Category: Call for Papers

CFP: A Critical Study of Training in the Field of Heritage

A Critical Study of Training in the Field of Heritage
Deadline for submission of proposed contributions: September 15, 2025

Plan

Special issue editors (scientific coordination):
Call for proposals
General framework and issues considered
Axis 1 – In Situ: training in the right place at the right time
Axis 2 – Into the heart of heritage training
Axis 3 – Trials as revelations, self-celebratory narratives examined
Contribution proposals (abstracts)

Special issue editors (scientific coordination):

Christian Hottin : conservateur en chef du patrimoine, direction générale des Patrimoines et de l’Architecture, membre du CTHS, membre associé d’Héritages (UMR 9022)

Gaspard Salatko : enseignant statutaire en sciences sociales à l’École supérieure d’art d’Avignon, membre du projet ANR « Sacralités par destination. Mises en récits et mises en scène des matérialités de Notre-Dame de Paris – SACRADE »

Michelle L. Stefano : Folklife Specialist, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress; adjunct professor, Cultural Heritage Management Master’s Program, Johns Hopkins University, Washington, DC

Call for proposals

This call for contributions invites attention to institutions and programs which, through training, contribute to the development of authorized discourses on heritage. Authorized discourses and views on heritage are expressed in a variety of ways. They are enshrined in international and national legislation and policy, and are promoted and staged by museums and institutions for the conservation of sites and monuments, among others. They are also at the heart of knowledge transmission processes that organize the permanence or variation of the right ways of saying, seeing, or doing heritage. A critical analysis of these mechanisms must therefore include a study of the institutions of higher education that help train future professionals in the field: What grammars of heritage are taught? How, and by whom, are the modalities of its treatment defined, and according to what horizons of expectations, as well as for what purposes and audiences?

In the last decades of the 20th century, as heritage became a category of public action defined in significant part by international standards, and as an economic resource in line with the growth of mass tourism, training in heritage professions – either at the university level or in specialized schools that had long been exclusive and/or elitist – became increasingly widespread. At the time they were founded, these courses were strongly rooted in the ways in which higher education was organized via different national traditions. Like all university programs, they have recently undergone a process of codification, standardization, and normalization that, while making them more easily comparable, also encourages their promoters to diversify and certify them: the challenge now, in a global context of increased competition between universities, is to make their programs more attractive.

For teachers and students alike, these training courses are places where discourses on heritage are demarcated, structured, and standardized, although sometimes tinged with different national traditions and influences. Students are familiarized with the economic and professional environment of their chosen field. And, with the support provided by professionals from heritage establishments, as teachers or internship tutors, they also lay the foundations for their own network of professional contacts.

Furthermore, although varying from country to country, these training courses are linked to research institutions of all disciplinary horizons that have contributed, over the same period, to establishing heritage as an object of academic study. As a result, a social sciences perspective on heritage training requires us to abandon – at least for a moment – the presumed universalist aims of authorized heritage discourses and outlook, and to approach these processes from a casuistic angle, attentive to the local contexts that organize the transmission of professional discourse, gestures, and outlooks.

General framework and issues considered

The issue brings needed attention to the critical study of wide-ranging programs in institutions of higher education dedicated to training future scholars and professionals in the cultural heritage discipline and sector. Contributions can shed critical light on the following perspectives, among others, in relation to the initial establishment, development, and/or continued facilitation (and modification) of heritage training programs over time:

  • Political contexts and influences, whether at international, national, or more local levels;
  • Historical contexts and influences;
  • Disciplinary contexts and influences, including foundational theories and/or scholarship used;
  • Geographical, including increasingly global, contexts and influences;
  • Components of programs, such as curricula, methodologies, skills taught, and expected learning outcomes;
  • The balance between theory and practice, and the practical or ‘applied’ emphasis of instruction and student placement in the sector;
  • Current challenges and related effects, including economic pressures; and
  • Commemorative discourses and activities pertaining to certain longstanding institutions and programs.

The following outlines thematic axes within which contributions can fall.

Axis 1 – In Situ: training in the right place at the right time
In particular, the issue seeks to examine the circumstances that led to the creation of training courses dedicated to heritage professions and scholarship, with all possible variations in scale and influence. As such, we welcome contributions that explore the development of such training and heritage programs from a political perspective, such as with the emergence of the earliest formations in a global framework that saw the affirmation of nation-states in fierce competition with one another, both in Europe and in their colonial expansion territories.

Moreover, examinations can focus on the scientific context, such as in relation to disciplinary influences, including prominent theorization or discourse, at the time of program establishment, including art history, archaeology, ethnology, and museology, as examples. Similarly, examinations may explore disciplinary influences in how programs may have developed (or changed) over time, such as with respect to related advancements in law or economics, as well as in the hard sciences. In addition, contributions may also shed light on the gradual affirmation of allied disciplines that were intended to be both techniques for treating (e.g. conserving and preserving) certain categories of cultural property and fields of research and work in their own right, such as museum studies, archival theory and practice, library science, and later ‘heritage studies’ or ‘heritage sciences’ (defined less by their own methodology than by their object). Indeed, particular attention may be paid to the role that the teaching of museology has played – in France and elsewhere – in preceding and, in a way, paving the way for heritage studies over the past several decades.

