It's organised by the Ironbridge International Institute for Cultural Heritage (based at the University of Birmingham) and the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, and is intended as an interdisciplinary conference examining the heritage of bridges. The organisers state that "the conference will draw from anthropology, archaeology, art history, architecture, engineering, ethnology, heritage studies, history, geography, landscape studies, literature, linguistics, museum studies, sociology, tourism studies etc."
Proposed discussion themes include:
- The materials and technologies of bridges – the heritage of form and function
- National and local iconographies of bridges
- Narratives of bridge construction and destruction
- Communities united and communities divided by bridges
- Poetics of the bridge – representing the bridge in art, literature and film
- Love and death on the bridge
- The language of the bridge – metaphors and meanings in social life
- Touring bridges – travel narratives and tourism economies
- Alternative bridge crossings – tunnels and ferries
A call for papers has been announced, with a deadline of 1st November 2016 for abstract submission. There are no details on conference prices at present., but you can visit the conference website to keep up to date with plans.