Tag: allied professions

CFP: Lessing’s Materials/Materialities, Philadelphia

Lessing’s Materials/Materialities

Lessing Society Sponsored Panel 

ASECS Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, April 9-11, 2026 

In May 1770, Lessing assumed the office of librarian at the ducal library at Wolfenbüttel, known today as the Herzog August Bibliothek, a position he held until his death in 1781. As librarian, he was responsible for reorganizing the library’s holdings, which consisted of over 100,000 volumes, and for expanding the library’s collection on a very limited budget, which he accomplished by selling off or exchanging duplicates (Doublettentausch). Although born of necessity, this concern with the materiality and exchange value of the book mirrors the frequency with which material goods and objects are foregrounded in Lessing’s oeuvre, including rings (Minna von Barnhelm, Nathan der Weise), letters (Miß Sara Sampson), textiles (Nathan der Weise), and paintings and sculptures (Emilia Galotti, Laokoön). Today, our understanding of Lessing’s biography and his cultural significance continues to be shaped by the materiality of objects displayed in archives and collections in Wolfenbüttel, Kamenz, and beyond. In both Lessing’s oeuvre and in the collections and archives that frame his legacy, the (in)authenticity of an object’s provenance is central to its interpretation – most notably in the Ring Parable, in which the symbolic overdetermination of the three rings is linked to their exchangeability. 

This panel draws attention to the role of material objects and materiality in Lessing’s life, works and reception. Inquiries could address topics such as:

  • Representations of material objects, collections, and collectors in Lessing’s works (e.g., the rings in Nathan der Weise, the Laokoön sculpture, the painting of Emilia Galotti)
  • Library and museum collections connected with Lessing, such as the Herzog August Bibliothek, the Lessinghaus Wolfenbüttel, and the Lessing-Museum Kamenz
  • The materiality of books, periodicals, and correspondence (e.g., paper, marginalia, writing utensils, ephemera)
  • Inventories and the (re)classifying of objects, e.g., Lessing’s reorganization of the library in Wolfenbüttel 
  • Dupes, frauds, and fakes; exchanges and exchangeability (e.g., the Doublettentausch, the three rings in the Ring Parable) 
  • Lessing’s involvement with theater and its material objects (props, costumes, actors’ debts)
  • Money, gambling, and lottery tickets 
  • Correspondences and collections of letters 
  • Materiality and the spirit/matter distinction in Lessing’s theological writings 

Please send a 250-word abstract and a short CV to Mary Helen Dupree (mhd33@georgetown.edu) and Francien Markx (fmarkx@gmu.edu) by September 15, 2025. 

Redaktion: Constanze Baum – Lukas Büsse – Mark-Georg Dehrmann – Nils Gelker – Markus Malo – Alexander Nebrig – Johannes Schmidt

Diese Ankündigung wurde von H-GERMANISTIK [Lukas Büsse] betreut – editorial-germanistik@mail.h-net.msu.edu

Contact Information

Mary Helen Dupree, mhd33@georgetown.edu

Francien Markx, fmarkx@gmu.edu

Contact Email

mhd33@georgetown.edu

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

CFP – Ephemera Society of America Conference

250 years: Ephemera Shapes America

Preamble 

On July 4, 2026, the United States will commemorate the 250th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia. John Dunlap, a twenty-nine-year-old Irish immigrant, spent much of the night of July 4, 1776, hastily setting type and printing final copies of the single-sheet broadside of the Declaration. One was attached with a seal and folded into the Continental Congress manuscript journal after the words: “The Declaration being again read was agreed to as follows.” The others were distributed throughout the new United States to be read aloud in each of the 13 colonies and to the continental troops. Newspapers quickly published the contents. It is self-evident that ephemera played a pivotal role in the founding of our country. This broadside not only described the reasons for the country’s founding, it was also the means by which the public learned of our separation from Britain. Finding an original “Dunlap Broadside” continues to be the holy grail for collectors of American historical documents. Of the estimated 200 originally printed, twenty-six examples are known today. Most reside in institutions, including three at the National Archives, London. But copies have been unearthed in such places as Philadelphia’s famed Leary’s Book Store in 1968, in a crate that had not been opened since 1909. One, still in private hands, was discovered about twenty-five years ago behind a picture frame purchased for $4 at a Pennsylvania flea market.