Finally, the geopolitical context and associated influences may also be the focus of examinations. For instance, needed are analyses of the strategies for establishing programs on a global scale and with a global scope, where in the past certain institutions were established during periods of colonial/imperial domination, and more recently, they may be subject to market competition between universities, including via the growth of online (virtual) degree-granting or certification programs. Relatedly, examinations may concentrate on the impact of international heritage policies, such as promoted by UNESCO, on the organization and content of teaching.

From this angle, raised are also debates on the search for the most appropriate positioning for these programs and courses: are universities most suitable, or should they be as close as possible to curatorial and other heritage conservation, preservation, and dissemination institutions (e.g. operating from within them)? On a similar note, important questions are also raised on the circulation of knowledge, of those who transmit it and those who receive it, among and between training programs and other heritage institutions, organizations, and centers of activity.

Axis 2 – Into the heart of heritage training
Of equal importance are analyses that delve into the heart of heritage training schemes to examine their operation and various components. Aspects of heritage programs include:

the methods used to select students, such as in terms of the skill level required, the learning outcomes expected, and the ways in which they are assessed;

their curricula, such as the disciplines drawn on and taught and the exercises considered for their canonical value (e.g. engagement with certain scholarship, condition reports);

the balance between theory and practice, with particular attention paid to the question of internships, and the place given to scientific research in the course of training; and

the conditions under which students enter the job market, and any follow-up carried out by the institution about their career development and working life.

Indeed, among the most characteristic features of many of courses are their ‘practical’ or ‘applied’ approaches to studying and working within the heritage sector in various capacities, as well as the desire of those in charge to pass on managerial skills to students. Here, questions are raised on how, and to what extent, do managerial discourses and practices influence the way in which these courses, historically rooted in the humanities, are designed and delivered?

Moreover, particular attention can be paid to the material conditions for acquiring and transmitting heritage knowledge, know-how and interpersonal skills, such as the location of teaching facilities, layout of workshops, laboratories, documentation centers, development of distance learning opportunities. Furthermore, the examination of small ‘workshops’ – e.g. field schools and other intensive, short courses – involved in the production of heritage discourse should extend to their integration in political, administrative, and academic networks, as well as at national and international levels.

Axis 3 – Trials as revelations, self-celebratory narratives examined
Times of great economic, political, and social challenge, as we are in now, can also provide valuable opportunities to analyze the identity of an institution or social group. In the case of heritage training, programs, and courses, we are thinking in particular of: jurisdictional conflicts between professions operating in the same sector, but linked to different training courses; administrative reforms that have the direct or indirect effect of devaluing certain diplomas in relation to others; recruitment or job market crises, of which the reasons can be multiple; or even relocation of programs, which are often the result of material constraints that have become weakening factors, but that always constitute moments of great institutional stress.

In particular, we welcome examinations on issues and developments in the wake of the 2020 pandemic, as well as the development of online heritage programs over recent decades. What impact are these having on the heritage training market? Such studies reveal the evolution of training programs in a higher education sector that is increasingly subject to competitive pressures: upward or downward trajectories; crises overcome at the cost of mergers; and conquest of new markets, among others.

As for the oldest and most recognized heritage training programs, including those that have spanned centuries, they too are entering the age of commemoration. It is in this occasion that the historical narratives of celebration are produced, often with rigor but not always with distance. Just as in times of hardship, these moments of self-celebration – from which, as a matter of principle, all forms of tension must be absent, so as to not spoil the party – should be questioned: what narratives of origin are being put forth and taking center stage? Which figures are particularly celebrated, and who is forgotten? How and where do we celebrate, and where are the blind spots and skeletons in the closet?

—

By exploring these different axes, this issue of In situ au regard des sciences sociales will examine how each heritage training program responds to the question, “What does it mean to be a school?”, with original answers, drawing on founding narratives, continuities and also points of rupture in relation to the universalist aims of what ‘heritage’ is or what should be passed on. In this respect, it’s important to emphasize that a call for papers on the history of sociology of heritage training will, almost necessarily for many potential respondents, include a dimension of self-analysis, both reflexive and critical. Similarly, dialogue between researchers and heritage professionals can be a fruitful avenue for research, as long as the pitfall of ‘feedback’ is avoided. International openness is encouraged when responding to this call, as is a comparative approach between training courses in different countries. Cross-cutting thematic approaches are preferred; however, case studies focusing on a certain school or program, an instructor or groups of instructors, students or groups of current students are also welcome. Contributions may address both initial and continuing training, and the relationships between the two.

Contribution proposals (abstracts)
The journal of the Ministry of Culture of France, In situ au regard des sciences sociales (In Situ in the Social Sciences), is seeking contributions to the special issue, A Critical Study of Training in the Field of Heritage, to be published in early 2027.

Abstracts will be subject to a blind review by journal/issue editors and editorial board members, after which authors will be invited to submit the full contribution by March 1, 2026.

500-word abstract deadline: September 15, 2025

If you would like to contribute to this issue, please send an abstract of no more than 500 words, along with a short CV, by September 15, 2025.

By email: insitu.arss@culture.gouv.fr

By mail:

Ministère de la Culture

Direction générale des Patrimoines et de l’Architecture,

Revue In Situ. Au regard des sciences sociales

à l’attention de Nathalie Meyer

182, rue Saint-Honoré

75001 Paris – FRANCE

The texts of the articles corresponding to the selected proposals are expected by March 1, 2026. Texts may be written in French or in a native language. The proposed articles must contain a new contribution of research, hypothesis, or updates; they cannot reproduce the entirety of a text already published.

