CFP Cultural Sustainability Conference Calls

Faculty and staff of the Masters in Cultural Sustainability program at
Goucher College invite you to participate in one of our upcoming conference
calls, March 23 and April 1.
This limited residency online masters program hosted its first students in
January of this year. It was a remarkable beginning. Here is what one
student, Mike Vlahovich, wrote about the intial residency:
http://insidepassage.wordpress.com/2010/01/25/reflections-on-residency-week-blog-essay/
<http://insidepassage.wordpress.com/2010/01/25/reflections-on-residency-week-blog-essay/>

The program provides a curricular blend of public folklore centered cultural
research, theory, and programming knowledge and skills, with courses in the
management of organizations, communication, and finances. The program may be an attractive educational opportunity for graduating students, cultural
leaders, and others who want to be able to better understand and effectively
serve the communities important to them.
We believe that the challenges of sustainability have a cultural dimension,
and that the engaged partnering approaches of the best public folklore
provides a powerful model for ethical practice in this area. You don’t save
a village or a city by destroying it, you try to learn  from people what
matters to them and work with them to build a decent life together. This
involves understanding and skillfully working with the cultural resources of
everyday life and the arts that make life worth living, in other words,
folklore, folklife, folk arts.

The deadline for Summer applications is coming up on April 15th, 2010.
Please let your colleagues, grantees, and students know about this program.
These conference calls will be a great opportunity to learn more!

DATES:
Tuesday, March 23, from 6:30 to 8 p.m.
Thursday, April 1, from 6:30 to 8 p.m.

RSVP: center@goucher.edu and let us know which call you’d like to join, and
we will send you a conference call number and login code.

PARTICIPANTS FROM GOUCHER:
Debbie Cebula and Rory Turner

We’re looking forward to speaking with you, and hope you can join us on the
23rd or the 1st! Of course, if neither of these times work for you, we are
always available to schedule a phone call at another time to help you with
your application, answer your questions, or provide more information about
the program. Rory’s phone number and email: 410-337-6273,
rory.turner@goucher.edu
Program website: http://www.goucher.edu/x33261.xml
Program blog: http://blogs.goucher.edu/culturalsustainability/

Call for Papers 7th Savannah Symposium: The Spirituality of Place

Call for Papers

7th Savannah Symposium: The Spirituality of Place

February 17-19, 2011

www.scad.edu/savannahsymposium

Throughout history spirituality has been a major force in shaping the
built environment.  From ancient Mesopotamian ziggurats to European
cathedrals, cities have served as centers of sacred practices and
religion.  The connection between spirituality and place, however, has not
been the exclusive preserve of religious institutions.  The co-mingling of
sacred and secular realms in urban contexts often reflected the combined
spiritual and temporal authority of priest kings, popes and monarchs and
even facilitated the deification of mortal rulers, as with some Roman
emperors.  With the increasing secularization of the modern world,
concepts of spirituality have broadened and diversified, allowing purely
secular situations to be perceived as spiritual and for the emergence of
increasingly heterogeneous and personal concepts of spirituality to
supplant traditional religion.

Savannah exemplifies the full range of meanings behind the concept of
spirituality of place.  With Georgia conceived as a charitable colony
providing a safe haven for continental European Protestants, Savannah
played a fundamental role in the introduction of various religious groups
to North America – Jews, Lutherans, Methodists, African Baptists.  The
idealistic egalitarianism allowing for the acceptance of all religions
(except Catholicism at first) instilled a spirit of peaceful co-existence
and toleration of diversity throughout the city’s history that also
included remaining Native Americans and African slaves.  The legacy of
these different groups is understood through the rich histories of
Savannah and urban fabric of the city.  In more recent times, Savannah and
surrounding historical sites have become themselves “spiritual” places
that serve those who seek a more secularized pilgrimage experience
connected with their cultural and historical heritage.

It is with this in mind that the 7th biennial Savannah Symposium invites
papers that explore the role of spirituality as it relates to the
development and shaping of architectural and urban forms.  Paper sessions
will focus on the broadest context of spirituality as a significant factor
in the study of the built environment globally, nationally and locally.
Of particular interest are essays that provide a critical evaluation of
the relationship or co-existence of sacred and secular spirituality in
regards to the constructed world.

Potential papers topics might include as their focus:

–        Spirituality and religion in the creation of urban forms
–        Places of contested religious identities
–        The appropriation of the sacred in secular architecture
–        Hallowed grounds:  the cultural geography of the spiritual
–        Heritage sites as places of spiritual pilgrimage
–        Competing Definitions of the concept of ‘Spiritual Space’

–        Spirituality verses Religion in Contemporary Architecture

–        Contesting Spirits:  Architecture and conflicting forms of
spirituality

–        Temenos and Polis:  The Sacred City in the Secular City

–        The Cosmic House: Architecture as World Construction

Papers are invited from scholars and practitioners in, but not limited to,
architecture, architectural history, urban history, planning, historic
preservation, landscape design, art history, geography, archaeology,
cultural history, sociology, political science and anthropology.