Request for Proposals:

This historic anniversary is an apt moment for examining how ephemera played a key role not only in our founding, but also during the significant political events and social movements that make up our nation’s history.  Ephemera has helped to ignite, inform, commemorate, and reflect such events as the Civil War, the abolition of slavery, the Western land rush, the Centennial celebration, women’s suffrage, the World Wars, the Second Red Scare, counterculture movements in the 60s and activist activities today. Sometimes, ephemera serves as primary evidence. Without such survivors as hand-written accounts, photos, news clippings, and maps to establish the historical record, we might not know of the existence of Tulsa’s Black Wall Street and the tragic Race Massacre of 1921.

We invite submissions for talks at our 2026 conference in March on how ephemera has shaped and mirrored the major events and movements that have marked America’s growth. These presentations should be richly illustrated and supported by ephemera. Examples include: broadsides, posters, pamphlets, handbills, leaflets, newspaper articles, trade cards, billheads, letterheads, photographs, scrapbooks, diaries, circulars, brochures, booklets, signs, correspondence, playbills, menus, ration books, tickets, postcards, draft cards, arm bands, and buttons. 

Ephemera 46, the Ephemera Society of America (ESA) annual conference, will take place at the Hyatt Regency in Greenwich, Connecticut, on March 20, 2026. 

Each presentation will be 30 minutes in length, followed by a brief Q&A.  Please submit the following:

  • Presentation title and a written abstract, focusing on the way ephemera tells the story of your chosen topic. Please describe the specific types of ephemera you will use to illustrate your topic. Each presentation needs to feature at least three different types of ephemera. Proposals should not exceed 150 words.
  • 5 to 6 representative ephemera images 
  • A one-paragraph biography, including any affiliations
  • A jpg photograph of yourself for publicity purposes
  • Mailing address, phone number and e-mail address

Following a review of all proposals, finalists may be asked to submit 10 to 15 images of the types of ephemera that will be used to illustrate their talk. Proposals must be submitted via e-mail or post by September 15, 2025, to:

Barbara Loe, Ephemera 46 Conference Chair

e-mail: bjloe@earthlink.net or

post: Ephemera Society of America, Inc., P.O. Box 95, Cazenovia, NY 13035-0095.

Decisions and notification about proposals will be made by November 30, 2025. Presenters will be requested to sign a release at the time of acceptance allowing their presentation to be filmed for use by the ESA.

If selected, a draft PowerPoint presentation must be submitted by February 28, 2026. The final presentation must be submitted by March 12, 2026. Presentations must include 25 or more ephemera images. At this time, funding is not available from ESA to support travel or presentation costs. 

ESA is eager to expand the use of ephemera in the classroom, and we encourage presentations on all subjects addressing the use of ephemera in teaching and academic research. We encourage undergraduate and graduate students to submit proposals for the Emerging Scholars Program to be held on Thursday afternoon, March 19th.  For more information, please see “Emerging Scholars” under the “Discover” tab on our website:  www.ephemerasociety.org

CfP Museums in Motion: New Frontiers in Chinese Museum Studies

We are delighted to invite papers for the international workshop ‘Museums in Motion: New Frontiers in Chinese Museum Studies’, to be held in person and online at the University of Siena on 13-14 November 2025. 

Studying Chinese museums is both an intriguing and rewarding pursuit, offering a valuable perspective on the histories and cultures of China and its unprecedented transformations over the past three decades. These institutions house an extraordinary wealth of historical, artistic, and cultural artefacts, providing deep insight into China’s long and complex past, as well as its multilayered interactions with the world today. From ancient bronzes and calligraphy to contemporary art and political exhibitions, museums in China serve as dynamic spaces where history is preserved, interpreted, and debated. They shape narratives, influence national and local identities, and even serve political functions. The way history and culture are presented—what is emphasized, omitted, or reframed—offers a revealing glimpse into China’s evolving relationship with its past and present.

At the same time, questions of accessibility and representation remain central. While major state-run museums, such as the National Museum of China, present grand, state-approved narratives, smaller independent museums sometimes offer alternative perspectives, occasionally challenging official histories. This raises critical discussions about who controls historical narratives and how they are curated. Beyond their role as cultural and historical institutions, Chinese museums are at the forefront of technological and curatorial innovation. Digital exhibitions, AI-driven curation, and new approaches to audience engagement are transforming how visitors experience history and culture. But what does this mean for museum studies as a field? Are existing theories and methodologies sufficient to analyze these developments, or do we need new frameworks to understand this evolving landscape?

