Category: Call for Papers

Call for Research: International Conference on the Inclusive Museum

Seventeenth International Conference on the Inclusive Museum, MuseumsQuartier, Vienna, Austria, September 13 – 15, 2024. 

Founded in 2008, The Inclusive Museum Research Network is brought together by a shared concern for the future role of the museum and how it can become more inclusive. We seek to build an epistemic community where we can make linkages across disciplinary, geographic, and cultural boundaries. As a Research Network, we are defined by our scope and concerns and motivated to build strategies for action framed by our shared themes and tensions.

The Seventeenth International Conference on the Inclusive Museum calls for research addressing the following annual themes and special focus: 

  • 2024 Special Focus—Intersectionality: Museums, Inclusion, and SDGs
  • Theme 1: Visitors
  • Theme 2: Collections
  • Theme 3: Representations

Contact Email: support@cgnetworks.org

URL: https://onmuseums.com/2024-conference

Call for Chapters: Archival Pedagogies

Archival Pedagogies

Editors: James Lowry (City University of New York), Tshepho Mosweu (University of Botswana), Pimphot Seelakate (Chulalongkorn University, Thailand), Magdalena Wisniewska-Drewniak (Nicolaus Copernicus University, Poland).

In 2011, the Pluralizing the Archival Curriculum Group (PACG) of the Archival Education and Research Institute noted that “Archival studies education programs are conceptualized in strikingly similar ways worldwide, largely because of the overarching bureaucratically- and legally-centered paradigms developed and exported from Europe through colonialism, evangelism, mercantilism, and technological developments, and later codified through national and international standards and terminologies” (PACG, “Educating for the Archival Multiverse”, The American Archivist, 2011:74, pp.69-101). 

While the work to critique dominant archival paradigms, recuperate subjugated memory and information epistemologies and practices, and create new archival modes in response and anticipation of social and technological change has been fostered in research and articulated in the realm of theory in major collections such as Research in the Archival Multiverse, and new monographs and journals, and operationalized in policies, procedures, and practices, the pedagogical implications of changing archival thought have been under-explored. Important developments in the teaching of archival studies are sometimes unpublished, and the extant literature on archival education per se has a relatively small footprint. 

This edited collection seeks to bring archival pedagogy into sharp focus, asking: What is the state of the art in archival education today? What are the histories and futures of archival education in different parts of the world, and how do they interact in global discourses and knowledge/power relations? What now constitutes the body of professional knowledge, the essential skills and competencies of the archival curriculum, in which places and why? What modes and methods are being developed and applied to the education of archivists, and within what structures and systems of professionalism, higher education, neoliberalism, etc? How do Indigenous, computational and other technologies of record-making and keeping factor into the content and delivery of archival education?

Although the book will be published in English, the editors are hopeful that students and teachers of archival theory and practice worldwide will consider contributing. To that end, we will explore translation options with prospective authors writing in languages other than English.

The chapters in this book will consider the histories and futures of archival education, the essential knowledge for records work in rapidly changing environments, means and methods for designing and delivering archival education, and the technologies of archive. Chapters in the volume might pose and seek to answer such questions as:

·       How has or can archival education respond to shifts in archival theory over recent years?

·       How has the landscape of archival education changed over recent years?

·       What can archival pedagogy contribute to the development of theory and practice? What does archival pedagogy as theory and practice look like?

·       How has the COVID-19 pandemic altered teaching and learning for archival studies and research? How will archival pedagogy look in the post-pandemic era? What will be the post-pandemic challenges for archival education?

·       Where do today’s norms of archival education come from and do they work for us?

What has been the role of archival education in propagating harmful or beneficial ideas and practices?

·       How have disciplinary inheritances shaped archival education and what results from interdisciplinarity in teaching?

·       What could developments in educational theory, practice and technology mean for archival studies? How might archival studies contribute to the broader field of education?

·       What is the place of archival education in the university? Are current pathways through education and training useful, limiting or exclusionary? What can critical or abolitionist university studies help us imagine for archival pedagogy?

·       Do apprenticeships and other workplace-based educational approaches disrupt, unsettle or complement undergraduate and post-graduate education? How do they benefit the record-keeping mission, and do they threaten notions of professionalism?