It will be published in its original version and in its French translation. The length of the articles will be between 3000-7000 words, including notes and bibliography (references cited).

Guidelines for authors regarding the number of pages, illustrations, the inclusion of notes and links, etc., are available on the journal’s website:

https://journals.openedition.org/insituarss/310

Call for Papers: Library Careers for Medievalists (A Roundtable)

The International Society of Medievalist Librarians seeks speakers with an academic background in Medieval Studies to join a *hybrid* roundtable taking place at the International Congress on Medieval Studies taking place May 14-16, 2026, at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, MI.

Session Description: Many Medieval Studies students express an interest in library careers, but they are often unsure what qualifications are needed for positions in the cultural heritage sector. Similarly, traditional teaching faculty often don’t have enough information to advise students on becoming a librarian or searching for entry-level library jobs. Using their own career paths as a starting point, librarians and archivists will share up-to-date advice about cultural heritage work and engage in a productive discussion with attendees about how medievalists can break into this field.

We welcome contributions from established and emerging professionals in libraries, archives, and other cultural heritage institutions. Similarly, we welcome representatives from across this diverse field, from curators to catalogers, from acquisitions staff to digital media specialists, and from reference librarians to program developers. The preponderance of time in the session will be spent responding to questions from attendees about training, qualifications, and career pathways for the cultural heritage sector.

Anyone interested must submit through the conference portal (icms.confex.com/icms/2026/prelim.cgi/Session/7119). Please include information about your job and your Medieval Studies background in your abstract, as well as if you expect to participate in person, virtually, or are undecided. Proposals are due by Monday, September 15th.

Call for submissions: De Gruyter Brill’s Technology and Change in History book series

Call for submissions: De Gruyter Brill’s Technology and Change in History book series

Series editors: Adam Lucas and Phillip Reid

The role played by technology in transforming human societies has been a preoccupation of the modern period. Technology and Change in History is a peer-reviewed series of monographs and edited volumes which surveys the development of technology from a variety of different historical perspectives.

Since 1997, the series has published eighteen volumes, with the nineteenth due out in June 2025. The current editors seek to increase the pace of publication while maintaining the highest standard of original scholarship. 

We invite scholars at all postdoctoral career stages to submit monographs or edited volumes in the history of technology for consideration. We encourage submissions from archaeologists and material culture specialists as well as historians. We are currently exploring the feasibility of commissioning monographs and edited volumes featuring the technologies and techniques of Indigenous people, and welcome proposals that meet those criteria. 

Information and a list of previous publications may be found here. 

Proposals and manuscripts should be submitted to Helena Schöb, Acquisitions Editor, at helena.schoeb@degruyterbrill.com. 

General queries about appropriate topics may be submitted to the series editors at alucas@uow.edu.au and phillipfrankreid@gmail.com. 

Contact Information

Proposals and manuscripts should be submitted to Helena Schöb, Acquisitions Editor, at helena.schoeb@degruyterbrill.com. 

General queries about appropriate topics may be submitted to the series editors at alucas@uow.edu.au and phillipfrankreid@gmail.com. 

Contact Email

helena.schoeb@degruyterbrill.com

URL: https://brill.com/display/serial/TCH

CFP: Library Trends Special Issue, “Cultural Heritage in Crisis”

CFP – Special issue, “Cultural Heritage in Crisis” to be published in Library Trends, 75(1), 2026.

In a recent issue of Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, Aronson et al write: “Cultural heritage represents the physical manifestation of the culture and history of a social group and forms a major component of its identity.”1 A people’s culture, history, and social identity can be destroyed, censored, suppressed, purged, or rewritten through attacks on their cultural heritage as well as the institutions and systems that support and preserve the creation of knowledge, free speech, and artistic expression. Within the last three years alone, we have witnessed attempts by individuals, governments, and extremist groups to destroy a people’s culture and identity – whether through deliberate action or ignorance – with the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, war in Gaza in October 2023, and in 2025 the intentional removal and revision of content about the history of women, LGBTQIA+ people, immigrants, and people of color from government pages in the United States.

For this special issue of Library Trends, we interpret cultural heritage broadly, it may include physical tangible artifacts, such as books, manuscripts, art, sculpture, monuments, or buildings, as well as intangible artifacts, such as language, knowledge, folklore, and traditions. We also include digital cultural heritage, which may include websites, data, digital images, 3D models or visualizations, multimedia, etc. Proposals for this issue should focus on how cultural heritage professionals working in organizations with a mission to preserve and make cultural heritage accessible have engaged in activities such as digital activism, culturally responsive curation, preservation of physical or digital cultural heritage, or community-centered archives and collections within the context of cultural heritage in crisis. We are also interested in approaches, case studies, or theoretical approaches on how cultural heritage is created, preserved, or reconstructed before, during, or after crises within the library and archives profession.

Potential topics may include:

  • Activism and community engagement
  • Supporting open culture
  • Culturally responsive curation/metadata practices
  • Centering community and care in preservation of cultural heritage
  • Anti-colonial practices in approaches to digital curation, metadata, archives, etc.
  • Digital approaches to preserving or reconstructing cultural heritage (e.g. 3D modeling, machine learning, AI, linked data, etc.)
  • Developing institutional collaboration and partnership with damaged libraries and archives
  • Digital repatriation of cultural heritage
  • Crisis documentation and rapid response archiving
  • Countering disinformation

Prospective authors are invited to submit an abstract outlining their proposed article by July 25, 2025. Decisions about the abstracts will be communicated by August 1, 2025. Final articles should be 7,500-9,500 words (including bibliographic references). The issues will use an open peer review process in which article authors review two manuscripts by other contributors. As part of submitting an article proposal, authors will be asked to commit to participation in this process as both an author and a reviewer.

