STEP - Science and Technology in the European Periphery

XI UMAC Annual Meeting 2011

Museum of Science, University of Lisbon

21-24 September 2011

- CALL FOR PAPERS -

For its XI Annual Meeting – UMAC 2011 – the International Committee of ICOM for University Museums and Collections invites submissions of papers on issues related to university museums and collections worldwide. The theme of UMAC 2011 is ‘University Museums and Collections: University History and Identity’, though papers on other topics are welcome too. Graduate students are especially encouraged to attend.

The Programme will include visits to the Universities of Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra, plus an Open Session about Portuguese University Museums and Collections (September 20).

'University Museums and Collections | University History and Identity'

Collections and museums of university history typically present memorabilia, portraits of former professors, institutional uniforms, and seals and sceptres. Likewise, intangible university heritage has been limited to the whole array of academic and student culture and traditions. However, in a broader and more interesting sense, university history is the history of innovation and creativity. Intangible university heritage is in fact more appropriately related to our collective memory of knowledge. Ever since the Renaissance, university museums and collections mirror the development of knowledge in the different sciences, humanities and the arts. Since the nineteenth century, and more particularly during the twentieth century, university museums across the world have also reflected a wider role played by universities in the public sphere. Today, the public sphere is the main rationale for many university museums, which are important vehicles for university public relations in local communities or at a national scale.

The creation, recognition, management, and closure of museums and collections have been shaped and are still being shaped by what universities think about themselves, knowledge and society.

How have university museums and collections reflected fluctuations in teaching, research and university identity? How much impact has university's increasingly relevant social role in university museums in the
past and present? How have universities used their museums as vehicles for social and cultural affirmation? What impact does this have on collections policies, public exhibitions and educational programmes?

Paper presentations are limited to 20 minutes, including 5 minutes for discussion.
The conference language is English.

Please send abstract proposals of no more than 200 words to the email address below before 15 April 2011.
Use abstract template at: http://www.mc.ul.pt/agenda/umac1011

Include a short biography highlighting main research interests (no more than 50 words).

Proposals and inquiries: umac2011@museus.ul.pt

More info about the Programme, registrations and hotels in the coming days.

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Marta C. Lourenço
Museum of Science
University of Lisbon