Call for papers: Re-Imagining the Human: Exploring Best Practice in Object-led work with Ethnographic Collections.

Dates: 28-29 November 2018
Venue: Horniman Museum and Gardens, London, UK.
Conference Website: https://www.horniman.ac.uk/visit/events/reimagining-the-human-a-two-day-conference-in-collaboration-with-icme 

 

ICME (International Committee for Museums and Collections of Ethnography) and the Horniman Museum and Gardens invite scholars and practitioners to explore innovative practices and theories in object-led work with ethnographic collections. Object-led practice can draw strongly on our ability to employ the senses to re-imagine our place in the world. In-depth engagement with ethnographic objects in particular can promote social interactions and critical reflections on the logics of power and prejudice upon which collections are constituted. ​

• How can ethnographic collections be used to examine or contest established notions of ‘Self’ and ‘Other’?
• How can dialogical and/or affective engagement with ethnographic objects promote critical reflections on controversial issues (e.g. colonial legacies such as racism, ethnocentrism and primitivism, memory making, gender stereotypes)? 
• To what extent can imaginative engagement with objects (through poetry, drawing, drama, dance, storytelling, music, etc) help challenge a fixed understanding of cultural identity and promote inter and transcultural dialogue? 
• How can ethnographic museums use object-led practice to strengthen community collaboration and sense of ownership of collections?

Deadline for submission: 1 October 2018.

 
Keynote speaker Dr. Sandra Dudley will open the conference. Her research as a social and material anthropologist transects social anthropology, museum studies, and material culture studies.