The Museum of London are seeking papers for the
international conference Museums and Refugees - Keeping Cultures
in March 2008.
We would be grateful if you could consider the
attached call for papers and/or distribute to your contacts and
distribution lists.
This work is supported by the London Museums Hub
and linked
to the Hub
Refugee Heritage Programme.
We are keen to invite submissions for papers from a
range of Museums and heritage organisations London based, national and
internationally. And to feature speakers on policy, programming as
well as innovative projects case studies, and especially those that are
shaped and informed by partnerships with refugee and asylum seeker
researchers, activitists and communities themselves.
CALL FOR PAPERS
Museums and Refugees
Museum in Docklands, London, 13-14 March 2008
End of call date: 17 October 2007
How do museums and more broadly the heritage sector engage
with refugees and asylum seekers and the increased global focus on forced
migration? The collective and individual voices of the people are
rarely heard and often misrepresented in the media. Museums,
academic research centres, non-government organisations and government
departments/agencies now see the need to explore the cultural
contributions to and impact of refugee and asylum seeker groups on urban
and regional centres.
The conference aims to explore how museums and other heritage agencies
are responding to complex ethical, legal, social and political
issues. How can museums inform debate and, given recent trends in
immigration and asylum polices, highlight international and national
obligations to protect people from persecution?
These issues impact on the work practices of museums in terms of
curatorial decisions, collecting strategies, partnerships, approaches to
programming, as well as shared decision making in collaborative
exhibitions and public events. Are museums agents and forums of
cultural change or do they reflect social change? Is there a new
role for museums in terms of cultural facilitation and mediation?
Should museums be more proactive as places for cross-cultural exchange
and developing understanding between ‘new’ communities and peoples of
diverse backgrounds? Are there appropriate ethical codes of
practice in place to facilitate these new agendas?
We invite a range of papers that might be prompted by these questions as
well as the three strands of the conference:
1. Giving voice: the museological agenda
- what are the current museological strategies to record, engage and
reflect diverse tangible and intangible heritage?
- what resources and expertise can museums offer to and exchange with
individuals and community groups and in turn serve as a counterpoint to
the dominant discourses?
- to what extent do current practices inform museological policies,
practices and long term agendas for working with refugee and asylum
seeker groups?
2. Culture as a key player: evidencing social impact
- how can social capital be an effective means of to measure museums'
effectiveness, develop responsive practices and inform policies and
funding opportunities?
- can museums be effective forums for bridging and encouraging
cross-cultural discussions, debate, understanding and active
participation - and, if so, how can this be realising measured in terms
of evidence that will convince policy makers?
- where does the work of museums sit with political and social policies
on measuring social impact, eg in terms of regeneration, social
cohesion?
- can we ensure that notions of citizenship and values are not used to
promote the cultural values of a more dominant group over
another?
3. Innovation and research
- how can museums and heritage agencies be more creative and innovative
in addressing these issues?
- how can museums develop more flexible spaces to present plural
perspectives of groups and their histories and heritage (tangible and
intangible)?
- how can museums work better with refugee and asylum seek groups,
universities and other agencies as a knowledge base and communicate these
issues to the public.
We would welcome abstracts of 1-2 pages on these issues and other issues
pertinent to the aims of this conference - these might include
partnership work, community cantered museum work, social inclusion,
diasporas and translational social movements, gender and sexuality,
deportation and detention, and combating racism.
Please send abstracts and/or proposals to
[log in to unmask] or
[log in to unmask] by 17 October 2007. Responses to
abstracts will be by 1 December 2007.
A selection of papers will be published in the Museums and Diversity
series, which is published by UNESCO.
Kate Orchard
London Hub Refugee
Co-ordinator
London Museums Hub
West India Quay
London. E14 4AL
Tel: 020 7814 5767
Fax: 0870 444 3858
Email: [log in to unmask]
www.museumindocklands.org.uk