Furthermore, museums play an increasingly significant role in China’s modern cultural and economic strategies. The country has invested heavily in building and modernizing these institutions, signalling both a commitment to preserving heritage, and an effort to enhance cultural tourism internally and China’s cultural influences externally. Yet, this also raises fundamental questions: Are museums primarily spaces for education, instruments of soft power, or engines of commercial gain? How do they compare to museums in other parts of the world? Ultimately, studying Chinese museums is not just about appreciating artefacts—it is about understanding the intersections of history, culture, politics and society. Museums are not just neutral spaces; they actively participate in shaping national identity and public memory.

Objectives

Given China’s rapid cultural, political, and technological transformations, this workshop aims to explore the current landscape of Chinese museum studies. It seeks to foster international collaboration by bringing together scholars, curators, policymakers, and practitioners from diverse perspectives. The event will serve as a unique forum for critical dialogue, interdisciplinary exchange, and the rethinking of future directions in Chinese museum studies. 

We aim to collect contributions to publish an edited volume with a leading publisher in the field in 2026/2027.

Scope 

We encourage interdisciplinary approaches and welcome submissions in English that engage with a broad range of research topics, projects, and case studies, from practitioners, policymakers, and scholars from different perspectives and disciplines, including but not limited to: Archaeology; Art and Art History; Anthropological and Ethnographic Studies; Sociological Perspectives; Political Science and International Relations; Economic and Business Approaches; Media and Communication Studies; Museum Studies and Curatorial Practices; Conservation and Heritage Management; Exhibition Design and Interpretation; Education and Pedagogical Approaches; Gender and Feminist Studies; Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies; Science and Technology Studies; and Philosophical and Ethical Considerations.

Key questions the workshop seeks to address include (but are not limited to):

  • How are museums in China shaping and reshaping historical narratives?
  • What role do digital technologies play in Chinese museums?
  • How do Chinese museums engage with international audiences and collaborate with global institutions?
  • What challenges do museums face in terms of funding, curation, and public engagement?
  • How do museums navigate issues of decolonization, repatriation, and contested heritage?
  • What role do museums play in fostering community engagement, especially among local and ethnic minority groups?
  • How do privately funded museums contribute to or challenge dominant narratives?
  • How do museums address environmental sustainability and heritage conservation?
  • What ethical concerns arise with AI, VR, and big data in museum curation?
  • How are gender, diversity, and marginal voices represented in Chinese museums?
  • What role do Chinese museums play in international cultural diplomacy and soft power?
  • How do Chinese exhibitions and collections abroad shape global perceptions of Chinese culture?
  • What are the dynamics of collaboration between Chinese and foreign museums and how do these influence museum practices globally?
  • New methods and approaches to museum studies 
  • Historical perspective on museum development in China 
  • Museum development in Greater China and among Chinese diasporas 

Dates: 13–14 November 2025
Format: Hybrid (Online & In-Person)

Hosting University: University of Siena (Department of Philology and Literary Criticism) – Arezzo Campus
Venue: Logge del Grano Hall, Piazzetta Logge del Grano 5, 52100 Arezzo, Italy

Presentation Format: Papers should not exceed 20 minutes, followed by a 5-minute discussion.

Submission Guidelines: Please send an abstract (250 words)along with a bio (max. 100 words, detailing affiliation, career stage and disciplinary background).

Important Dates: 

  • Submission Deadline: 31 May 2025
  • Notification of Acceptance: 31 July 2025
  • Program Draft: 30 September 2025

Fee: Attendance at the workshop is free. Participants attending the in-person session shall cover their own travel and accommodation.

Proposal Submission: Please send proposals in a single email to all organizers at the following addresses:

Ornella De Nigris: ornella.denigris@unisi.it|Cangbai Wang: C.Wang6@westminster.ac.uk |Sofia Bollo: sofia.bollo@uzh.ch

Call for Nominations: 2025 Distinguished Service in Library History Award

Call for Nominations

“The Distinguished Service in Library History Award is presented annually by the ALA Library History Round Table (LHRT) and honors the career of a person who has a lifetime of scholarship and service in the field of library history. This non-monetary award is intended to be given to an individual who has a record of contributions; who demonstrates length, breadth, and depth of involvement in library history; and who has had a significant impact on the work of the ALA Library History Round Table or on the library history community at large.”

