Forwarded from Caduceus-L
European symposium on material culture, London, 2001
Background: A group of researchers from museums and universities in Leiden,
London and Paris have for some years been running an informal and
more-or-less biennial symposium on aspects of Material Culture. The focus
has been on current object-based research projects, whether collaborative or
individual, in which artefacts, techniques, collections, methodologies and
questions begin to open up to each other. In that context, an important aim
has been to overcome restrictive divisions between university- and
museum-based approaches to the study of material culture. The first of these
meetings took place in Paris in 1996 on the theme of the history of
collecting; the second, on multi-disciplinary approaches to material
culture, was held in Leiden in 1998. This year, after interruption by the
millennium, it is London's turn.
Dates: Friday 16 and Saturday 17 November 2001
Theme: Health and illness, misfortune and uncertainty
Venue: The Ethnography Department of the British Museum (former Museum of
Mankind), Burlington Gardens, London W1S 3WX
Organisers: Ethnography Department, British Museum
(<[log in to unmask]>) and Anthropology Department, University
College London (<[log in to unmask]>)
Offers of papers are invited on any aspect of this theme, whether exploring
paradigms and practices in Western, non-Western, historical or contemporary
contexts; the provision of health care; or interactions between biomedical
and other systems. We also encourage contributions from educational and
communications perspectives: how are (broadly-speaking) medical
understandings constructed in practice, or represented in professional or
popular media, by drugs companies or health organisations, by artists, or in
museum galleries? How might objects and images be used to communicate to
Western audiences the 'socially embedded' character of health and misfortune
which most of the world takes for granted? How different, in fact, are
seemingly 'exotic' systems of diagnosis and treatment from the everyday
practices of most people in the West?
Wellcome Trust Gallery at the British Museum: Following the very successful
opening of the British Museum's Sainsbury African Galleries in March this
year, the next major gallery development for the Ethnography Department will
be the spacious Wellcome Trust Gallery, immediately to the north of the
Museum's Great Court. The new gallery is due to open in 2003. Its theme is
broadly that of the symposium which will therefore provide an opportunity
for British Museum curators to test ideas on colleagues and for everyone to
benefit from the focus it should give to our discussions.
Programme format: In order to allow enough time for discussion, the
programme will be limited to a maximum of 10 (ten) papers. Each paper will
be 30 minutes long and will be given 10 minutes' discussion time afterwards.
There will be opportunities for general discussion and for exploring wider
ideas.
Fares, accommodation, subsistence: We should be able to cover expenses for
travel, meals and up to three nights' accommodation for those whose papers
are accepted for presentation, but we will need to know early to be able to
secure the appropriate bookings. To encourage wider attendance, there will
be no participation fee, but places may be limited so to be sure please book
in advance. (Bookings/enquiries, please, to
<[log in to unmask]>)
How to submit a paper: please send an outline proposal/abstract (not more
than 500 words) by e-mail to Brian Durrans <[log in to unmask]>
and to Mike Rowlands <[log in to unmask]>, as soon as possible or
at the latest by the end of September 2001.
If you have a more developed paper ready please send that as well. The ten
papers will be selected by 5 October from among the proposals or papers
received and it may be possible to pre-circulate them to participants.
Brian Durrans
Ethnography Department of the British Museum
Burlington Gardens
London W1S 3EX
tel (+) 44 (0) 20 7323 8027; fax (+) 44 (0) 20 7323 8013
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