>

> Subject: Potential New BSA Study Group - please register your interest
>
> At a recent ESRC sponsored seminar series Museum and Society (1998-2000), a proposal for a British Sociological Association (BSA) Museum Study Group emerged at the last meeting of that seminar programme.
>
> We are now writing to people who we think may have interests in this area to see if there is any interest in the setting up of such a group.
>
> The aim of the ESRC Seminar was to facilitate collaboration between university social scientists with museum interests and museum practitioners with an interest in the social sciences. By March 2000 the seminar had grown to a network of about 90 people and it became apparent that there was a substantial amount of museum investigation going on in UK universities. The Museum and Society seminar will continue to provide a more general forum for social scientists and museum professionals. However, within the larger group there are sociologists who feel that their 'museum and society' interests could be further served and developed by means of a specific BSA Study Group.
>
> The aims of the proposed study group will therefore be:
>
> to focus on the institution of the museum (past and present) as a significant site for sociological theorizing and empirical research.
>
> to develop an understanding of the diversity of museum forms and related cultural practices (e.g. popular collecting).
>
> to explore the relationships between museums and other institutions, social relations and processes (e.g. families, schools, nation-states, ethnicity, gender, social change etc).
>
> The group will meet four times a year. These meetings will take the
> form of one-day seminars for the presentation of working papers
> and will each be based on a specific theme; for example, museums and nationality, museums and cultural ownership, museums and gender, or museums and new technology.
>
> While the study group's main focus will be sociological, those working on museums in other disciplines, for example, cultural studies, museum and heritage studies, critical and cultural theory, archaeology, history, cultural geography, anthropology, tourism and leisure studies, or art history, are actively encouraged to participate.
>
> If you are interested in joining the above study group please could you reply to [log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask] by Thursday 5/4/01.
>
> As we need a specified number of BSA members to get the group up and running please could you also indicate whether you are currently a member of the BSA.
>
> Thank you for your time
> Gaynor Bagnall & Rhiannon Mason
>
> Dr Gaynor Bagnall
> Lecturer in Sociology
> School of Education Community & Social Science
> Liverpool John Moores University
> I M Marsh Campus
> Liverpool
> L17 6BD
>
> Tel: 0151 231 5234
> Fax: 0151 231 5243
>
> Email:[log in to unmask]
>
> Rhiannon Mason
> Lecturer in Museums, Gallery and Heritage Studies
> International Centre for Cultural and Heritage Studies
> Newcastle University
> Bruce Building
> Newcastle-upon-Tyne
> NE1 7RU
> Tel: 0191-222-5579
> Fax: 0191-222-5564
> Email: [log in to unmask]
>
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