Deadline: April 30, 2025

To learn more: https://lhrt.news/2025/04/03/call-for-nominations-2025-distinguished-service-in-library-history-award/

CFP: One-day symposium : “Map exhibitions 19th-20th centuries”

France

ANNUAL ONE-DAY SYMPOSIUM OF THE HISTORY COMMISSION OF THE FRENCH CARTOGRAPHY COMMITTEE

Friday 14th November 2025

INHA (Paris) – Salle Vasari

The History Commission of the CFC is organising a study day on ‘Cartographic exhibitions’ on 14 November 2025 at the Institut national d’histoire de l’Art (INHA) in Paris.

This one-day symposium is a continuation of the previous meetings on ‘Art and Cartography’ (2023) and ‘Cartography and Cinema’ (2024), in which cartography and its history were examined from the angle of their presence in modern and contemporary visual cultures. The aim of this new day is to consider the various aspects of the encounter between cartography and the general public.

Maps have long been exhibited, more or less permanently, in the galleries of major palaces and public buildings. Think, for example, of the Vatican Map Gallery or the world map room in the Farnese Palace in Caprarola. But it is not to these perennial cartographic settings, which are already well known, that this Study Day aims to focus its analysis, but rather on temporary installations.

Since the nineteenth century, cartography has been the focus of a great many temporary exhibitions, both specialist and more general. Like works of art or scientific objects, maps, globes, models, relief maps and observation instruments were considered worthy of public interest. Take, for example, the enthusiastic response to the exhibition entitled ‘Cartes et figures de la Terre’ [Maps and Figures of the Earth], presented at the Centre Pompidou in 1980. Exhibitions devoted to the history of cartography, or certain aspects of it, are regularly held at scientific gatherings (geography congresses or learned societies), at international fairs and, of course, in libraries, museums and archive centres.

We need to look at these cartographic exhibitions from a number of angles: 

– What were the projects, motivations and objectives of the designers of these exhibitions?

– What were the scientific, artistic and political contexts in which these exhibitions were organised?

– What cartographic documents were chosen? According to what criteria? What were their aims?

– What was the chosen scenography? How have these choices evolved over the years? Are there any links, or even analogies, with the history of art exhibitions?

– How many people attended the exhibition? What type of audience, if any? How did the press react to the exhibitions?

Contributions may address all or only some of these questions.

Practical details

Proposals for papers (approximately 1500 characters), accompanied by a short bio-bibliography, should be sent before 10 May 2025 to the following address: catherine.hofmann@bnf.fr.

The selection committee will meet in mid-June and will announce the results of the call for papers in early July.

The papers selected will be published in an issue of the journal of the French Cartography Committee, Cartes & Géomatique, in 2026.

Contact Information

Catherine Hofmann, map curator at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (Paris)

Jean-Marc Besse, head researcher at CNRS and EHESS

Contact Email

catherine.hofmann@bnf.fr

URL

https://cartogallica.hypotheses.org/

CFP: ARTEFACTS 30: Care and Repair

CALL FOR PROPOSALS FOR ARTEFACTS 30, CARE AND REPAIR

With pleasure, Norsk Teknisk Museum (the Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology) announces that the next and 30th meeting of ARTEFACTS will be held in Oslo, Norway, 12–14 October 2025.

ARTEFACTS is an international network of academic and museum-based scholars of science, technology, and medicine, who share the goal of promoting the use of objects in research. The consortium was established in 1996 and since then has held annual conferences examining the role of artefacts and collections in the making of science and technology and related areas. See https://www.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/our-work/research-public-history/artefacts-consortium.

The theme of the 2025 meeting is CARE AND REPAIR, and we encourage proposals (see formats below) concerning how erosion, breakdown, and maintenance, instead of progress and innovation, can be starting points for research. What are the limits of our fragile world, and what work does caring do? We characterize ‘care and repair’ broadly, encompassing objects, people, and environments, but all proposals should have a focus on the material culture of science, technology, and/or medicine.

In keeping with the theme, we especially encourage proposals from museum conservators, as well as those who care for museum communities. These could potentially be joint submissions with other museum practitioners and scholars. ARTEFACTS conferences are friendly and informal meetings with the character of workshops. There is plenty of time for open discussion and networking.