Inquiries about the planned issues and ideas for articles should be directed to Anna Kijas (Tufts University) and Andreas Segerberg (University of Gothenburg), Guest Co-Editors of Library Trends (anna.kijas at tufts.edu / andreas.segerberg at gu.se). Proposals for articles should be submitted via an online proposal form. 

Full CfP with details is available at https://annakijas.com/news/cfp_2026-librarytrends/. 

Contact Information

Guest Co-Editors of Library Trends 

Anna Kijas (Tufts University), anna.kijas@tufts.edu

Andreas Segerberg (University of Gothenburg), andreas.segerberg@gu.se

Contact Email

anna.kijas@tufts.edu

URL

https://annakijas.com/news/cfp_2026-librarytrends/

CFP: Methods for Archival Silence in Early History, American Historical Review

The American Historical Review seeks proposals for a special issue illustrating a range of methodological approaches to archival silence developed by scholars of early history. Articles may be grounded in any part of the world and address any topic as long as they are method-driven, focused on archival silence, and situated early within the periodization of your field.

About the Issue
What should historians do when our sources do not tell us what we want to know? Although this may be a universal experience of historical research, the problem arises in various forms. Some silences are intentional, others unintentional. Some sources are minimal, others extensive but off-topic. Some sources are inaccessible, some have not been preserved, some were never created. Sometimes we do not or cannot know whether our desired sources ever existed, or, if they did, what happened to them. Silences cluster around certain topics, places, and periods more than others.

Historians have articulated this problem in a variety of ways. This call uses the language of archival silence and silencing developed by Michel-Rolph Trouillot and Marisa Fuentes. It could have drawn on the concept of the subaltern (Ranajit Guha, Gayatri Spivak), strategically produced silence and plausible stories (Natalie Zemon Davis), records designed for jettison (Marina Rustow), hidden transcripts (James Scott), living oral traditions (Bethwell A. Ogot), or writing off the radar (James Lockhart), to name only a few.

Faced with archival silence, historians have developed a range of methods for working in, through, and around it. Some techniques and approaches have become characteristic of expertise in early periods. Others are applied by historians across specializations. These include but are not limited to reading against the grain; creative combination of well-known sources; creative use of unusual or little-known sources; oral and other forms of non-written record; technical skills in the so-called ancillary disciplines (numismatics, paleography, codicology, epigraphy, and more); interdisciplinary approaches to method (anthropology, archaeology, literature, linguistics, and more) and to what constitutes a source (climate data, aDNA, physical objects, art, and more); critical fabulation or disciplined imagination; and reframing our questions to build on our sources’ strengths.

Proposals should be submitted via Google Form by September 16, 2025. Proposals should be no more than 800 words in length and should address the following questions:

  • What is your field of historical research? In the context of your field, why is your project considered early?
  • Briefly describe the archive(s) or bod(ies) of sources on which your project is based. In what sense are these sources silent?
  • Briefly describe the method(s) that you use to work with these sources. What methodological intervention does your project make, and why is it significant?
  • What form will your project take in the journal?

We invite projects in a wide variety of forms. They can include, but are not limited to:

  • Traditional research articles (no more than 8,000 words, excluding footnotes)
  • Image- or video-centered projects
  • Digital history/humanities projects
  • Public history projects or virtual exhibitions
  • Pedagogical projects that examine approaches to methodology and archival silence in the classroom

Decisions on proposals will be announced in November 2025. A positive decision does not guarantee publication in the journal but is rather an invitation to submit a full and complete version of the proposed project for peer review. The submission deadline for complete projects for peer review is May 1, 2026. We anticipate publication of the special issue in 2027.

Please contact the special issue editor, Hannah Barker (hannah.barker.1@asu.edu), with questions.

Call for Contributions: Panoramic and Immersive Media Studies (PIMS) Yearbook

The Panoramic and Immersive Media Studies Yearbook (PIMS Yearbook) invites contributions for publication consideration in its third yearbook. The PIMS Yearbook is the annual yearbook of the International Panorama Council (IPC), published by De Gruyter. It surveys the historical and contemporary landscape of panoramic and immersive media. This open call invites scholarly, creative, and practical contributions in seven areas including scholarly essays (peer-reviewed) and creative essays.

Panoramic and Immersive Media Studies (PIMS) Yearbook 3 (2026)

The Panoramic and Immersive Media Studies Yearbook (PIMS Yearbook) invites contributions for publication consideration in its third yearbook. The PIMS Yearbook is the annual yearbook of the International Panorama Council (IPC), published by De Gruyter. It surveys the historical and contemporary landscape of panoramic and immersive media. This open call invites scholarly, creative, and practical contributions in seven areas including scholarly essays (peer-reviewed) and creative essays.

