Main theme
University Museums & Collections: Challenges of the Past – Responsibilities for Today
During the 2021 UMAC-UNIVERSEUM joint conference many issues were raised and discussed by our community. Among them was our capacity to position ourselves among the many challenges our contemporary society are confronted to, to define our priorities and take actions, to enhance our ability to push the limits, experiment while being aware of our constraints and knowing how others made the best out of it.
During the 2022 Universeum Annual Conference in Belgium, we would like to continue this debate and focus it specifically in relation to university museums (U-museums) and collections. Can, or should, U-museums be in the forefront of social and political change? And if so, how can they have more impact on society? Secondly: Across Europe there have been times of significant development, but also times of extreme violence and abuse, inside and outside of the European boarders. These pasts are often reflected in the European U-collections and other U-heritage. How can we deal effectively and appropriately today with the challenges of their past? What are the constraints and opportunities?
During the 2022 Universeum meeting, we want to explore different ways of encouraging discussion and debate around the main themes outlined above, as well as allow as many voices from the community to be heard as possible. We would like to combine short papers, with longer in-depth contributions that reflect more broadly on these themes rather than present specific projects, as well as invite dialogue and discussions from all participants. Under the main theme of “University Museums & Collections: Challenges of the Past – Responsibilities for Today”, we thus invite proposals for 5- or 15-minute talks on one of the following two sub-themes or for posters addressing the overall theme:
Subtheme 1: Taking up our role in society
Subtheme 2: Dealing with a challenging past
You will find the entire development of the theme and the sub-themes in the call for papers :
Universeum2022-CallForPapers
Abstract proposal
Please send your abstract proposal (max. 200 words), indicating in which session you are submitting to (sub-theme 1, sub-theme 2, or poster session), plus a short biographical note highlighting your main research interests and/or field of professional experience (max. 50 words) to the following email address using the abstract template by Tuesday 1st March 2022: universeum2022@ulb.be
When submitting your abstract, please indicate whether you would prefer to give a poster, a 5-minute, or a 15-minute presentation.
Document : Universeum_abstract_template_2022-Belgium
Programme Committee
- Nathalie Nyst, Université libre de Bruxelles (Belgium)
- Nathalie Poot, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium)
- Frédérique Andry-Cazin, Sorbonne University (France)
- Esther Boeles, University of Amsterdam (NL)
- Marjan Doom, Ghent University (Belgium)
- Maria Economou, The Hunterian, University of Glasgow (UK)
- Nicole Gesché-Koning, Université libre de Bruxelles (Belgium)
- Sébastien Soubiran, Jardin des sciences, University of Strasbourg (France)
- Martin Stricker, Coordination Centre for Scientific University Collections in Germany, Humboldt University Zu Berlin (Germany)
- Kevin Troch, Université de Mons – UMONS (Belgium)
- Geert Van Paemel, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium)