How to Participate: Send one-page abstracts (300 words maximum) and
curriculum vitae to Thomas Gensheimer and Jeff Eley at
(architecturalhistory@scad.edu) or c/o Department of Architectural
History, Savannah College of Art and Design, P.O. Box 3146, Savannah, GA
31402-3146.  Electronic submissions are preferred.  For more information
about the symposium (and past symposia), visit our website at
www.scad.edu/savannahsymposium.

Deadline for submissions:  May 15, 2010.

Call for Papers: The Circulation of Museum Objects

American Anthropological Association Meeting, New Orleans,

November 17th- 21st, 2010

Panel organizer: Chris Wingfield, Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford / University of Birmingham – chris.wingfield@prm.ox.ac.uk

Deadline for title and abstract: Friday 19th March.

When things become museum objects, they can appear to be removed from the world of normal circulation. The process of collecting ethnographic objects has been described in terms of detachment and excision (Kirshenblatt-Gimblett 1998). Storage technologies in museums such as locked doors, alarm systems and glass cases all serve to restrict the movement of museum objects. Museum labeling and documentation can attempt to define museum objects as an immoveable and fixed part of a particular museum’s collection.

Nevertheless many museum objects continue to circulate within and between museums through exchanges and loans. Particularly charismatic objects can be regular travelers between exhibitions staged in different world cities.[1] In some ways it may be more sensible to think of museum objects as forming part of a particular sphere of exchange (Douglas and Isherwood 1979), rather than as being removed from circulation altogether. When museums are closed down, their collections may be transferred to other museum institutions, but can also be sold and returned to other arenas of circulation through the market. Repatriation has also seen museum objects enter new spheres of exchange in recent years.

As well as the circulation of the material objects themselves, museum objects circulate through indexical forms (Gell 1998). Casts and physical replicas of particularly iconic objects can form part of the way in which they circulate.  Other indexes include photographs and drawings in museum publications, as well as scale models that may be sold in museum gift shops. For some museum objects, there is a relationship between their relative immovability and the number of indexes that circulate in the world.

This panel will seek to understand museums as institutions which on the one hand restrict and block the circulation of their objects, but on the other, channel their circulation in particular directions, and through particular spheres. By bringing some of the resources of anthropological exchange theory to the analysis of museums and their objects, it is hoped that museums may be understood in relation to the networks in which they operate, rather than as isolated monolithic institutions. In emulation of recent work on the anthropology of colonial archives, it is suggested that focusing on the circulation of museum objects may be a step towards an anthropology of museums that operates ‘along the grain’ (Stoler 2009).

References

Douglas, Mary, and Baron C. Isherwood (1979) The world of goods : towards an anthropology of consumption. Allen Lane, London.

Gell, Alfred (1998) Art and agency : an anthropological theory. Clarendon Press, Oxford.

Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara (1998) Destination culture : tourism, museums, and heritage. University of California Press, Berkeley ; London.

Stoler, Ann Laura (2009) Along the archival grain : epistemic anxieties and colonial common sense. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J. ; Oxford.

[1] For an exploration of the idea of the charismatic museum object, see Wingfield, Christopher (2010) Touching the Buddha: encounters with a charismatic object. In Museum Materialities: Objects, Engagements, Interpretations, edited by S. H. Dudley, pp. 53-70. Routledge, London & New York.

Ressource Blog : Material world

http://blogs.nyu.edu/projects/materialworld/

Chief Editors

• Haidy Geismar
  Anthropology and Museum Studies, New York University
• Daniel Miller
  Anthropology, University College London
• Graeme Were
  University Museum Collections, University College London
• Patrick Laviolette
  School of Visual and Material Culture, Massey University
• Aaron Glass
  Bard Graduate Center/American Museum of Natural History

Editorial Assistant

• Will Thomson
  Anthropology, New York University

Editors-at-Large

• Joshua Bell, Curator of Globalization, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institute
• Alison Clarke, University of Applied Arts, Vienna
• Gabriella Coleman, Department of Media, Culture and Communication, New York University
• Inge Daniels, Anthropology, Oxford University
• Fred Myers, Anthropology, New York University
• Patricia Spyer, Institute of Cultural Anthropology, Leiden University, and Department of Anthropology/Center for Religion, Culture and Media, NYU
• Chris Tilley, Anthropology, University College London
• Paul Williams, Ralph Applebaum Associates

Why Material World and why now

Material World is an interactive, online hub for contemporary debates, discussion, thinking and research centred on material and visual culture. It is the brainchild of scholars working in the anthropology departments of University College London and New York University, but aims to create a new international community of academics, students, curators, artists and anyone else with particular interests in material and visual culture.