Panoramic & Immersive Media Studies (PIMS) Yearbook 3 (2026)

The Panoramic & Immersive Media Studies (PIMS) Yearbook is the annual yearbook of the International Panorama Council (IPC, Switzerland), published by De Gruyter Oldenbourg (Germany). It surveys the historical and contemporary landscape of panoramic and immersive media. This interdisciplinary field includes—but is not limited to—optical and haptic devices; 360-degree paintings; long-form paintings, photography, and prints; dioramas; museum displays; games; gardens; literature; maps; music; printed matter; still and moving images; virtual and augmented reality; and theatrical productions. Whereas the notion of the panoramic describes extensive, expansive and/or all-embracing vistas, immersion refers to porous interfaces between representation and the real, observer and observed, nature and culture, and past, present, and future. Together, the concepts of panorama and immersion have catalyzed time- and space-bending strategies for creating, experiencing, and transforming culture, ideas, and built and social space across the arc of human history.

This open call invites scholarly, creative, and practical contributions in seven areas including scholarly essays (subject to double-blind peer review); visual and creative essays; restoration, management, and field reports; opinion forum pieces; IPC conference reports & papers (this section is open only to IPC conference presenters; contributions subject to single-blind peer review); reviews; and reprints. Contributions may explore a range of ideas in panoramic and immersive media, such as historical and contemporary uses of immersive technologies; innovative methods in preservation and heritage interpretation; tools for applications in museum interpretation and display, contemporary art practices, or educational settings; exploring contested heritage; and analyzing nationalist and imperialist discourses. View the publisher’s PIMS Yearbook page at De Gruyter Oldenbourg.

We welcome contributions from IPC members and non-members alike. The PIMS Yearbook is managed by three Executive Editors, a team of Section Editors, and an IPC Editorial Advisory Board. In addition, each issue invites one or more Guest Editors. Section details appear below. Sections not edited by named section editors are edited by PIMS Executive Editors.

SECTIONS

Scholarly Essays
This double-blind peer reviewed section invites scholarly essays that explore themes in panoramic and immersive media studies. We welcome consideration of historical and contemporary immersive media, technologies, aesthetics, and cultural practices and their continuing influence today. Contributions to the Scholarly Essays section are first reviewed by section editors and then subject to double-blind peer review coordinated by De Gruyter. If accepted for further consideration, the editors will request an anonymized copy for external double-blind peer review with the publisher.

Section Editors

  • Liz Crooks, Director, University of Iowa Pentacrest Museums, Iowa City, Iowa, USA
  • Melissa Wolfe, Curator and Head of American Art, Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis, Missouri, USA

Invited Guest Editors

  • Leen Engelen, LUCA School of Arts, KU Leuven, Belgium
  • Prof. Victor Flores, Lusófona University, Lisbon, Portugal
  • Susana S. Martins, University of Nova Lisbon, Faculdade De Ciências Sociais e Humanas, University of Lisbon, Portugal

Forum
The Forum is responsive to current debates and public conversations surrounding old and new immersive media. It welcomes opinion pieces, interviews, etc. that make an argument, are delivered in the author’s own voice, are based on fact, and are drawn from the author’s research, expertise or experience. For example, contributions may explore the historical and contemporary uses of immersive technologies in preservation and heritage interpretation, as tools for exploring contested heritage, in museum interpretation and display, in educational settings, as entertainment and leisure enhancements, and in the service of promoting nationalist and imperialist discourses.

Reprints
The PIMS Reprints section makes space for revisiting articles, documents, other printed media and objects pertinent to the study of multimodal immersive technologies and media. Subject to permissions, this section features previously published, out-of-print and out-of-copyright materials understood to be significant to the production, reception and study of panoramic and immersive media. Contributions may also include historical and unpublished manuscripts, and/or other archival materials, such as illustrated presentations of objects and optical devices. Please include a short editorial/introductory essay (up to 800 words) to contextualize the proposed article, paper, document, translation, or object. If including images, please ensure they are print-ready and supply evidence of permission to publish.

Restoration, Management, and Field Reports
We invite papers and reports on the preservation, restoration, management and interpretation of historic panoramas and related immersive media formats. Contributions are subject to editing by section editors.

Section Editors

  • Patrick Deicher, President, Bourbaki Panorama Foundation, Lucerne, Switzerland​​
  • Gabriele Koller, Jerusalem Panorama Foundation, Altötting, Germany

Visual and Creative Essays
We invite visual and creative approaches including visual essays, artistic projects, creative writing, and other makerly modes of reflection and material research on immersive media. Contributions are editorially curated and prospective authors for this section are encouraged to contact section editors before submitting full proposals. Direct your message to IRMA360 [at] protonmail [dot] com.

Section Editors

  • Ruby Carlson, Director/Co-Curator, Velaslavasay Panorama, Los Angeles, California, USA
  • Sara Velas, Director/Co-Curator, Velaslavasay Panorama, Los Angeles, California, USA

33rd IPC Conference Report & Papers
This single-blind peer reviewed section publishes the IPC conference program, abstracts, keywords, and presenter biographies. It also invites conference presenters to contribute papers of up to 3,000 words that reflect the substance of their presentations. Conference presenters are welcome to contribute to this section or any other section. Contributions to the Conference Reports & Papers section are subject to single-blind peer review.

Section Editors

  • Liz Crooks, Director, University of Iowa Pentacrest Museums, Iowa City, Iowa, USA
  • Melissa Wolfe, Curator and Head of American Art, Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis, Missouri, USA

Reviews
This section invites reviews of recent books, exhibitions, events, performances, archives, and products of a panoramic and/or immersive nature.