Examples might include, but are not limited to:

  • Conservation and restoration of technoscientific heritage; “stubborn” objects, those which require persistent care and repair; challenges while taking care of technoscientific collections… 
  • Working with communities on technoscientific heritage; forgotten stories of care and repair; amateurs and enthusiasts, the maker movement, and do-it-yourself (DIY) culture…
  • The sustainability of technoscientific heritage; practices of repair leading towards more sustainability; making things last; waste and reuse; the afterlives of technoscientific heritage…
  • Historical perspectives on technology and repair; the shaping of technology through practices of repair; how repair practices have changed over time; lost expertise / knowledge / skills; the lifespans and persistence of technology; technology’s manifold temporalities…
  • Care and the medical humanities; care versus repair, with regard to hierarchies of expertise in healthcare; caregiving and the difficulties of providing and receiving care; ethical dimensions of care and maintenance; how caregiving has changed over time…

Please remember that the focus of presentations should be on artefacts.

This time, ARTEFACTS is experimenting with two tracks for submissions: (1) works to be considered for publication (a pre-circulated paper and a longer presentation based on the paper) and (2) works-in-progress (shorter presentations without a paper). Abstracts for track 1 should be 500-1000 words; abstracts for track 2 should be 200-300 words. They should be accompanied by a 75-word author biography and sent to artefacts@tekniskmuseum.no by 15 May 2025. We aim to notify accepted participants by 5 June 2025.

Registration will open formally when the program is announced in June, but in the meantime informal queries should be directed to artefacts@tekniskmuseum.no.

CFP: Request for Speakers: Libraries in Unexpected Places – 2025 ALA LHRT Research Forum (Library History Round Table)

Libraries are not confined to traditional institutions; they exist in a myriad of unexpected places, serving diverse communities in innovative ways. From lighthouses and artists’ studios to mobile book vans and digital platforms, libraries continue to evolve, offering knowledge and resources in creative and unconventional settings. This call for papers seeks to explore the rich and often overlooked world of libraries that exist outside the norm—whether in remote villages, repurposed structures, personal collections, or virtual spaces.

We invite scholars, librarians, historians, and researchers from various disciplines to present their research at the 2025 LHRT Research Forum, which will focus on how libraries in unexpected places serve communities, preserve history, and expand access to knowledge. The forum aims to highlight historical studies of library outreach and development, including 20th and 21st-century topics. Single-case studies, theoretical perspectives, and other approaches are welcomed, but use of primary sources is expected. Each speaker will be asked to present for approximately 20 minutes, with a 10-minute Q&A to follow.

To accommodate as many attendees as possible, the 2025 Research Forum will be held virtually after the ALA Annual Conference & Exhibition, on Wednesday, July 23, 2:00-3:30 EST.

Possible topics include (but are not limited to):

Libraries in Unconventional Spaces

  • Libraries and library collections housed in unique buildings or premises.
  • Personal and private libraries with public impact.
  • Community-based initiatives such as Little Free Libraries and other book-sharing projects.
  • Rural and mobile libraries that reach remote and underserved populations.

Library Outreach and Collaboration

  • Librarians bringing books and services to nontraditional settings.
  • Novel partnerships between libraries and other institutions and organizations.
  • Efforts to preserve and document library collections that exist outside formal institutions.

Access Beyond Physical Spaces

  • Online and open-access libraries in areas lacking traditional library services.
  • Hybrid models that combine physical and digital library services to reach broader audiences.
  • The role of technology in expanding knowledge beyond geographic and economic barriers.

Submission Guidelines:

We welcome submissions from a variety of perspectives, including historical studies, case studies, ethnographic research, theoretical analyses, and reflective essays. We will consider research projects already underway or, if at the beginning of the project, a discussion of new methodologies to be used in the work. Please note that projects or project plans should include a primary source research component.

  • Each proposal must include the paper title, an abstract (up to 500 words), and the presenter’s one-page vita. Please indicate in the abstract whether the research is in progress or completed.
  • Proposals are due March 15, and decisions will be communicated shortly thereafter.
  • Completed papers are due May 31.

Please submit proposals and direct inquiries to Jennifer Bartlett, LHRT Vice Chair/Research Committee Chair, at jen.bartlett@uky.edu.

We encourage interdisciplinary approaches and diverse voices to contribute to this exciting exploration of libraries in unexpected places. If you have a unique perspective or case study that falls outside these categories but aligns with the theme, we welcome your proposal! We look forward to your submissions and to celebrating the vast and varied ways libraries continue to inspire, adapt, and serve.

Research Committee Members:

Jennifer Bartlett

Bernadette Lear

Catherine Minter

Deborah Smith

Rachel Trnka