We will use this digital framework to post exhibition, book and other reviews; discuss key topics; develop online reading groups and symposia; post links to images, objects and collections; highlight cutting edge research and fieldwork, conferences, meetings and other events; develop teaching resources and syllabi; and encourage student participation. In short we will start the posting but we want YOU to participate in making this a genuinely interactive and lively space

Editorial policy, values, and copyright

Material World believes in high quality debate and discussions in all areas of material and visual culture. The site is managed by an editorial committee who elicit and post content both from themselves and from a wider community of contributors. We encourage contribution from anyone who wants to engage in discussion to send us content and the comments fields are publicly open and accessible. We believe that web entries should be honest, respectfuland fair, and be written carefully and thoughtfully.

Each authored post reflects the opinions of its author rather than of the editorial committee, and remains the intellectual property of its author. All text, sounds, films and images have been posted with the understanding that their authorship will be acknowledged and that they will be made public on the world wide web and we ask that contributors take time to think about copyright and related rights when posting images or text. We ask readers of the site to make the appropriate acknowledgements if quoting, citing, ripping or copying any content.

The editorial committee reserves the right to edit content or remove comments if they are deemed offensive, obscene or inappropriate to the remit of the site.

PhilaPlace Launch

You are invited to the  PhilaPlace Launch Party
Wednesday, December 9, 2009 from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Philadelphia City Hall

Join the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and the Honorable Mayor
Michael A. Nutter as we celebrate the launch of PhilaPlace. The official
announcement will be made in the Mayor’s Reception Room, followed by a
reception with refreshments and live entertainment in Conversation Hall.
Be there as we introduce PhilaPlace to the community and thank everyone
who made this project possible. Food provided by the South 9th Street
Businessmen’s Association. Beverages provided by Yards Brewing Company.

Please RSVP by December 4 to ekretschmar@hsp.org or 215-732-6200 ext.
300 or register online at www.hsp.org <http://www.hsp.org> .

Directions to the Mayor’s Reception Room: Enter at the Northeast
Entrance to City Hall (opposite the Marriott). You will need a picture
ID to get through Security. Take the elevator to the 2nd Floor. The
Mayor’s Reception Room is down the hall to the right.

Everyone has a story to tell. Share yours at www.PhilaPlace.org, an
interactive Web site where visitors can explore the history, cultures,
and architecture of Philadelphia’s neighborhoods.

On www.PhilaPlace.org, you can:

*         Share your own memories, photographs, and video
*         Explore Old Southwark and the Northern Liberties
*         Learn about the history of your favorite Philadelphia place
*         View interactive maps and create your own tour
*         See how the neighborhoods have changed over time

PhilaPlace was created by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in
partnership with the City of Philadelphia Department of Records, the
University of Pennsylvania School of Design, and other institutions and
community organizations. PhilaPlace has been made possible by generous
support from The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, through the Heritage
Philadelphia Program; jointly by the Institute of Museum and Library
Services and the National Endowment for the Humanities; the Pennsylvania
Humanities Council, the Federal-State Partner of the National Endowment
for the Humanities; the Pennsylvania Department of Education; the
Connelly Foundation; and Southwest Airlines, the official airline of the
Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Séminaire Frontières du patrimoine

Frontières du patrimoine – Déplacement et circulation des objets et œuvres d’art

« Frontières du patrimoine : déplacement et circulation de objets et œuvres d’art » est un séminaire organisé au Centre de recherches interdisciplinaires sur l’Allemagne (CRIA, EHESS). Celui-ci s’intéressera aux débats suscités par le déplacement des objets patrimoniaux et la circulation des œuvres d’art en divers contextes et périodes, dans une perspective nationale et transnationale. Ce thème sera traité, d’une part, à partir de situations de conflits, et d’autre part, en analysant les reconfigurations récentes des collections muséales (Paris, Londres, Berlin ou Alger), impliquant le déplacement en ce début du XXIe siècle des objets d’un musée vers un autre.

Séminaire de recherche organisé par Nabila Oulebsir, maître de conférences à l’Université de Poitiers.

3e vendredi de chaque mois, du 20 novembre 2009 au 18 juin 2010, 14h-17h.

105 Boulevard Raspail, F-75006 , Paris. Salle 3.

Source : Calenda