GENERAL NOTE
Contributions to the Scholarly Essays section are first reviewed by section editors and then subject to double-blind peer review coordinated by De Gruyter. Contributions to the Conference Reports & Papers section are subject to single-blind peer review. All other sections are reviewed by the PIMS Yearbook editorial board. Following the initial review of submitted materials, PIMS Yearbook editors may re-assign a submission for consideration in another section. On occasion, a submission will be recommended for publication in a succeeding volume.

Executive Editors

  • Prof. Dr. Molly Briggs, School of Art & Design, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA
  • Prof. Dr. Thorsten Logge, University of Hamburg, Germany
  • Prof. Nicholas C. Lowe, John H. Bryan Chair of Historic Preservation, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA

Section Editors

  • Ruby Carlson, Velaslavasay Panorama, Director/Co-Curator, Los Angeles, California, USA
  • Liz Crooks, Director, University of Iowa Pentacrest Museums, Iowa City, Iowa, USA
  • Patrick Deicher, President of the Bourbaki Panorama Foundation, Lucerne, Switzerland​​
  • Prof. Victor Flores, Lusófona University, Lisbon, Portugal
  • Leen Engelen, LUCA School of Arts, KU Leuven, Belgium
  • Susana S. Martins, University of Nova Lisbon, Faculdade De Ciências Sociais e Humanas, University of Lisbon, Portugal
  • Gabriele Koller, Curator, Museum Panorama Altötting, Altötting, Germany
  • Sara Velas, Velaslavasay Panorama, Director/Co-Curator, Los Angeles, California, USA
  • Dr. Melissa Wolfe, Curator and Head of American Art, Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis, Missouri, USA

Editorial Advisory Board

  • Prof. Dr. Thiago Leitão de Souza, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
  • Dr. Blagovesta Momchedjikova, Expository Writing Program, New York University, USA
  • Robin Skinner, Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University Wellington, New Zealand
  • Suzanne Wray, Independent Scholar & Researcher, New York City, New York, USA

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
The PIMS Yearbook accepts original and complete illustrated manuscripts written in the English language.

How to Submit
Please send your initial submission to pimsyearbookipc [at] gmail [dot] com

Please indicate which section you are submitting to:

  • Scholarly Essays (double-blind peer review)
  • Forum (edited)
  • Restoration, Management, and Field Reports (edited)
  • Visual and Creative Essays (edited)
  • International Panorama Council Conference Report 2024 (single-blind peer review)
  • Reviews (edited)
  • Reprints (edited)

Contributions need not be anonymized at the initial submission stage

Word limits

Scholarly Essays: Abstract up to 300 words plus 4 to 7 keywords (do not include title words); main text up to 10,000 words including notes, references, image captions, and author bio (in exceptional cases we can accommodate up to 15,000 words).

Visual & Creative Essays: Abstract up to 300 words plus 4 to 7 keywords (do not include title words); main text up to 5,000 words plus works cited; author biography up to 150 words. Contributions to this section may be more image-rich and may be shorter in word count.

Forum, Restoration, and Conference sections: Abstract up to 300 words plus 4 to 7 keywords (do not include title words); main text up to 5,000 words plus works cited; author biography up to 150 words.

Reviews: Title as the “[Book/Exhibition/Event] Review: [Title of Book/Exhibition/Event (plus author/maker name if applicable)]”; main text up to 3,000 words.

Reprints: Accompany the content to be reprinted with an original introduction, up to 1,500 words plus 4 to 7 keywords.

Manuscript Preparation & Formatting
Please use MS Word.docx file format if possible. If you don’t have access to MS Word, use Google.docs to prepare as a .docx file.

All submissions must be formatted in compliance with the PIMS Style Sheet, and the PIMS Manuscript Template, and the Chicago Manual of Style 18th Edition.

Download and use the PIMS-ManuscriptTemplate as your starting point; follow all instructions and examples provided therein. Again, if you do not have access to MS Word, we recommend composing as a .docx file in Google docs.
Also, download the PIMS Yearbook v3 StyleSheet and refer to it as you work.

Images
Only include images that are central and necessary to your argument; do not include images solely for the purposes of illustration.

Contributions to the Visual and Creative Essays and Reviews sections can be more image-rich.

All images must be accompanied by in-text image callouts. Images not referred to in the text, e.g. without callouts, cannot be published.

Contributions to the Visual and Creative Essays and Reviews sections may not require image in-text callouts

Image files are not required upon initial submission. However, we strongly recommend gathering print-ready image files now, so that if accepted for publication you will be prepared to move forward. Minimum specifications for file size and quality:

  • 7 in / 17 cm in longest dimension
  • 300 dpi (600 dpi preferred)

If your contribution is accepted for publication, you will be required to provide legal proof of image permissions for each image, even open source images. Now is a good time to begin gathering that information.

Contributions for v3 are due 3 October 2025

Send inquiries and contributions to pimsyearbookipc [at] gmail [dot] com

PIMS Yearbook at De Gruyter Oldenbourg

Contact Information

Executive Editors

  • Dr. Molly Briggs, School of Art & Design, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA
  • Prof. Dr. Thorsten Logge, Universität Hamburg, Germany
  • Nicholas C. Lowe, Professor, John H. Bryan Chair of Historic Preservation, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA

Contact Email: pimsyearbookipc@gmail.com

Ideas from oral history colleagues for a 4th edition of The Oral History Reader

Dear oral history colleague/s

We – myself and Alexander Freund – seek your expert advice, and would like to share your suggestions about oral history writings with colleagues, as appropriate, through H-OralHist.