·       How have notions of professionalism and professional identity aided or hindered efforts to prepare record-keepers for the socially important work of record-keeping? What part has pedagogy played in this?

·       What are the current approaches to and priorities of continuing professional development and accreditation systems? 

·       What do changing job markets, exploitative labour practices and job and economic precarity mean for archival education? What should they mean for archival education?

·       What do environmental, social and political changes suggest for the archival workforce of tomorrow? How should archival education respond?

Guidance for Prospective Authors

Please submit manuscripts to Magdalena Wiśniewska-Drewniak magwis@umk.pl by 1 October 2023.

Referencing style: APA (American Psychological Association) 7th Edition

Word range: 5,000 – 6,000 words

The book manuscript will be submitted to Tampere University Press, where it will be peer reviewed, with a view to publishing it as a Diamond Open Access book, possibly in a new open access Information Studies book series.

CFP: Artefacts XXVIII National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo, Japan, October 8–10, 2023

Call for Proposals for the conference

ARTEFACTS XXVIII “Wide-Angle and Long-Range Views”

ARTEFACTS is an international network of academic and museum-based scholars of science, technology and medicine interested in promoting the use of objects in research. The network was established in 1996 and since then has held annual conferences examining the role of artefacts in the history of science and technology and related areas.

For the first time in its history, ARTEFACTS goes to Asia this year. The twenty-eighth conference will be held at the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo, Japan, October 8–10, 2023. The meeting will be in-person.

A gathering in Japan, where “Western” science and technology have been transferred to the unique culture of a long tradition, must provide an opportunity to reflect on the processes and consequences of globalization once again after the severest years of COVID-19. In addition, the Japanese National Museum of Nature and Science comprises both natural history and the history of science and technology, and, if combined, it will be an ideal place to reflect on human activities in much longer “history” of nature. When the authors of The History Manifesto insisted on long-term thinking (Guldi and Armitage 2014), one of the commentators contributing to Isis pointed to the absence of museums in their discussion, concluding that “we urgently need the wide-angle, long-range views only historical museums can provide” (Söderqvist 2016). In a broad interpretation, we will pursue this possibility based on museum objects and other artefacts.

We invite papers that explore topics such as, but not limited to

  • Global circulation or transnational motion of objects/collections of science and technology, especially related to East Asia
  • Role of artefacts not only in connecting, but also in disconnecting transnational circulation of knowledge
  • Role of local crafts and historical materials in communicating contemporary science and technology in a globalized world
  • Scientific, digital and other approaches to long-term history complementing text-based historical studies
  • Intersections between history of science and technology and natural history at large, including the history of universe and the history of earth
  • Museum practices (exhibitions, in particular) and theoretical considerations of presenting wide-angle and long-range views on history for public audiences

ARTEFACTS conferences are friendly and informal meetings with the character of workshops. There is plenty of time for open discussion and networking. Each contributor will be allocated a 20 minutes slot for her or his talk, plus ample time for questions and discussion. Please send a proposal for papers (ca. 500 words) along with a brief CV to artefacts2023@kahaku.go.jp no later than June 30, 2023. Please remember that the focus of presentations should be on artefacts.

We are also pleased to announce that we have decided to offer some funding to defray the costs of participating in the meeting, mainly for early-career scholars. To apply, please send the following information to artefacts2023@kahaku.go.jp by May 21:

  • Name, institution, and short CV
  • Tentative title and short abstract (max. 100 words) of your proposal
  • Tentative itinerary, including the estimate of your anticipated airline, train, or other travel costs to Japan.

If you plan to receive other funding for your travel, please include the details.

