GENDER EQUALITY: UNGENDERING MEMORY AND MUSEUM PRACTICES
Museum collections have emerged from the need to organise and categorise the world, attempting to bring together incompatible and diverse practices and memories into a coherent
narrative. The binary axis of female/male, which is assumed as natural, helps to perpetuate
patriarchal values and marginalise people whose gender identity does not fit into this binary.
Gender categorisation is fundamental both for the collection of material and its interpretation, which contributes to its perpetuation. This often means that the male perspective is
privileged over the female and that other genders are not discussed or represented, which
maintains gender inequality and the exclusion of gender minorities. What would it mean to
question and explore gender categories in a museum setting? How do museum narratives
shift when we look at objects and trace their history from a broader understanding of gender?
In what ways are the strategies of care practiced in relation to the museum’s communities,
marginalized voices and, last but not least, internal processes of production and creation?
Through case studies of museum collections, art practices and activism, we aim to explore
possible methodologies and approaches to tracing alternative narratives of gender, female
empowerment and the hegemony of the essentialized gender binary. Special emphasis will
be given to methods of collaboration and co-creation with various publics in order to examine how to care for gender narratives and how to build infrastructures of care in an equitable and inclusive manner. The International Workshop on Gender and Museum Practices is
designed with the purpose of bringing together the international community of academics,
museum curators, researchers, activists, art practitioners, and interested parties to discuss
current research while providing the opportunity to share thoughts, exchange ideas, extend
the network and explore current and future research directions.
The workshop is co-funded by the COST Action “Trace as a Research Agenda for Climate
Change, Technology Studies, and Social Justice” (TRACTS) within the WG2 Traces and Social
Justice, and Slovenian Research Agency within the postdoctoral project Z6-3225 “Emancipatory Politics of Women’s Social Movements and the Postsecular Turn in Feminism”.
Please note that all sessions will be conducted exclusively in English, and there will be no
provision for translations or interpretation services.
Photo Credit: Laura Muñoz-Encinar
26 - 28 September 2023, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
26 September 2023
9:30h Welcome
Forensic Archaeology Laboratory
Trainers: Laura Muñoz-Encinar (INCIPIT CSIC); Zahira Aragüete-Toribio (University of Neuchâtel)
10:00- 11:00h Module 1: Forensic Archaeology
11.00h-11:30h Coffee break
11:30-13:30h Module 1: Forensic Archaeology
13:30-15:00h Break
15:00- 17:00h Module 2: Ethnography of objects
17:00-17:30h Break
17:30- 18:30h Module 2: Ethnography of objects
27 September 2023
Experimental Ethnography Laboratory (EEL)
Trainers: Iñigo Sánchez-Fuarros(INCIPIT CSIC); Zahira Aragüete-Toribio (University of Neuchâtel); Laura Muñoz-Encinar (INCIPIT CSIC)
10:00- 11:00h Module 3: Ethnography Fieldwork
11.00-11:30h Coffee break
11:30-13:30h Module 3: Ethnography Fieldwork
13:30-15:00h Break
15:00- 17:00h Module 4: Experimental Ethnography
17:00-17:30h Break
17:30- 18:30h Module 4: Experimental Ethnography
28 September 2023
Re-presentation Strategies in a Digital Age
Trainers: César Parcero Oubiña (INCIPIT CSIC); Laura Muñoz-Encinar (INCIPIT CSIC); Jesús García Sánchez (IAM CSIC); Jesús Jiménez Chaparro (University of Cantabria)
10:00- 11:00h Module 5: Introduction to the module and presentation of a Case Study
11.00-11:30h Coffee break
11:30-13:30h Module 5: New technologies for the study of the traces of conflicts
13:30-15:00h Break
15:00- 17:00h Module 6: Final remarks
18:00-19:30h Visit to Santiago de Compostela
20:00h Closure
Workshop Leaders
Laura Muñoz-Encinar INCIPIT CSIC
César Parcero Oubiña INCIPIT CSIC
Iñigo Sánchez Fuarros INCIPIT CSIC
Zahira Aragüete-Toribio University of Neuchâtel
Workshop Collaborators
Jesús García Sánchez IAM-CSIC
Jesús Jiménez Chaparro University of Cantabria
Host Institution
Institute of Heritage Sciences of the Spanish National Research Council (INCIPIT CSIC)
Fontán Building, block 4 Monte Gaiás, s/n
15707 Santiago de Compostela
Spain
Photo credit: Laura-Muñoz Encinar
September 26-28, 2023
Santiago de Compostela, Spain
a TRACTS multimodal training school
What?