We have been contracted by Routledge to edit a fourth edition of The Oral History Reader, which was first published in 1998 (Rob Perks, who co-edited the first three editions with Alistair, has decided to take a more back seat role in the fourth edition, as a founding editor). 

We are seeking your suggestions about oral history journal articles, or book chapters or extracts, published from 2015 on, that we might consider for inclusion in the fourth edition. We are looking for well-written pieces from the last decade that use oral history in original and imaginative ways, that include especially insightful reflections about aspects of oral history theory and method, and that would work for an international English-language readership that includes oral history students, researchers and practitioners. 

You don’t need to tell us about articles in the major English language oral history journals (Oral History, Oral History Review, Oral History Forum, Studies in Oral History, and Words and Silences), or about chapters in the major oral history books series (Palgrave Macmillan, Oxford and Routledge) – as we’ll be reading everything in those book series and journal issues.

We are keen to include writings from across the oral world, and from the range of disciplines and practices that work with oral history. They might concern any aspect of oral history, though the publisher, and reader reports, urged us especially to include new writing about the following topics:

  • Remote interviewing
  • Audio and video interviewing
  • Developing an oral history project
  • New digital media formats (podcasting, soundscapes etc)
  • ‘Shared authority’ 
  • Oral history and artificial intelligence

We will probably use the same five-part structure for the Reader (Critical Developments, Interviewing, Interpreting Memories, Making Histories, and Advocacy and Empowerment) so ideally the writings will work within that scheme though they may of course work across different categories. 

Please also let us know about appropriate, exceptional oral history writings that have been published in languages other than English (we don’t have a budget for translation, but AI now makes it easier to do quick and rough translations so we can consider such pieces).

Finally, if you have used earlier editions of the Reader for teaching or in other ways, we’d love to hear your thoughts about the chapters in previous editions that are indispensable, and about chapters you think should be replaced by new writings. 

We look forward to hearing your thoughts through this group or, if you prefer, email privately to alistair.thomson@monash.edu and / or alexanderfreund9@gmail.com 

With best wishes, Alex and Al

Call for Chapter Proposals: Navigating Archival Backlogs: Strategies for Success

Title: Navigating Archival Backlogs: Strategies for Success
Editors: Heather Gilbert, College of Charleston and Claudia F. Willett, Stanford University
Publisher: Bloomsbury

We are excited to invite chapter proposals for Navigating Archival Backlogs: Strategies for Success, a double-blind peer reviewed edited volume to be published by Bloomsbury. Please email the editors at navigatingarchivalbacklogs@gmail.com with any questions.

About the Book

Nearly every archive has an accessioning and/or processing backlog.  It is an almost universal truth accepted by the profession. This situation reflects long-standing issues in the profession: limited staffing, resourcing, space, and institutional support. We know the consequences of archival backlogs: they prevent accessibility and discoverability of our collections and, therefore, our history, and they contribute to archival silences and obstruct researchers. However, the practical and physical extent of this problem is often left undiscussed, and the residual issues are left unaddressed. 

This edited volume will provide contemporary case studies of the development and implementation of successful backlog reduction strategies. It will address a range of backlog material types (including both physical and digital backlogs) and a spectrum of resource availability (including institutions with little to no budget to address their backlog issue). Readers should come away fortified with practical and accessible solutions that they can use to address their specific backlog problem(s). 

Call for Chapter Proposals

Proposals are invited from individuals working in archival and cultural heritage institutions who have experience navigating, working with, managing, or addressing archival backlogs. Case studies and exploratory research are invited and welcome, as are essays that incorporate scholarly writing with personal narratives. Final chapters should be between 2,500 – 5,000 words. All selected chapters will undergo double-blind peer review prior to publication. This is not an exhaustive list, so do not feel limited by the following suggested topics.

Section 1: Physical backlog strategies

Themes for this section could include: 

  • Processing, accessioning, deaccessioning, and/or proactive collecting practices and strategies as a function of backlog management.
  • “More product, less process” processing style (MPLP) and/or extensible/efficient processing as a means of addressing a backlog.
  • Backlog workflow creation, implementation, and management and/or software and/or tools used in these processes.   

Section 2: Digital backlog strategies

Themes for this section could include: 

  • Born digital processing, accessioning, deaccessioning, and/or proactive collecting practices and strategies as a function of digital backlog management.
  • Building cross departmental collaborations and workflows.
  • Software and/or tools used in addressing digital backlogs.

Section 3: Hybrid backlog strategies

Themes for this section could include: 

  • Discussion of the extent of hybrid collections (and their backlogs) and the unique challenges they present
  • Resource and knowledge sharing that leverage collaborative solutions
  • Personnel proficiency requirements for successful hybrid backlog resolution.

Section 4: Leadership & Management 

Themes for this section could include: 

  • Change management related to backlog management
  • Large scale project management for backlogs
  • Conflict resolution and personnel and donor management as related to backlog issues
  • Impacts of having an archival backlog

Proposal Instructions

Please submit your proposals using the Call for Chapter Proposals Google Form by June 2, 2025. The proposal should include all contributing authors, a working title, 3-5 keywords describing your proposed topic, which book section you believe your proposal fits best, and a description of your proposed chapter that does not exceed 500 words.  

