On Friday, May 29, 2026, at the Museum Sarajevo 1878–1918, Dr. Mirha Šabanović, Advisor for Monument Heritage at the Cantonal Institute for the Protection of Monuments, delivered a presentation entitled “Between Science and Heritage: The Movable Heritage of the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.”
The lecture “Between Science and Heritage: The Movable Heritage of the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics” addresses the issues of identifying, evaluating, protecting, and interpreting movable heritage within educational and public institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Through an analysis of the faculty’s laboratory instruments, teaching equipment, and furnishings, the lecture examines their documentary, historical, technical, and museological significance as material traces of scientific practice and institutional memory. The lecture also highlights the position of movable heritage within the existing institutional and legal frameworks for heritage protection, with particular emphasis on the challenges posed by the insufficient inventorying, documentation, and evaluation of objects that are still in active use.
The lecture also highlights the need for a broader understanding of cultural heritage, within which laboratory instruments and institutional furnishings are recognized as an important component of the scientific, educational, and cultural history of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
A key question is how this heritage can be documented and protected, given that it is not housed in cultural institutions officially registered to carry out museum, archival, or library activities.
Thanks to the research work of Dr. Šabanović, the movable heritage of the Departments of Chemistry and Physics at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics has been inventoried, described, and documented, representing a significant step toward its preservation and protection. This is particularly important because such objects are often discarded, as they have not undergone formal institutional verification and are therefore not recognized as heritage assets requiring protection.
