and Heritage and the GPAC.

4.1 Members

The Scientific Committee of the Critical Heritage Studies collection is made up, in alphabetical order by surname, of the following members from local, national and international academic institutions, who have confirmed their acceptance:

• Iñaki Arrieta Urtizberea — University of the Basque Country / Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (EHU). Basque Country.
• Dora Barrancos — National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) / University of Buenos Aires (UBA). Argentina.
• Martín Capeluto — National University of San Martín (UNSAM). Argentina.
• Xochitl Inostroza Ponce — University of Santiago de Chile. Chile.
• Guadalupe Jiménez-Esquinas — University of Santiago de Compostela. Spain.
• Cándida Martínez López — University of Granada. Spain.
• Ramón Moreno Carlos — National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). Mexico.
• Lauro Olmo Enciso — University of Alcalá. Spain.
• María Jesús Pacho — University of the Basque Country / Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (EHU). Basque Country.
• Victoria Pedrotta — National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET–CCNAA) / Universidad Maimónides and Fundación Félix de Azara / Faculty of Natural Sciences and Museum of the Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Argentina.
• Lourdes Prados Torreira — Autonomous University of Madrid. Spain.
• Laurajane Smith — Australian National University, Centre for Heritage & Museum Studies. Australia.
• María Turull — National University of San Martín (UNSAM). Argentina.

The Scientific Committee comprises 13 members affiliated with academic and scientific institutions in Spain, Argentina, Chile, Mexico and Australia. Its institutional distribution includes six members from five Spanish universities—University of the Basque Country / Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, Autonomous University of Madrid, University of Alcalá, University of Granada and University of Santiago de Compostela—; four affiliated with Argentine institutions; one member from the University of Santiago de Chile; one member from the National Institute of Anthropology and History of Mexico; and one member from the Australian National University.

The Committee is composed of nine women and four men, with careers linked to archaeology, history, architecture, cultural heritage, gender studies, feminisms and memory. This disciplinary, institutional and geographical diversity allows for different approaches to the study and interpretation of heritage and is consistent with the critical, feminist, intersectional and decolonial perspectives that guide the collection.

The presence of European, Latin American and Australian institutions also reinforces the international dimension of the Committee and broadens the dialogue between different academic traditions and contexts of knowledge production. In this regard, the inclusion of Laurajane Smith from the Australian National University is particularly significant, given that her career constitutes an international reference in the field of critical heritage studies. Her contributions regarding processes of heritage construction, legitimation and selection, and especially the concept of the authorised heritage discourse, are closely related to the theoretical and critical foundations of Critical Heritage Studies.

Her inclusion not only broadens the Committee's international reach beyond the European-Latin American axis, but also contributes to reinforcing the academic and conceptual coherence of the collection. Together with the representation from Spain and Latin America, it promotes the construction of an international and transdisciplinary space for exchange around the ways of producing, interpreting, questioning and transmitting heritage from critical perspectives.

4.2 Functions

The Scientific Committee will be fundamentally consultative and will provide academic support, contributing through the trajectory and experience of its members to reinforce the quality, reach and internationalisation of this collection.

Participation in the Scientific Committee will not involve a regular burden of evaluation or editorial management, which will fall primarily to the collection directorship and the EHU Editorial Service.

Its functions may include, when necessary:

• advising the directorship on the general scientific orientation of the collection;
• occasionally assessing the suitability of specific proposals to the editorial lines;
• suggesting specialists for the external peer review of manuscripts;
• contributing to the visibility and academic reach of the collection;
• fostering the consolidation of national and international networks linked to critical heritage studies.

The following guidelines are general and indicative in nature and may be adapted according to the characteristics of each volume.

For contributions intended for collective volumes, the following guidelines should be used as reference:

• Microsoft Word file;
• A4 size;
• title in Times New Roman 14, bold;
• authorship and institutional affiliation in Times New Roman 12;
• body text in Times New Roman 12;
• 1.5 line spacing;
• 2.5 cm margins;
• justified text;
• unnumbered subheadings.

As an indicative guideline, contributions may have an approximate length of 5,000 to 8,000 words, including notes and bibliography.

Each work should preferably include:

• title in Spanish, Basque and English;
• abstract of between 200 and 300 words;
• up to five keywords;
• abstract and keywords in Spanish, Basque and English.

The Chicago system will be used as the general citation and reference criterion for all elements of the texts, including in-text citations, notes, bibliography, captions for figures, photographs, maps, plans, tables and graphs.

In the bibliography, full given names of authors should be used wherever possible. The bibliography should be presented at the end of the text and arranged alphabetically by surname.

Figures, photographs, maps, plans, tables and graphs must include complete and consistent identification, also in accordance with the Chicago system criteria, clearly indicating authorship, source, date where applicable and reproduction rights.

Notes should be used only when they provide necessary supplementary information and not as a substitute for full bibliographic references.

As a general guideline, up to 10 figures may be included per contribution, although this number may be modified when the characteristics and requirements of the research justify it.

Any exception or adaptation to these guidelines must be agreed upon in advance with the collection directorship.

Inclusive Language

Texts must obligatorily use inclusive and non-sexist language.

This requirement reflects the critical and pluralistic orientation of the collection. It is grounded in the understanding that language participates in the construction of social representations and can contribute both to making subjects, experiences and trajectories visible or to excluding them. The use of inclusive language is therefore part of the editorial criteria of the collection and does not constitute an optional recommendation.

As a reference, the Guide for the Inclusive Use of Spanish produced by the Directorate for Equality of the University of the Basque Country / Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (EHU) will be used.

Any asymmetry in the way women and men are named must also be avoided, the feminine forms of professions, positions and qualifications must be used correctly, and inclusive representation must be ensured in images, graphs and other visual materials.

Compliance with these criteria will be a requirement for the definitive acceptance of texts.

Submitted manuscripts will undergo a procedure designed to ensure their scientific quality, their suitability for the collection's guidelines and compliance with the editorial requirements.

• In a first phase, the collection directorship will carry out a preliminary review to verify:
• thematic suitability to the collection's lines;
• originality and relevance of the proposal;
• overall quality and coherence of the manuscript;
• compliance with editorial guidelines;
• use of inclusive and non-sexist language.

Where necessary, texts may undergo an initial review of style, citation and formal aspects. Modifications will be made using track changes, allowing their review and acceptance by the authors.

Subsequently, manuscripts will undergo the corresponding scientific evaluation in accordance with the procedures established by the Editorial Service of the University of the Basque Country / Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea.

The evaluation will take into account, among other aspects:

• originality and relevance of the research;
• scientific and methodological rigour;
• clarity of objectives;
• suitability of the theoretical framework;
• quality and relevance of sources used;
• coherence between methodology, analysis and results;
• contribution to critical heritage studies;
• suitability to the collection's lines;
• quality and clarity of writing.

When reports request modifications, these will be communicated to the authors for incorporation.

Final acceptance will be conditional both on a favourable outcome of the scientific evaluation process and on compliance with the requirements established by the EHU Editorial Service.

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