The international online symposium “Making History Together: Public Participation in Museums” will take place on 15 December 2020. It will bring together scholars, museum professionals and heritage practitioners to discuss how participatory history is constructed, developed, and implemented in museums.
The Public History as the New Citizen Science of the Past (PHACS) project at the University of Luxembourg (Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History) invites proposals for presentations to a one-day online symposium about public participation in the creation, enrichment, uses, and presentations of historical collections and exhibitions in museums
Public participation and participatory practices have now become crucial for many cultural institutions and broader cultural policies. As potential forums of discussion, museums are one of the most symbolic spaces to develop a participatory culture. Museums have slowly but surely been extending their focus from curated collections to more inclusive practices by reaching out to audiences, communities, and external partners.
While collaborative and participatory projects in art and science museums have been documented fairly well, history museums, historical collections and exhibitions, and the overall production of history in museums raise specific issues. In line with works and research on public history, co-production, shared authority, and community engagement, this symposium invites to explore how we can make history together and establish new forms of historical storytelling through collections, exhibitions, and projects in museums.
In the light of the numerous participatory collections of COVID19 items and memories currently created by museums through online platforms, the symposium also proposes to discuss how digital technology can contribute to reinventing the role and functioning museum.
They welcome submissions that discuss and demonstrate specific participatory projects and approaches, as well as those that address broader methodological and epistemological issues pertaining to the making of history in museums.
Submissions accepted until 30 October 2020.
More info on topics and submissions at: https://www.c2dh.uni.lu/news/cfp-making-history-together-public-participation-museums