CfP When publics co-produce history in museums: skills, methodologies and impact of participation

As part of a series of events on public participation in history museums, we now open the call to participate in the 2022 International Symposium. Organised by the Public History as new Citizen Science of the Past project, the symposium will take place on 7 December 2022 (fully online).

The 2022 symposium focuses on groups and communities who become active participants in the production of history in museums. Many institutions have developed inclusive frameworks that allow for a diversity of publics to contribute to collecting, researching or managing objects, or designing exhibitions. Different publics do not simply consume history in museums (as visitors or users) but may also contribute to preserving, producing, and exhibiting history.

We invite proposals that especially deal with community-based practices and collaborative projects with identified groups (under-represented and marginalised groups, school children and students, groups of historical witnesses, volunteers etc.). Proposals about communities of practice (citizen scientists, volunteers, Wikipedians) in history museums are also encouraged. The symposium will explore questions such as what groups and communities can bring to the production of history in museums and their impact on historical narratives and on the institutions representing them. We are also interested in examples of participatory decision-making in co-production and co-creation and of accessibility and inclusion. What can public participants (not) do? What skills and knowledge are necessary? What are the examples of collaborative decision-making processes that allow contributions from the different publics and how do they affect the role and functioning of museums?

We welcome submissions from museum (or other cultural institutions) professionals, scholars, groups and communities’ representatives, and other participants of co-production and co-creation projects around history and its representations.

Submission

Presentations (15 to 20 minutes) will be delivered online and in English.

To apply, please send

• Abstract of the presentation in English (up to 500 words)
• Short biography (in English) (200 words max) including name, institutional affiliation, and email address

Send your documents to phacs@uni.lu before 30 September 2022.

Key dates

• 30 September 2022: Deadline for submitting abstracts
• 1 November 2022: Notification of acceptance
• 6 December 2022: Keynote speech and roundtable, tenatively between 18:00-20:00, Central European Time
• 7 December 2021: Symposium, tentatively 9:00 – 17:30, Central European Time

Contact

For any questions, please contact phacs@uni.lu

The symposium is made possible thanks to the ATTRACT grant from the Luxembourg National Research Fund.