ICOM INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR MUSEUMS AND COLLECTIONS OF ETHNOGRAPHY

Theme: Curating and Engaging: Peoples, Places and Entanglements in an Age of Migrations

During ICOM General Conference

Milano, Italy

3-9 July, 2016

ICME Annual Meeting    

Call for papers at: http://icme.icom.museum

ICME Call for Conference Abstract / Milan, Italy, 3-9 July, 2016

Museums and Cultural Landscapes

Dear ICME colleagues and friends,

The Board are pleased to send you the first ICME Call for Conference Abstracts at the ICOM meeting in Milan 2016. We welcome your ideas for papers, workshops, performances or forums. Please be as creative as you like!

Curating and Engaging: Peoples, Places and Entanglements in an Age of Migrations

In an age of migration what new approaches can ethnographic museums employ to progress what Édouard Glissant terms 'Relation', specifically concerning museums and places. Drawing on Glissant's creolisation theories we recognise peoples, cultures, ideas, information and knowledge do not remain static in the global world and curators may profitably use creolising strategies. A Creolising museum in diverse cultural landscapes implies more than simple mixing or métissage; it is rather about building community anew, recognizing the complexity of identities and the dynamic nature of culture.

ICME calls for your abstracts outlining innovative museum practices that reflect the challenges of globalization, mobility and migration. As people, objects, knowledge and information continue to travel what are the ties that bind communities in an inclusive sense of belonging? What are the distinctive features of community identity? How, if at all, can ethnographic museums establish closeness across cultural divides and facilitate mutual understanding and social cohesion? To what extent can ethnographic museum spaces, collections, practices and policies empower communities and build fresh identities? Is there a mediation role for the ethnographic museum in cultural exchange? What strategies can the ethnographic museum use when representing multiple cultures, even clashing perspectives, in contemporary societies?

We welcome your ideas for papers, workshops, performances or forums on this theme.

Please send the conference committee:

Viv Golding [vmg4@le.ac.uk]; Laurie Kalb ‎[laurie.kalb@alice.it]‎‎); Sylvia Wackernagel [swackernagel@yahoo.de]; Mario Buletic [mario.buletic@gmail.com‎] Martin Earing [earringm@si.edu] and Clara Arokiasamy [clara.arokiasamy@btinternet.com]‎‎ an abstract of around 200 words, together with your museum or university affiliation, by Friday 26 February 2016. The conference committee will notify all applicants of their decision by Friday 11 March 2016.