Museological Review, Issue 25 – (Re)visiting Museums 

Submission Deadline for abstracts/proposals: Sunday 15th November 2020, 17.00 GMT 

The issue will be published in June 2021 

 Museological Review (MR) is a peer-reviewed journal, published annually by the PhD cohort of the School of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester, UK.  

It is a forum for the exchange of museological ideas and the development of academic skills. 

The theme of Museological Review Issue 25 is ‘(Re)visiting Museums’. As museums around the world reopen their doors to visitors after the closures imposed by the spread of the pandemic, we invite researchers and practitioners to reflect on the impact of the unprecedented events that marked 2020.  

Our field has seen a myriad of changes that have shifted the composition of visitor populations, production of art, organisational structures and the way in which we research museum practice. The interactions between museums and their publics have been shaken to some extent, affecting their relationships with global and local audiences, their strategies for engagement, use of space and permanent collections, collecting rationales and work cultures (to name a few). Some institutions started to collect everyday artefacts and new works produced by artists during lockdown. Museum visits moved online, as fieldwork and projects did for many researchers and practitioners. Museums are now urged to rethink their strategies of programming and outreach as they witness a shift in their priorities and resources. 

How do these shifts impact the relationship between publics and museums? How do these influence museum practice? 

We invite submissions that reflect upon the alternative paths that opened up through the practical and theoretical challenges faced by museums in 2020. We believe that this is an opportunity to debate the role of museums in contemporary society through times of crisis. Now that museums are reopening, this is a great chance to revisit them with fresh eyes.  

Museological Review Issue 25 will consider how the museum sector is responding to worldwide events and navigating new ways to reach the audiences and negotiate relevance, even from a distance. Topics include, but are not limited to: 

• Visitor engagement in a pandemic (e.g. socialising the collection, outreach strategies, digital engagement) 
• Developing and using collections in response to rapid change (e.g. collecting the everyday, use of permanent collections) 
• Planning for the ‘new normal’ (e.g. programming, crowdsourcing exhibitions, targeting local and global audiences, museum space in a post-COVID world) 
• Equity and inclusion in a time of crisis (e.g. representation, negotiating relevance, responding to calls for change) 
• Mental wellbeing (for visitors and staff) 
• Online fieldwork for museum researchers and practitioners