Important dates:

  • May 21, 2023                          Deadline for application to the supplementary travel fund
  • June 30, 2023                          Deadline for abstract submission
  • July 14, 2023                          Notification of acceptance of paper and announcement of awardee of the supplementary travel fund
  • July 21, 2023                          Publication of the provisional program
  • October 8–10, 2023                Conference in Tokyo

Contact Info: 

Nobumichi ARIGA
Associate Professor, Graduate School of Language and Society, Hitotsubashi University
Affiliated Researcher, Department of Science and Technology, National Museum of Nature and Science
2-1 Naka, Kunitachi, Tokyo 186-8601, JAPAN

Hiroto KONO
Curator, Department of Science and Technology, National Museum of Nature and Science
4-1-1 Amakubo, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0005, JAPAN

Contact Email: artefacts2023@kahaku.go.jp

URL: https://www.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/our-work/research-public-history/artefacts-consortium/

CFP: Digital Platforms and Agency, Lateral Special Section

Digital Platforms and Agency

Special Section of Lateral

500 word Abstracts due June 30th, 2023

How do digital platforms shape our agency, and how do we shape digital platforms in turn? What is the role of digital platforms in forming our social, cultural, and political practices?  How and whom do digital platforms (dis)empower? This special section of Lateral invites scholars from diverse fields to advance critical cultural inquiry at the convergence of platforms and agency on digital, networked, and/or new media. 

A digital platform is a standard which facilitates computational interactions between users and systems, according to Ian Bogost. Ubiquitous but self-effacing, platforms increasingly mediate the constitution and expression of consciousness. Troubling clean divisors between humanity and technology, platforms pose a challenge to monolithic, individuated, and humanist notions of agency that the field of cultural studies is uniquely poised to address. 

Thus, this section calls for scholars to attend to the ways in which platforms differentially amplify, accelerate, diminish, and subvert the agency of users, systems, and communities. We see this work following Beth Coleman’s characterization of networked agency as “the disruptive technology of our time” which troubles clean divisors between human/nonhuman, virtual/actual, and individual/system. This section will deepen Coleman’s provocation by demystifying discrepancies of access, leverage, and capacity that characterize the emergence of platforms within our stratified political system. 

We seek a diverse collection of essays that reflect the interdisciplinarity of cultural studies and platform studies. We encourage submissions from myriad traditions and approaches including media studies, political economy, performance studies, communication, composition, science and technology studies, gender studies, sociology, computer science, and more. 

Contributions to this session may, for instance: 

  • Evaluate the entanglement of platform cultures within the politics of representation and regimes of symbolic violence
  • Critique structures of power on/of platforms, such as anti-blackness and digital colonialism, which inhibit and afford agency
  • Reveal the ramifications of platform capitalism, mediated labor relations, and the development and/or subversion of political consciousness
  • Develop posthuman challenges to agency by scrutinizing the impact of emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence
  • Trace the political ramifications of digital platforms and agency at play: video games, streaming, and/or social media
  • Compare imaginations and practices of algorithmic governance
  • Interrogate datafication as a constraint against or catalyst of networked subjectivities

Please send all submissions and inquiries to digitalplatformsandagency@gmail.com. Potential authors should submit a 500-word abstract by June 30, 2023 to Platforms and Agency co-editors Elaine Venter and Reed Van Schenck to be considered for publication. Abstracts will be reviewed by the editors by August 30, 2023. Final submissions for publication of 5,000–9,000 words expected by March 1, 2024. All submissions will undergo a double-anonymous peer review process according to journal policies.

Contact Info: 

Reed Van Schenck and Elaine Venter

Contact Email: digitalplatformsandagency@gmail.com

URL: https://csalateral.org/upcoming/#digital-platforms-agency

CFP: Taboo in Cultural Heritage: Reverberations of colonialism and national socialism

Theme description

In the spring and summer of 2020, a wave of statue defacements and removals spread across the world. As part of the Black Lives Matter protests, monuments in many countries were labeled as inappropriate due to their relationship with colonial histories and racial injustices. This ‘burdened heritage’ was considered taboo: something that should not have a physical presence in public space. In that same year, as a direct reaction to the Black Lives Matter protests, the exhibition Are Jews white? (Jewish Museum, Amsterdam) tried to break a taboo by discussing color and the question of where Jews find themselves in the identity politics spectrum of Black and White.

Soon after, a controversy about the ‘uniqueness’ and ‘comparability’ of the Holocaust arose: ‘Historikerstreit 2.0’ as it was frequently called, with reference to the debate of the late 1980s. A number of historians pointed to the taboo against challenging the ‘uniqueness’ of the Holocaust by comparing it with colonial violence, which is also present in the memory of these histories in today’s society (e.g., in monuments, exhibitions, restitution issues, debates about apologies and reparations, etc.).