This international training school aims to analyse the material traces of conflict and their impact in the present through the conceptual lens of different disciplines: Archaeology, Forensic Sciences, Social Anthropology and Memory Studies.
By focusing on the three main themes of Materiality, Memory, and Technology the training school explores the traces of contemporary European conflicts. It will bring together scholars from the social sciences, humanities and forensic sciences with memorialization and advanced technology experts to examine the remnants of 20th century conflicts and develop inclusive strategies for historical knowledge dissemination.
The summer school will be developed for three days at the Institute of Heritage Sciences of the Spanish National Research Council (INCIPIT CSIC) in Santiago de Compostela (Spain), and is open, among others, to MA students, PhD candidates, early career researchers, technicians, memorial experts, and activists.
Combining theoretical and practical contents, participants will explore archaeological, forensic, and ethnographic materials to learn about innovative methodological approaches based on three axes:
-Forensic Archaeology Laboratory: Training in theoretical and practical methodologies of fieldwork and laboratory techniques for the analysis of the material culture and human remains found in contemporary conflict-affected sites.
-Experimental Ethnography Laboratory: Training in methodological, theoretical, and practical contents for ethnographic fieldwork.
-Re-presentation Strategies in a Digital Age: Training in the use of non and minimally invasive archaeological methods, 3D scanned landscapes and artefacts. We will also examine and use digital tools and discuss their potential to provide local, national, and global audiences with access to conflict-related heritage.
Workshop Leaders
This TRACTS workshop and training school will be facilitated by researchers, image and sound makers, and writers who are actively engaged in multimodal forms of knowledge production in relation to mass violence sites, including from archaeological, anthropological, and historical perspectives.
Laura Muñoz-Encinar INCIPIT CSIC
César Parcero Oubiña INCIPIT CSIC
Iñigo Sánchez Fuarros INCIPIT CSIC
Zahira Aragüete-Toribio University of Neuchâtel
Available Fellowships
TRACTS is offering several fellowships for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers based in Europe. Through a reimbursement scheme, these fellowships will cover travel and accommodation expenses. Students based locally will be eligible for local travel reimbursements. The workshop itself is free of charge.
Graduate students and postdoctoral researchers outside of Europe can also participate, but their travel and accommodation will not be reimbursed.
Applications/Pitches
Interested participants should send a short version of their CV (2 pages maximum), a brief motivation statement about why you would like to take part in the training school, and a biography (100 words maximum) by 11pm (GMT) on Monday, June 26th.
Submission Details
Application documents should be submitted in one PDF file.
All dossiers must be submitted by email tracts@st-andrews.ac.uk by 11pm (GMT) on Monday, June 26th with the following subject heading: UNEARTHING - First Name Last Name - Institution.
We will announce the participants by the beginning of July 2023.
Host Institution
This Training School is organized by TRACTS (CA20134), supported by European Cooperation in Science and Technology. COST is a funding agency for research and innovation network.
Our last TRACTS Year 1 meeting is taking place on 10-11 October 2022 in the Ethnographic Museum in Cracow, Poland. The WG2 workshop focuses on various approaches to tracing visual and non-visual aspects of a landscape. The group explores a range of topics related to landscape tracking. Participants follow the paths of the landscape with short presentations outlining innovative, experimental perspectives.
