CFP - The 'Inclusive Museum' - AAS panel, ANU November 2013

Final reminder for AAS panel, ANU November 2013
Reply-To: "Elizabeth.Bonshek" <Elizabeth.Bonshek@CANBERRA.EDU.AU>

Hi,
This is a reminder for the panel "What has the 'inclusive' museum meant for
research in museums?" for the AAS Conference at ANU on November 6-8.
Abstracts are due on August 1.


What has the 'inclusive' museum meant for research in museums?

This panel takes up the projects of 'worlding' in the conference's theme
"The Human in the World, the World in the Human". Since their beginnings
museums have tried to encompass the world through their collections.
However, contemporary museums no longer seek to contain the object alone:
the "new museology" emphasizes human engagement and "inclusiveness" in the
museums dealings with its audience, and especially with those communities
whose material culture is housed in its collections. Increasingly museums
have attempted to connect with such communities and to engage with them
via the collections.

This panel invites papers which discuss how involvement with museum projects
affect a community¹s efficacy in dealing with the world. And what is the
effect on research in the museum? The question might be rephrased as -
how can anthropologists/researchers (located within museums or outside
them) working on the nexus between communities and their responses to
museum collections negotiate the museum¹s mandate for "inclusiveness" and
maintain a research agenda. Is the latter desirable and do museum's as
institutions emphasing "inclusiveness" want to do research? Within the
museum sphere has "consultation" become an adequate substitute for
research?

This panel invites papers that address the current state of play of
research in museums and is welcoming of contributions from Australia and
beyond.

Convener: Liz Bonshek, email:
elizabeth.bonshek@canberra.edu.au<mailto:elizabeth.bonshek@canberra.edu.au><mailto:elizabeth.bonshek@canberra.edu.au>