Taboo is a subject, word, or action that is avoided or forbidden for religious, social or political reasons. Although there are certain taboos that appear to be virtually universal, most taboos vary with cultures and times. Objects, sites, or practices appropriated as cultural heritage, can at a later moment in history be redesignated as problematic, no longer conforming to certain norms and values. Conversely, (former) taboos can be contested, eventually triggering the ‘heritagization’ and display of hitherto banned objects and sites.

Unsurprisingly, taboo and tabooed issues get less attention in humanities and heritage practices than the canon or the canonized. However, canon and taboo could be considered two sides of the same coin; they are interdependent. For that reason alone, it is important to address the subject of taboo as well, and not turn a blind eye to it. For example, the canonization of modernist art after World War II went hand in hand with tabooing art produced under National Socialism. Nowadays, there is a renewed interest at museums in exhibiting these works, sparking controversy and debate.

This international conference aims to reflect on the concept of taboo in relation to cultural heritage in the context of colonialism and national socialism and their reverberations in society. What can the dynamics of taboo convey about today’s globalizing world? How have taboos shaped (and continue to shape) and impacted the process of cultural heritage making? How do taboos generate heritage dissonance (Tunbridge and Ashworth, 1996)? How does the concept apply to ‘difficult heritage’ (Macdonald, 2009)? How do/could/should cultural heritage professionals deal with questioning the display, adjustment or removal of such ‘burdened heritage’, and is every heritage professional and scholar ‘allowed’ to address every topic?

Paper submission

We welcome abstracts for papers from all humanities and social sciences. It is our contention that by focusing on taboos in cultural heritage from an interdisciplinary and international perspective, they will become, again, negotiable.

Apart from emerging and senior scholars in academia, we also invite heritage professionals to present a paper. They are often at the center of public debates, and need to take a position on tabooed issues in their daily practice. Professionals might benefit from current academic discourse and vice versa. We are looking for theoretical and philosophical approaches, terminological and conceptual reflections as well as representative case studies from all disciplines.

Artistic contributions:
We also warmly invite proposals for contributions from artists working with the themes of the conference. Formats to share artistic research are open but might include workshops, films, and performance-lectures. However applicants should be aware that we do not have capacity to provide extensive technical and production support.

Proposals may include, but are by no means limited to:

  • Issues of taboo and transgression;
  • Interrelationships between tabooization and canonization;
  • Tabooed cultural heritage related to national socialism and (post)colonialism;
  • Rejected heritage;
  • Tabooing art and cultural heritage for political and ideological reasons;
  • Stigma and taboo;
  • Taboo and positionality (Global North/South; gender and sexuality);
  • Taboo in museology;
  • Looted art and restitution.

Confirmed keynote speakers

  • Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela (Stellenbosch, South Africa)
  • Sharon Macdonald (Berlin, Germany) 

Practical information

Abstracts max 400 words and biography max 150 words can be sent to taboocongress@gmail.com.

Deadline: 1 August 2023. The conference will take place on 1 and 2 February 2024 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

We will publish contributions of this conference in a peer-reviewed edited volume.

Organized by the Open University of the Netherlands; Reinwardt Academie, University of the Arts; and the University of Amsterdam.

Contact Info: Gregor M. Langfeld and Judy Jaffe-Schagen

Contact Email: g.m.langfeld@uva.nl

URL: https://www.ou.nl/en/international-conference-taboo-in-cultural-heritage

CFP: ICAMT-ICOM 49th International Conference: Undoing Conflict in Museums: materiality and meaning of museum architecture and exhibition design

The University of Porto will host the 49th International Conference of ICAMT-ICOM next October 25th to 27th. The event will be co-organized by the Center for Transdisciplinary Research “Culture, Space, and Memory” (CITCEM) and the Center for Studies in Architecture and Urbanism (CEAU). The conference’s central theme is “Undoing Conflict in Museums: Materiality and Meaning of Museum Architecture and Exhibition Design.” Participants will focus their discussions on the power of conflict exhibitions and the role of architecture and exhibition design in managing conflict in museums.