Authors will be notified of acceptance by August 15, 2025. See below for the full project timeline. Please email the editors at navigatingarchivalbacklogs@gmail.com with any questions.

Project Timeline

  • CFP closes June 2, 2025
  • Authors notified of acceptance by August 15, 2025
  • Chapter outlines sent to editor by September 15, 2025
  • First drafts due January 1, 2026
  • Draft reviews completed and feedback provided to authors by March 2, 2026
  • Final drafts due April 1, 2026
  • Publication anticipated August 2026

Call for Submissions – Museums Journal: Afterlives (2026)

Museums 2026 – Call for Submissions for Afterlives (Issue #11)

What does it mean to be alive? To be dead? To exist in a state beyond?

An afterlife can be a refusal, it can be the archive’s inability to forget, the museum’s struggle to unmake itself, the artifact that resists its own display. An afterlife can be a haunting, a presence that insists, a structure that lingers past its collapse. An afterlife can be a release, an object freed from the logic that once defined it, a collection finding life in new hands, a museum breaking apart to make space for something unimagined.

Submission Deadline: January 5, 2026, 11:59 PM (CST)

Submission Link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdjlnJZYMnaMP7GCEKtt-Y5U7B654xSBF4ASmT84AwUvlwtzw/viewform?pli=1

CFP: Grant Writing Collaborations in Academic Librarianship

Grant Writing Collaborations in Academic Librarianship

Editor

Dr. Addison Lucchi

Instructional & Research Librarian | Professor
MidAmerica Nazarene University

About this Edited Collection

This edited collection focuses on effective strategies and best practices for fostering collaborative grant-writing initiatives among academic libraries, faculty, and external organizations. In many institutions, grant proposals are developed in isolation, often without direct collaboration with the library as an academic unit. However, through collaboration between academic libraries and other departments across campus, transformative projects can be designed to provide lasting change for the entire academic community. Drawing on a rich array of case studies from diverse academic libraries nationwide, the book highlights successful collaborations that have resulted in meaningful change. It also offers a wealth of practical guidance on best practices, templates, checklists, writing tools, and frameworks for developing innovative grant proposals that center on strategic collaboration.

Readers will discover how to identify potential collaborators, navigate the complexities of joint proposals, and leverage library resources to enhance project outcomes. By centering on strategic collaboration, this collection equips librarians and faculty with the insights and skills needed to craft impactful grant projects that not only secure funding but also advance institutional goals and enrich the academic experience for the entire community.

Publisher

ACRL Press

Chapter Topics

Chapter topics may focus on, but are not limited to the following:

Case Studies in Successful Grant Writing Collaboration & Project Implementation:

  • Mini-grants
  • Library-centered grants
  • Broader academic grant projects
  • Community-centered grant projects
  • Large, multi-year grant projects
  • Etc.

Grant Writing Tools and Resources:

  • Resources for grant-writing
  • Templates and checklists for successful grant proposals
  • How to find available grants
  • Potential workshops and training for librarians and other grant-writing collaborators

Other topics are welcome, and you are encouraged to submit your proposals.

We welcome proposals from any authors who have written and managed grant projects as a part of their academic library, or who have collaborated with academic libraries on their campuses. Particularly, we are searching for clear examples and case studies of grant-writing collaborations, including how academic libraries have collaborated with external departments and organizations to create meaningful change in their communities. Case study chapters will include details on the grant search process, project development, grant writing process, and project implementation. Additionally, we seek chapters that provide a variety of practical tips and tools for academic library grant-writers, drawing upon experience, including practical templates, checklists, toolkits, etc.

Each case study chapter (4,000 to 8,000 words) should also include practical lessons learned through experiences and advice for future grant-writers. Each tools and resources chapter (2,000 to 6,000 words) should include usable resources, tools, lists, etc. to facilitate and improve the grant-writing process.

Proposals for all chapters should include 1) a proposed title for the chapter; 2) an abstract for the chapter; 3) a brief outline for the chapter; and 4) a list of practical takeaways, lessons learned, or action steps for the reader.

Tentative Timeline: 

  • March 10, 2025 – CfP opens
  • June 30, 2025 – CfP closes 
  • July 31, 2025 – Notification of submission status (accepted or declined) sent
  • May 1, 2026: 1st draft due

How to Submit Your Proposal

Please note that a 400-500 word abstract is required (and must be submitted via a shared Google doc in the submission form) and should include an overall outline of the proposed chapter with clearly labeled relevant headings that address the topic of the edited collection as described in this CfP. Please make sure to also address, even if only at a high level, what lessons learned / practical actionable next steps readers can take away from your chapter to hopefully help address similar concerns they may be facing. Specifically, the proposal should include: 1) a proposed title for the chapter; 2) an abstract for the chapter; 3) a brief outline for the chapter; and 4) a list of practical takeaways, lessons learned, or action steps for the reader.

Please submit your proposal by completing the proposal submission form available by visiting 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScKm5qHgNUB_XbW8P4u0qEpqO0c2TGqd6BDcMnPFj_3nrWACw/viewform?usp=header. Alternatively, you are welcome to email your proposal directly to amlucchi@mnu.edu. 

Questions

Questions or concerns? Please submit let us know by emailing Dr. Addison Lucchi at amlucchi@mnu.edu.