st Museums and Education in the 21 Century: global and local discourses

Call for Papers

This international conference will be convened by the Institute of Education, University of London and National Taiwan Normal University. The themes below are based on the intersection between education in its broadest sense and self-conscious public museums (including the art gallery or art museum in the USA) as sites for social interaction, places of collision and possibility. Such sites move beyond the physical museum to embrace social media and the virtual museum. In particular this conference will seek a better understanding of the implications and contradictions of local and global changes for a rapidly expanding museum world.

Scope of the Conference

1. Museums and social responsibility

Historically an apologist for the univocal Nation-state with pretensions to representing the universal and encyclopaedic, the museum is now charged with amplified and sometimes conflicting forms of social responsibility as it embraces pluralism and diversity through increasingly differentiated users. This theme welcomes papers that consider what social responsibility means in the context of the museum and gallery and what forms such responsibility might take. Papers might consider issues of social justice, urban and rural regeneration, sustainability, democracy, disability, health and well-being and the museums potential as an agent of radical, social change.

2. Museum ethics in a connected world

Traditional normative ethical frameworks have been found wanting in what the West often refers to as the post-colonial new-museum as institutions take account of changing cultural policies and manifold identities. The idea of modernity and its cultural hierarchies is being recast and brought into sharp relief by the proliferation of museums ordered by multiple sets of co-ordinates calling for a re-evaluation of cultural values. This theme welcomes papers that

consider the role of ethics in museums particularly in relation to policy and philosophical and theoretical discourses in both historic and contemporary st world cultures. If ethical considerations are contingent on context in the 21 century, what are the implications for a digitised museum world?

3. Reconciling cultural diversity in the new museum

Museums and art galleries are often considered sites for reconciliation with an emphasis on affect rather than fact-based learning or objective knowledge. Artists in particular are often called upon to re-interpret collections circumscribed by problematic political pasts. Curators too are rapidly reconfiguring collections and seeking new narratives to take account of competing voices and formerly repressed histories. Education is also given primacy here and called upon to arbitrate, mediate and reconcile between diverse cultures. This theme welcomes papers that look at new museum strategies and critical approaches, beyond binaries such as occident and orient that are emerging in the rapidly proliferating, globalised museum and art gallery.

4. Guardianship, curating and community participation

Authorised or expert views of the role of the museum are being challenged by new modes of community participation, in sharp distinction to what are often perceived as the gate-keeping roles of curating and guardianship. This theme welcomes papers that consider what is at stake in co-curating and cross-disciplinary practices, dialogue across domains and visitor participation (on and off-line). We welcome papers that re-consider structure, agency, audience sustainability and transformation through a consideration of community participation, new community making and citizenship.

5. Museums, art education and aesthetic education

There is a paradox that as art education struggles to stay relevant in an instrumental financial climate, visiting art galleries has never been more popular. Moreover, art galleries are increasingly offering alternative forms of art and aesthetic education as they return to their core, historic role of informal education or expand into formal education. Papers for this session should consider the pedagogic role of art and aesthetic education and its historic and contemporary relationship to gallery education.

Adviser
Bureau of Foreign Trade, Ministry of Economic Affairs, ROC National Science Council, ROC Ministry of Culture, ROC Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ROC

Organizer
Fine Art Department, College of Arts of National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) Institute of Education, University of London

Conference Duration & Venues

Duration: 19-20, June, 2014 Venues: Collage of Education Building, NTNU, Taipei Taiwan. For keynote speech and invited address will take place at room 202 International Conference Auditorium; Call For Paper will take place at room 201, Lecture Auditorium.

Submission of Abstracts and Manuscripts

1. We will accept submissions in both Chinese and English. We only consider new papers not previously presented or published. 2. Abstracts should not exceed 500 words and must be sent to the Programme Committee no later than 31 January 2014. Please submit your abstract as both a Word file and PDF file via e-mail to this address: 2014museum@gmail.com . Each submission must include: (1) type of presentation, (2) title, (3) author(s), (4) affiliation(s), (5) abstract, (6) fax number, (7) e-mail address, and (8) shipping address (for paper collection shipping). 3. The full version papers accepted for the conference must be sent as both Word file and PDF file. Papers in Chinese should be between 8,000 and 12,000 words; papers in English should be between 5,000 and 8,000 words (please follow MLA format).

Confirmation
If your abstract is accepted we will confirm this by mid March 2014. Full papers will be required by 30 April 2014.

Inquiries
If you have any questions about CFP, please contact this email: 2014museum@gmail.com