The conference offers the option to select from multiple round table discussions that will focus on four key themes:

(HOT) TOPICS                     
Key Theme 1 – Dealing with Conflict                                                                                                                          Key Theme 2 – Symbols of Conflict                                                                                                                          Key Theme 3 – Processes and Conflict                                                                                                                    Key Theme 4 – Healing, Resistance and the Future

Applicants to this event will be able to do so through the following presentation formats:                 

  • Paper Presentations – They will be face-to-face and last 15 to 20 minutes (max.).
  • Digital Posters – Static image (jpeg, jpg) for online display.
  • Short-Videos – Presentation of 8 to 10 minutes for online viewing.

All submissions and presentations (oral presentations, posters, short videos) must be made in English.

Proposals must be sent to the following email address: icamtporto2023@gmail.com by May 31, 2023 (midnight GTM)

Other important dates are:

July 5, 2023 – Communication of acceptance or rejection of the proposal.

September 5, 2023 (midnight GMT) – Deadline for final papers, posters and short videos submission.

Contact Email: icamt2023@gmail.com

URL: https://id.letras.up.pt/icamt2023porto/

Call for contributions: Interfaces

Call for contributions: Interfaces (volume 52, 2024)

https://journals.openedition.org/interfaces/

Bibliophilia: Book Matters

In December 2024, the bilingual online journal Interfaces will issue a volume on the relation between the book, its materials and the lifeforms of the non-human world. It welcomes papers (in English or in French) showcasing the book as ecomedia that can be explored from the perspective of ecocritical intermediality. The theme of this volume will also reflect the environmental and ecocritical turn in art history, and it may prompt theoretical forays into media archaeology. The papers can cover a wide variety of sources, such as single editions or book series, publishers’ and suppliers’ archives, librarian’s catalogues and book artists’ writings. Book historians and print scholars, specialists of ecocriticism and environmental history, plant studies and animal studies, of craft and material culture, word-and-image studies and literature, are invited to submit papers on the following topics of discussion:

– Ambivalence of the book as archive of the living world

– Affordances, textuality and physicality

– Networks and ecosystems

Deadlines for submission: please send an abstract (500 words, in English or in French) and a biobibliographical note to sophie.aymes@u-bourgogne.fr before 1st September 2023. If accepted, the completed papers will have to be submitted by 29th February 2024. All submitted articles should follow the journal’s guidelines and stylesheet: https://journals.openedition.org/interfaces/530 and they will be double-blind peer reviewed. The final version of the accepted papers will have to be delivered by 1st September 2024.

Download the complete call for contributions here: https://til.u-bourgogne.fr/images/stories/labo/programme/CFC_Bibliophili…

Contact Info: 

Sophie Aymes (guest editor): sophie.aymes@u-bourgogne.fr

CFP: 2023 Dress and Body Association Conference

Though not archives-specific, this CFP mentions museums.

The Dress and Body Association invites submissions for the organization’s fourth annual conference, which will be held on November 4-5, 2023. Consistent with our long-term goals for inclusivity and sustainability, all activities will be 100% online, including keynote speaker(s), research presentations, and opportunities for virtual networking.

Visit the DBA website—www.dress-body-association.org—to learn more about this organization and consider becoming a member.

Climate Change: Implications for Dress and the Body

For English speakers, there are two major definitions of “climate” as a noun:

  1. The characteristic weather conditions of a country or region
  2. The attitudes or conditions prevailing among a body of people

Curiously, we use the term “climate change” primarily (if not exclusively) in connection with deteriorating environmental conditions. Yet human bodies and dress are also… and have always been… impacted by changing “attitudes or conditions.” What changes happening today are having the greatest or most pertinent impacts? How are these changes affecting different “bodies of people” (societies, cultures, organizations, communities, etc.)?

Proposals for a paper or a virtual roundtable discussion on any topic related to dress and the body will be considered, but those related to this year’s theme are most likely to be accepted. Changing “attitudes and conditions” may include but are not limited to:

  • Technological innovations (e.g. AI-generated dress/bodies, biodegradable/fungal dress, biomimicry)
  • Politics and political activism (e.g. bodies of intersectional solidarity)
  • Circumstances of violence, conflict, and migration
  • The physical environment and attitudes about it (e.g. consequences and adaptations to anthropogenic climate change)
  • Cultural standards and ideals of beauty (e.g. “sexy” bodies or “healthy” bodies)
  • Implementation (or revision) of laws and dress codes (e.g. reproductive rights, gender diversity, labor rights)
  • Changes in education that impact future artists, designers, creators, and inventors
  • Changes in industries (fashion, theater, advertising, healthcare, media, museums, etc.)

