National Museums in a Changing Europe
12-14 December 2012
Central European University, Budapest
Conference of the Eunamus research consortium studying`National Museums, Identity Politics, the Uses of the Past, and the European Citizen'.
This conference is an opportunity to bring together researchers studying national museums and professionals responsible for taking these institutions forwards. It offers an opportunity to consider the past and present, but with the aim of debating the future. The conference considers holistically the role of the national museum in the context of change.
The conference also welcomes delegates who do not wish to present a paper. To register your interest, please email registration_eunamus_bp@pasts.ceu.hu
The conference will be shaped around the following questions:
•How should the institutional inheritance of national museums (purpose, culture, philosophy, etc.) shape their future role?
•How do the historical narratives and material collections of national museums contribute to division and contestation? How do they, or might they, build bridges between nations and communities?
•How have national museums been instrumentalised in government policy? How have they become socially active?
•How do national museums contribute to the values, perceptions and identities of citizens?
•In a changing Europe, how can national museums contribute to greater social cohesion? How can the stories national museums tell and the treasures they display, be mobilised to build connections across Europe?
Central to this conference is a dialogue between museum professionals, professional organisations, policy makers and university researchers. While academic researchers can operate outside of the professional and institutional constraints that shape practice, the role of national museums in building greater European cohesion can only be developed within a framework of energetic, proactive professionalism. National Museums in a Changing Europe provides a forum for debate and dialogue between those who study national museums and those who daily shape these institutions and who are charged with taking these institutions forward.
Eunamus, a European-funded research consortium, brings together participants from across Europe to consider how national museums and their uses of the past, might contribute to European cohesion. In 2010, when Eunamus began its research, the challenges to cohesion seemed to arise from population migration, demographic change and nationalism. Two years later, Europe's democratic and economic institutions, and European cooperation more generally, are under extraordinary pressure.
The Eunamus consortium is led by: Peter Aronsson, Linköping University, Sweden; Alexandra Bounia, University of the Aegean, Greece; Arne Bugge Amundsen, University of Oslo, Norway; Constantin Iordachi, Central European University, Hungary; Simon Knell, University of Leicester, UK; Kristin Kuutma, University of Tartu, Estonia; Ilaria Porciani, University of Bologna, Italy; and Dominique Poulot, University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, France.
http://www.eunamus.eu/firstpage/finalconference.html
