Conference outline
Museums and heritage are a dynamic field in which scholars and practitioners are in search of new ways of thinking and doing. What are some of the liveliest areas of debate and conceptual energy? How do or might these reshape museum practice?
This conference, which takes place from 26th – 28th July 2017, brings together international scholars and practitioners to think creatively, critically, and anthropologically about some of the liveliest concepts and practices circulating in museums and heritage today. The conference explores their potential for transforming museum practice. What do they change? Who and what do they bring into museums and heritage and who and what do they leave out? And what are their conceptual limitations or stumbling blocks in practice?
Thinking even further, how can such concepts be extended or reshaped to further energise their transformative potential? Or what happens when we put them into dialogue with other areas of theorising or practice?
In a format designed to foster such exchange and questions, this conference seeks to look at other ways of being wise in order to think otherwise about museums and heritage today.
Call for Contributions
For this call for contributions, we are seeking proposals that explore currently underused concepts, especially those drawn from ethnographic theory or practice, which are productive for analysing or rethinking museums and heritage. We therefore invite abstracts of 250 words that set out a chosen concept, explaining its source (including in your own work if relevant) and why you think it should be taken up in the theory and/or practice of museums and heritage in the future.
Further details
Selected participants will become table hosts during a world café, a format that aims to facilitate open discussion and link ideas within a larger group to access the collective intelligence in the room. World café participants move between a series of tables to join into a discussion in response to a set of questions, which are predetermined and focused on the specific topic of the table. The discussions of the day will be summarized at the end by table hosts.
Applicants should be at least in the third year of PhD and within less than three years after completion.
Selected participants will receive a travel bursary up to 300 € (Europe) or 800 € (outside Europe). We gladly provide help with accommodation, if requested.
Application
Please submit the separate application form from this page to by 15th February 2017.
We aim to inform applicants of the outcome by 1st March 2017 so that appropriate travel arrangements can be made in advance.