Both beginning and advanced scholars are welcome. Abstracts should be 200-300 words. Presenters do not need to submit a paper before the conference. Depending on the number of submissions and the time zones of presenters, each person should have approximately 20 minutes to speak with discussion at the end of each panel.

Although we welcome scholars, educators, and activists from any country, the language of the conference will be English. We will consider a panel in an alternative language if there is sufficient interest from a group of scholars. Abstracts must be written in English and should be drawn from original research; we ask that presenters not simply recycle papers given at other conferences. Pre-recorded presentations are allowed, but presenters must join the Zoom meeting to hear the other speakers on the panel and participate in the discussion in real time.

For best consideration, please submit your abstract by July 1, 2023. All submissions will be read by at least two reviewers in a single-blind review process. Authors can expect letters of acceptance by mid-August.

Registration through the DBA website will be required for access to the online platform. Donations are welcome, but not required to participate. The recommended donation is 20 USD for students and early-career scholars, 50 USD for mid-career and senior scholars.

To submit an abstract: dress-body-association.org/abstracts
To register for the conference: dress-body-association.org/conference-registration

The Dress and Body Association is registered as a non-profit organization (501(c)(3)) in the state of Indiana (United States). Donations are tax-deductible.

Dress & Body Association | dress.body.assoc@gmail.com

CFP: SAA Women’s Collections Section Meeting

The Women’s Collections Section (WCS) of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) are seeking panel proposals and presentations for the WCS section meeting to be held June 20, 2023 at 1PM CST/2PM EST!

This year we are seeking proposals that focus on creative strategies and innovative means repositories are using to highlight stories of women and gender non-conforming individuals. This call extends to repositories that may fall outside traditional bounds and collections that are not traditionally seen as being “women’s collections.”

We especially invite proposals that highlight stories of Queer and Trans individuals and people of color. Please email your proposal to wcrt.saa@gmail.com.

Proposals will be reviewed by the WCS section steering committee. They will be prioritizing proposals that intentionally address critical and anti-oppressive research and practices.

The deadline for all proposals is Friday, May 19, 2023. Notifications will be sent out by Monday, May 29, 2023.

Feel free to email the WCS co-chairs at wcrt.saa@gmail.com with any questions or concerns!

CFP: Association of Registrars and Collection Managers

November 7-10, 2023 Montreal, Quebec, Canada

ARCS welcomes registrars, collections specialists, and all those who work within our field to Montreal, Quebec, Canada for educational sessions, networking events, and a chance to meet colleagues from around the world. 

Important Dates

  • March 20, 2023 – Request for Proposals Opens
  • April 21, 2023 – Session Proposals are due. 
  • Late Spring 2023 – Registration fee structure to be announced
  • November 7-10, 2023-Conference

Looking for inspiration for the upcoming request for proposals? Take a look at the scheduled from our 2022 Virtual Conference

Call for Proposals

The past three years have profoundly impacted our field and demonstrated the need to evolve and adapt our practices. This journey reaffirmed our resilience and taught us to positively channel the momentum created from this time of reflection and growth. We are now catalysts and agents of change within our own institutions and the greater field, using our momentum to create a more just future. Momentum encourages us to find new ways to partner with communities, create more accessibility, and reduce our carbon footprint while still stewarding collections. Sustaining momentum is challenging but necessary to move forward, creating new pathways for effective, smarter, and more resourceful solutions. 

ARCS invites you to submit proposals and join an international discussion about the collections field for the 2023 Conference, Momentum, to be held in Montreal Canada on November 7th-10th. Sessions may address any aspect of your work. Proposals must be submitted no later than 11:59 PM EST, April 21, 2023. To learn more about submitting a session proposal please view the guidelines. Please contact Conference@arcsinfo.org if you have any questions.  

Please view the 2023 Proposal Submission Guidelines before submitting your proposal.