By focusing on the case of peasant monuments of freedom from the 19th century in rural Central and Eastern Europe, the meeting sets out to interrogate the relations between materiality, social justice and inequality. By tracing this hidden cross-border history, we can begin to investigate the legacy of rural poverty and its entanglement with conteporary relations of violence and inequality in society today.
16th August–16th September 2022, Galeria Salon Akademii
Pałac Czapskich, Krakowskie Przedmieście st. 5, Warsaw, Poland
We are delighted to inform you that the TRACTS associate exhibition on Traces of Sisterhood is currently held at the Galeria Salon Academii in Warsaw. On show until 16 September 2022, Traces of Sisterhood exhibition focuses on contemporary art that incorporates fabric/cloth as a form of artistic gesture of sisterhood. The exhibition is curated by Eulalia Domanowska and Eliza Proszczuk, the TRACTS Science Communications Coordinator. It features artists from Poland, Ukraine, the UK and USA including Agnieszka Brzeżańska, Iwona Demko, Małgorzata Dmitruk, Kirstie Macleod, Bazyli Krasulak, Anna Nawrot, Eliza Proszczuk, Natalya Shymin, Monika Weiss, Magda Wiśniewska, Agata Zbylut and Stanisław Andrzejewski.
A related TRACTS COST Action meeting and interdisciplinary seminar on Traces of Sisterhood, was held at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. The outputs from both events can be found in the publication which will be released in 2023.
14–15 October 2022. Krakow, Poland
WG2 Meeting “Traces of inequality: Tracing hidden rural history”
This event consists of an online WG2 Working Group Meeting and a hybrid workshop about visual & material traces of resistance hidden in the landscape. It focuses on serfdom crosses – almost forgotten monuments of peasant freedom across Eastern Europe. #tractsresearch
International Workshop, Zagreb, Croatia, 9–10 September 2022
The international workshop Radical Heritage: Tracing Resistance in (Post)Socialist Europe was held in Zagreb on September 8 and 9, as part of the Working group 2: Traces and social justice. The workshop was organized by Sanja Horvatinčić (Institute of Art History) and Rui Gomes Coelho (Durham University). The event was supported by the Institute of Art History, and the Zagreb Architects Association.
Participants: Nenad Lajbenšperger, Eric Ušić, Lana Balorda, Patricia Manos, Martina Bobinac, Iva Jelušić, Petra Šarin, Rui Gomes Coelho, Marijana Hameršak, Frauke Mogli Seebass, Inês Moreira, Nela Milić, Bojan Mrđenović, David A. Calf, Sanja Horvatinčić.
The program of the workshop & the Book of Abstracts.
From the Call for Papers:
How do people make sense of wartime remains in today's societies? How do heritage professionals mediate traces of war in community-based projects? How do contemporary debates such as epistemic decolonization, new authoritarianisms and nationalisms influence the relationship between heritage professionals and communities?
Participants of this WG2 workshop explored the role of materiality in the construction of heritage discourses grounded on the Second World War, and other 20th century revolutionary, military and social conflicts. We are interested in surveying recent developments in the multidisciplinary field of critical heritage studies, and in exchanging experiences across different methodological traditions with a focus on the concept of trace in the context of modern conflicts. This should encourage us to rethink the role of heritage professionals in communities that are dealing with the legacies of recent conflicts or exposed once again to the threat of unrestricted violence. With this workshop we want to explore the ways in which we can critically mobilize the traces of conflict to support and advance claims for social justice.
13–15 May 2022, Warsaw, Poland, Academy of Fine Arts
WG2 Meeting on “Traces of sisterhood”
The workshop 'Traces of sisterhood' was a three-day meeting initiating a long-term project on tracing sisterhood as a form of social organisation. It explored the meanings of this concept, the ways in which it manifests itself, and how it could generate new forms of practice in the local communities and globally. #tractsresearch
